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Published: April 4th 2009
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Position: Bar Staff and Guest Liason
Job Responsibilities: • Check in new guests when the daily boat arrives
• Put feet up, relax and enjoy the view
• Put through food orders to the kitchen staff
• Put feet up, relax and enjoy the view
• Serve drinks to the guests
• Put feet up, have a few drinks yourself and enjoy the view
Compensation: Free room, food and drinks, plus $25/week
They had us at free food! It was the case of being in the right place at the right time - on a boatride back to mainland after being guests ourselves, sitting between the manager and the owner of the resort - and having the flexibility in our travel schedule to jump at the words "we're looking for a couple of people to work on the island for a couple of weeks". Three days later we were back on the boat bound for Bamboo Island, this time as employees!
We learned the ins and outs of running the "resort" very quickly (I put that in quotations because often the word resort conveys images of luxury and Koh Ru is quite the opposite relishing on the simpler side of life) and
we were soon shaking up cocktails and cracking beers like old pros. Our jobs responsibilities were quite simple and the description listed above is not far from the truth. Our office view was a 180 degree panorama of the Gulf of Thailand about 50m from our "desks". We worked an average of 8 hours a day with the schedule of two shifts on, two shifts off (ie: 3pm to close then 8am to 3pm, then off for the night and following day). And to answer the question we know you're thinking, yes we are worried about how we will ever work a "normal" job again!
We met so many amazing people (staff and fellow travellers) on the island, and two of our friends (Greg and Kati) who we met in Thailand and hung out with in Laos came out to the island on their way through Cambodia as well. We learned how to speak some basic Khmer so we could impress the 14-17 year old girls who worked the kitchen and cooked all the food, and we gave them daily english words to practice with as well. We also learned that the word "cheers" in Khmer translates - although
not directly - to english as "one glass bang", and we have since adopted it in use at every chance (hence the title)!
After working for 9 shifts on the island they figured we deserved a break - haha - and sent us back to the mainland of Sihanoukville for a couple of days. Greg and Kati accompanied us on this break and then decided to come back to the island with us for their final few days of their vacation as well. We took this opportunity to hit some of the hot spots we had heard about. We ate dinner at a place called "The Snake House" which featured ~30 species of snakes in display cases as you walked through to the restaurant. Their ability to cause immediate death with their venom was also written on the displays! Also, our dinner table had a round pit in the centre of it with a big python curled up in the middle which we watched through a glass table top as we ate our meals! We had drinks at the Airport Bar which actually has a lifesize airplane in the middle of it (there are rumours that it is Russian
Amazing storm
Only 150 pics to get this one! mafia owned).
Some Memories From Our Time At Koh Ru • Waking up to the ocean waves
• Banana and nutella pancake breakfasts
• Swimming in the ocean and body surfing the few days we had huge waves
• Playing beach volleyball
• Pushing on the male goats head and then trying to run away fast enough as it chased you
• Drinking beers while working (who can say they have done that before!?)
• Sitting back at any given point and admiring the saphire ocean and so thankful for being able to be where we were
• Watching the sun drop below the horizon and admiring the beautiful colours as it did so
• Watching the most amazing thunder/lightening storms over the ocean on the couple nights that it rained
• A night time crab hunt where we came back with a bucketfull of crabs and a porcupine fish that was caught in a rock pond as the tide went out. We had fun watching it puff up and then as the Khmer staff helped deflate it by sticking their fingers into its gills making farting sounds.
• Hanging out with great people around the nightly bonfire, drinking spiced Mekong whiskey
• Skinny dipping at night to see the phosphoresence
glowing in the water, and perfecting Matt's "wafting" technique to maximize their glow
• Falling asleep to the ocean waves
Life is good! One Glass Bang,
MandL
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gogglespythano
Rick Jessup
Amazing!
This is such a cool story, way to go! I envy you two, can't wait to catch up when you're back. Incidentally, at my new job, I get to drink on the job. AND I recently got to drink a beer while doing a presentation to a series of agencies and directors. :D That said, I didn't get to do it on an island. :(