Witness to Wetness
Trip Start
Nov 23, 2011
1
13
31
Trip End
Dec 29, 2011
What I did
Sun and sea
Koh Rong Saloem , Chiang Mai, Thailand
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Early in our stay here Steve, and soon after, Julie, found we were having some lower intestinal back talk. Steve concluded that the island's fresh spring water, from which the food is made and in which the rice is steamed, is heavy with minerals. For some this is a cure, but for us it's a bit too much of a good thing. Suspicions are confirmed when we learn that the entire water table has recently experienced its seasonal shift thus releasing Earthly blessings anew. We swear off anything made with the ultra "healthy" liquid and our discomforts are fully eliminated (our persons already having been fully eliminated!).
Time slips and slides and we determine that the thin, broken cloud cover overhead could afford us proper conditions for snorkeling the other side of the bay. We drop another $1 USD for a day of mask and snorkel and team up with Kameron (Kam) and Eliane (or Elle - but NOT Elaine!), the 22-year-old Aussies that also joined us in the venture to the other side of the island, um, at some point over the last couple of days.
The snorkeling on horseshoe bay right may be the best we've ever seen. The fish are plentiful and colorful and the corals actually best them in both categories. The Aussies assure us that notwithstanding the barrier reef, this is the shit. Sublime.
Elle has traveled pretty extensively and has a natural good humor and a rarely interrupted smile. Her stories all start with, "When I was in Hungary... "or "In Dallas... " etc. Kam is now in his third week of his first shot at international travel. Elle kick-started the poor fucker with a baptism by fire in Mumbai! Kam is transported from an easy western life straight into the spit-strung maws of the most harshly real of real worlds. WE won't even go there and as these pages prove out, we're stupid! And, as if that morose series of traumatic Kodak moments weren't enough, they wipe out on their rented moto! Kam's legs are now a patchwork of scabbing road rash. Steve nick-names him "Night of the Living Leg," but based on Kam's non-reaction, it may be too soon. And yet the guy runs, swims, drinks and festively chain smokes totally undaunted. He posses a kinetic, nervous energy that at first can appear off-putting but his high spirits in spite of his accident prone nature (he hurts himself a few times daily) is infectious - if not actually infected.
While Elle (pronounced "L") are chatting, Steve mentions a song being a "B side." She has no idea what that means or how the whole vinyl recording thing works. Seriously, NO idea! This is a tough one for Steve as he is already feeling his years - he let slip at the bar that he wrote a bunch of Rugrats only to discover he can now legally drink with the show's delighted fans. Oof.
Back at that very bar, our pal Nothing is enjoying an afternoon cocktail. We settle into stools next to it. This will be our last night. We leave on the uncharacteristically prompt 8:30 AM boat (this is still S E Asia) back to the culture-shocking grease-trap of Sihanoukville. Our "hope" is that flights to Siem Reap have been restored and we can jet away in speed and comfort. Our "belief" is that we will be stuck rubbing shoulders with the immoral, the desperate and the hazily unmotivated until 8:00 PM when the night bus spirits us away to the Kingdom of Angkor.
What's that you say, too long an entry for another eerily appropriate Noel Gallagher tune? Pishaw:
Masterplan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMazI2ROJXM
