Feb 19 – We ate breakfast, packed up the hotel room, and caught a tuk tuk to Otres Beach 1. We had a coffee and some shakes as we were waiting to load the long tail boat. On the boat there were only 2 other guests on board. We arrived to the resort on the island Ta Kiev and were probably the few people that brought rolling luggage to this island. We found our abodes, the girls in one treehouse and the boys in another. To be right on the water open to the elements with only a mosquito net around your bed was going to be an amazing experience. We were so excited.
The kids played in the water and in the hammocks and Shawn and I plunked down in the chairs and ordered some cold drinks. It was handy that the kids were so close in view and the water was shallow and gentle. We found out that this place has unreal food and everything is handmade. They bake the bread in the wood stove here too. The kids loved the tapas appetizer platter and we had the Fish Amok and Beef Lok Lak again. We sat and watched the sky turn colours as we had the best seat in the house to watch the sunset show.
We headed to our abodes around 7:30. It was still so hot outside and there was no air movement. It was hard to fall asleep. Plus we went to bed earlier today.
Thank goodness for the gorgeous view from our hut because I was going to see a lot of it over the night. Danika fell asleep just before 9:00 and I was just starting to get sick. Just as I was about to fall asleep I would get sick again. I thought maybe I had food poisoning but Danika was fine. I didn’t know how Shawn and the boys were feeling and I didn’t want to trek over to their hut to find out. Oh ya, another cool fact about this island, it only had electricity from 6-9. The kitchen ran on a generator for the restaurant the rest of the time.
Feb 20 – Today Danika became a teenager! It was her 13th birthday! She didn’t want to spend the day on the bus but the island was very cool and some workers and guests made it even better.
Danika was up at 7:30. Excited that it was her birthday. I was still sick and unable to get out of bed. She went to see the boys and they had breakfast. They brought me back a gingerale. Shawn was talking to one of the staff and fellow Canadian, Laura, and told her I was sick. She figured I had a case of “jungle gut” and was reacting to the different bacterias on the island. She told him of a fix, that someone heard from someone who heard from a monk, that would cure me. It was flat coke with tons of salt. I guzzled it as quick as I could. I read for a bit and maybe dozed off a couple times in the span of two hours. Nope, didn’t quite fix me yet, still sick. In the meantime, while I am down and out the kids are having a blast swimming, playing hammock games they created, and they ordered tapas again for lunch, a large one, as per the birthday girls request. They came and did some quiet reading time in the afternoon as well.
I slept a bit more and around 5:30 felt more human so I ventured down to see what everyone was up to. A French man and his 10 year old son, Antoine, who now live in Vietnam wandered over from a different resort. We had seen this boy the day before and Sayer asked if he wanted to go swimming but he wasn’t allowed. Today the kids played Uno with him and played on the swing. He reminded me of Mowgli from the Jungle Book. We sat around the bar and I was craving cold ice water, so the barkeep got me some with a squeeze of lime. Laura took some cool photos of us with the sunset. She took some on her phone too that she is suppose to send me. Hint Hint if you are reading this Laura. LOL
I still wasn’t up to par and needed to be in a horizontal position so I went back to bed.
The family stayed up and everyone helped Danika celebrate her birthday. A French lady gave her a squid lure she found on the beach. Laura and the workers made “Pina Coladas” for the kids and then they got to take turns using the shaker themselves. They brought out sparklers and had everyone sing to her. Everyone at the bar had a shooter in her honour. Meanwhile, I am in bed missing the festivities but at least I can still hear it all from where I am lying.
Shawn takes the kids out to see the bioluminescent plankton. Since it was a full moon the night before it was fairly bright out and they didn’t see too much and they came to bed shortly after. Tonight there was a slight breeze and everyone went to bed a little later so it was cooler outside. Everyone had a great sleep.
Feb 21 – I actually slept through the night and felt more like myself. We ate breakfast and I was able to stomach some of the kids leftovers. Who knew porridge could taste like apple crisp. Yum.
We boarded the boat, this time it was full with many staff and guests either leaving or heading to Sihanoukville for a bit.
We grabbed a shake at the next resort, grabbed a tuk tuk to the bus depot, made the long 6.5 hour ride again. This time it was in a VIP express van. We booked our seats before anyone else in the van and we chose two seats at the back out of four that were pictured. We loaded in the van and there are only 3 seats at the back so the lady that works for the company says our seat is in the middle in between the driver. I tried to tell her we booked two seats at the back and she said if there are only three seats in the van then the seat is up front. Honestly, who would want to sit up there? Shawn sucked it up and went even though I tried saying one of the other two people that are sitting in the back could sit up front. He had his podcasts on the iPad so it was fine for the hour trip he made. I switched with him for the rest of the ride. The window at the back seat was so tinted you couldn’t even look out of it. At least I could now watch the road and engage in wonderful conversation on the way home. Sarcasm, I was in the middle of the driver and a lady that spoke Khmer across me. At least swatting mosquitos was the same language for us.
We arrive back to Phnom Penh and grab a tuk tuk back to the same beautiful hotel we stayed at before Sihanoukville. The beautiful Ta Kiev island wasn’t all beautiful, squatty potties and bucket showers, so we deserved the luxury of the pool and great showers. It was cute to see the baggage guy and staff at the hotel excited to see us and welcome us back. We went to our same restaurant that we frequented and they were happy to see us again too.
We went for a swim and had nice hot showers and hit the hay. Tomorrow would be another long bus ride to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. FYI Our eVisas stated we would enter Vietnam through Moc Bai Land port and so we had to backtrack to Phnom Penh in order to go through the proper port. -Renelle
Lew Crew Adventures 
How do you do it? I am tired after your description … it is interesting that you are experiencing different levels of comfort or duscomfirt. I am glad that you are feeling better
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