Advertisement
Published: July 28th 2011
Edit Blog Post
We got to Bamboo Island by boat, picked up by Hannah, a lovely brunette from Cornwall who'd visited there a few months previously and was now on the staff! Pon the way over she told us that there was going to be a party that night and chatted away to everyone on the boat. On arriving we saw a lovely almost deserted beach a bar area with lounge cushions, packed with departing and arriving guests, and bungalows spread along the beach. We'd booked into the dorm at just $3 dollars a night each and were led to hard beds with mosquito nets. Fine for the price.
We ditched our bags and went off to explore the island, coming face to face with Rambo, the rancid smelling ram mascot almost as soon as we went down the stairs. He really stank and was reluctant to move out of my way and let me down the steps, much to the amusement of some lads watching from outside the dorm block! Luckily, Mike, who wasn't bothered by Rambo's stench or size in the slightest, grabbed his front hoofs and moved him along.
We took an hour or so walking the length of
the beach and clambered on rocks before realising we couldn't get round them, then went back to get showered and dressed. In the lounge bar we ate awesome Khmer made noodles and ordered a whisky bucket. On the tabel next to us a group a group of Scandinavians and Brits were beginning a drinking game. We got chatting to Anton, Eric and Christoph and they invited us to join them. We played countless games involving counting, substituting movements for numbers, running around a lot, wearing a hat and making Michael Jackson noises … my recollection's a little hazy due to the vast amounts of alcohol imbibed! By the end of the night almost everyone in the bar ahd joined our silly games – what a fab way to break the ice with new people! The phosphoresence in the water at night was awesome and some of the more chemically inclined revellers' heads were sent spinning at seeing it flashing through the water.
We met Marie – a very cool French canadian travelling the world and in her second year of doing so – who had fab stories about her adventures, from catching malaria in Africa to living with a
Laotian family. We also met Jah, a chilled out Irish writer who'd been travelling for a long time too and Brad, a sweet young Brit who'd visited the island for a few days and had already been there a week having met and joined the drinking games of Christoph, Anton, Eric and co. We had some great laughs and conversations with these guys and spent each of our 3 evenings there in their company, chatting, drinking and swapping stories … bizarrely, when we were joined by yet another brit, Cody, a 19yr old wide boy type from London, Mary and a German girl called Elena said they were finding it hard to understand our English! After some discussion we sussed out that it was because we Brits were using far more slang and colloquial terms, as well as engaging in sarcasm and banter, with one another than we had with the non native English speakers. It still felt strange to be told my English was hard to follow though and I resolved to use less slang when speaking in mixed nationality groups in future!
We also took the 'woodland walk' trail through the trees to the other side of
the island ... we fully expected it to take us ages but we were through in under 15 mins, so decided to walk along the little coves and rocky outcrops instead. I very nearly got myself stuck clambering along the big, spread out boulders but, as usual, escaped with just a couple scratches and bruises. The walk was awesome, we didn't see one other person at all!
After 3 days on bamboo Island we bid it farewell and headed back to the mainland. Bamboo Island is a lovely little slice of paradise, like a mini Koh tarutao but with less wildlife and more nightlife ...perfect for people wanting to enjoy a tranquil setting but not relinquish their booze!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.222s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 18; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0582s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb