An Interesting Few Weeks

Hello again people, finally getting round to this after quite a rough few weeks.

When last posted things were going great, but things changed pretty drastically. After getting back to the island was looking forward to getting on with my diving after passing. After a good few days things rapidly started to go wrong though. Was feeling a little fatigued so decided to only do one dive on Wednesday, so after waiting all day i was very annoyed when as i waded out to the boat and kicked to get in a submerged rock/shell took a large chunk out of the bottom of my left foot, leaving it a bloody mess. So had to get straight back off the boat and go get it cleaned. After Nat (the medic) looked it over was told to stay out of the water for at least a few days. This was very frustrating, but can't rush healing on the island and i didn't want it to get infected, so decided to take a few days chill time.

So having spent several days reading and chillin in the hammocks was feeling ready to get back in the water. It was at this point though that instead of feeling refreshed from my rest i started to feel progressively more tired and run down. Talked to Nat and she said that i was coming down with 'Island Fever' and it should pass in a few days. The Weekend came and went and i began to feel more tired and was needing a nap in the afternoon just to keep awake.

Despite this still had an amazing birthday on wednesday, Nic suggested i try filming from the boat in the morning and then when i got back he'd organized and surprise party complete with a full roast pig which was awesome. Unfortunately i felt so tired i slept through most of the rest of the day and then when got up for the evening Sarah made me go back to bed as I'd come down with a raging fever. Clearly at this point i was not well but Nat assured me it would pass.

The next few days are just a blur of muddled thoughts, sweating, chills, headaches and sleeping. Finally decided that i needed to get off the island as i was no longer eating and drinking enough to replace how much i was sweating out was becoming impossible. Once back on the mainland i checked my symptoms and thinking i might have become too dehydrated started to drink electrolyte drinks and plenty of cold water. By Sunday morning though it was clear this wasn't working, as my symptoms continued to get worse. Finally after a bout of chills kept me shivering for nearly 1hour i decided to seek a second opinion on this 'Island fever' and with Sarah helping, made it to a local clinic.

At this point the seriousness of my condition worsened and after a blood test and x-ray i was diagnosed with Malaria and acute Bronchitis. The next 4 days were spent lying in the clinic on a drip, taking various pills and watching so much rubbish TV it wasn't funny. However as i sit and type this for you all to read i am officially a cured man :D
Still not exactly full strength and apparently a lot thinner, i am on the road to recovery and am planning to return to the island this weekend.

So after this bout of excitement i will wish you all the best, and a hearty chow for now and here's hoping these next few weeks are an improvement on the past few :P

Just a quickie :D

Hey guys, just another quick update, have had quite a busy week so not had time to type up a full post, many apologies.

This week has just been packed with diving as I've been getting my Open Water qualification, which i passed on Thursday :D This means i can now start taking part in all of the reef and seahorse surveys with the rest of the group. The 1st dives were awesome, i got so lucky and saw 7 seahorses on my 1st dive and even spotted one of them myself, which was awesome as they're really hard to see.

Apart from that we all went IBalling yesterday (that's Zorbing in the UK)which involves getting in a huge inflatable ball and rolling down a hill, was awesome.

so chow for now and keep a look out for new posts :D

Settled and loving it :)

Hey folks, first week and first up date.

Island life has been good so far; plenty of sun, surf and beach time  but these are countered by hundreds of bug bites, sweaty nights and rice for every meal, lol.

But to give a clearer picture I’ll try to lay things out on a day-to-day basis.

After starting this blog sitting in Shianoukville we met up with some of the other volunteers and went to get the boat to the island. Having expected something fairly big is was an interesting surprise to see we would be making the 2hr crossing in a small craft called a long tail. These are small, low draft boats about 6m long powered by single tuk tuk motor with a long propeller shaft. The journey that then commenced was equal parts relaxing and terrifying as we calmly crossed the harbour and then headed out into open water where waves rocked us the whole way, splashed over everything and came close to nearly tipping the boat on several occasions, really good fun though, and we arrived at the island just as the sun was setting over the bay.

Friday started with a quick tour of the village and project, where there is currently quite a large number of volunteers, about 20, and then we just chilled all day to recover from the journey. Also on arrival we found out it was Chinese New Year all weekend so much partying was to be expected. So in the evening we headed into the village and spent the evening drinking ‘Whiskey Cambodia’, a home brewed rice wine, in a bar called Hurs.

Weekends here are also rest days so Saturday we just chilled out in hammocks most of this day, swam in the sea and chatted to folks. Sunday was again very relaxed, I went for my first snorkel on one of the reefs, saw lots of small fish but couldn’t really identify them, and loads of large, black sea urchins.

Monday was our first real day, started with a beach clean up, finding more shoes than seemed reasonable and other weird debris which seems to be everywhere unfortunately. Then photographed a few folks peir jumping and another party, as it was the islands medic Nat’s birthday. Weekdays tend to start with breakfast around 8 and then jobs begin at 9, as well as beach clean we have made F.N.F’s (Fishing Net F******) and been on a jungle survey. The majority of this week though has been spent studying up for us to begin our diving, which has been a lot of reading. We also had a more in-depth look round the village with a guy called Simon who showed us the school and the villages dam, etc. Both of these I think we hope to help improve during our time here. After all the reading we got our first lesson on Thursday and went over all of the equipment for diving and started learning basic skills, such as clearing masks, breathing control and using a regulator and alternate reg, which meant changing air sources under water, which was an interesting experience. Overall though the dive was awesome and I think we’re both itching to get on with the next session (or it could be the bites, lol). One other cool thing I saw the other night was that if you swim at night, as a few of us did, the water has amazing plankton in it which flash and sparkle every time you move as if the water is full of small stars turning on and off, one of the most beautiful things I think I’ve ever seen.

So thus ends the 1^st week, will keep trying to get updates out regularly and fingers crossed there will be plenty to share in the next thrilling instalment

Chow for now :D

We Have Survived :D

well folks we have arrived safe and well and am currently sitting in a cafe in Shianoukville waiting for the boat to take us to the island, the final leg of our epic 2 day travelathon :)

Both suffering from sleep deprivation (i've had about 3hrs of snooze since we left carlisle ) but everything seems very relaxed so should have time to recover before jumping into the fray. Hopefully the next up date will be a bit more interesting, though i'm sure you'd all love to be regailed with tales of seats so small they crush yours nuts between your own thighs and others of travels strange pleasures, now i must sign off before i passout on the keys ................................................................... :)