Bungalow

Our bungalow! Jungle behind and ocean in front... no electricity except between 6 and 10pm, no windows, one decent mosquito net.

Old Money

I tried to change $50 into Cambodian riel before we left Saigon. It took a lot of time, counting and conversation behind the desk... eventually the money changer informed us that they only had $13.60 worth of riel. Well, that would have to do. We weren't sure whether we would be able to use dollars right at the border so we wanted to at least have some local money in our pockets. Turns out $13.60 worth of riel is a stack about 2 inches high stuffed into my handbag. Not only that, but they must have had it so long that they gave me some bills that are long out of currency here. At first that was annoying, then we decided that these might well be collector's items and, at a minimum, would make good souvenirs. Apparently, the Khmer Rouge, in its attempt to eradicate all ties with the cultural past as well as corrupting influences like money, eliminated currency entirely. These bills aren't dated like the contemporary ones but may well be pre-Khmer Rouge bills. In any case, the locals won't take them, so even though they're only worth less than a US penny each we're going to hang onto them as souvenirs.

SEALS training, 2

... after the jumping jacks, two stragglers swam up. The slow pair. They got to do their jumping jacks separately, while everyone else razzed them for being last. After that, everyone kneeled over and got a pat on the butt by the oarsman, for which they had to thank him profusely. All the fast guys got more or less a symbolic pat, but he put a little more force into it for the slow pair.

Navy SEALS

Our bungalow at the Koh Ta Kiev "resort" - really just five bungalows and a tree house grouped around one small outdoor restaurant - was just down the shore from the Cambodian equivalent of a Navy SEALS training camp. After swimming several laps out to a bouey and back, these guys had to pull their drill sergeant's boat ashore in front of us to provide some breakfast entertainment. First, jumping jacks...

Sunset at Koh Ta Kiev

Sunset from in front of our bungalow, just a few yards from a warm, placid bay in the Gulf of Thailand.

Fooling around on the boat.

I guess I spoke too soon about this being a decent internet connection... image uploads are very, very slow and unfortunately I can't upload any of Patrick's high resolution pictures at all. So, oh well, for the moment mine will have to do!

Transport to Koh Ta Kiev

We really wanted to go to one of the islands off the Southern coast and stay in a rustic bungalow. Koh Ta Kiev was one we only found out about after we arrived and it took a bit of organizing to get there... a car to a small dock area at the tip of Ream National Forest, one of the protected jungle and wildlife areas in this region, followed by a boat pick up arranged by the resort on the island. This was the boat that arrived to pick us up.