Steve: Christmas is over, and it's time to see a bit more of the island. Deb was talking to a gentleman of our age who works some evenings at our restaurant, and it turns out he also teaches English to locals entering the workforce and he is a freelance guide. He has offered to take us on two full-day motorbike tours, one for the north island and one for the south.
Day One:
So here we are at 08:00 on the morning of the 27th, climbing onto the back of two motorbikes belonging to Hong and one of his buddies. My driver looks like he's about thirty and he never takes his mirrored sunglasses off. I was a bit nervous about the whole motorbike-thing at first, but it turns out that we never topped 60 kph anywhere during the two days, including on 4-lane divided highways. The occasional vehicles passing us were probably doing 80, I don't think I ever saw anyone on the island driving faster than that.
Deb: Finding Hong was a great find. One of the secrets to hiring a motorcycle (MC) driver is to find one that is shorter than you so you can see over the top of his helmet. I rode on the back with Hong because he spoke English and I could here. Steve, the deaf guy, got the driver who couldn't speak English!
Deb: Hong is a Buddhist, so when his helmet almost blew off the 2nd time, I put my hand on top of it until he could pull over to tighten it ..again. I then remembered that I had touched his head and immediately apologized profusely and felt like a tool. He said not worry, it did not count...for you see, there are 2 things you NEVER do with a Buddhist: Never ever touch the top of their head and never point the bottom of your feet at them..for the spirit enters the body from the top of the head and leaves through the feet. But I did notice, his helmet never came loose again. Any vehicle with flowers in front of it is a Buddhist vehicle. The owner has prayed to Buddha to protect him on the highway that day.
One of the 1st stops was at a tiny fishing village. The fishermen's wives put out their husbands catch for sale. The ladies here are very shy. I asked if I could take their photo and they waved me away but Hong managed to convince them if he took the photo. The sad thing is, with all the new fancy schmanzy hotels going up everywhere, the fisherman are being displaced and the government is moving them inland away from the beaches they have always lived on. Hong was very incensed about this and said the fisherman are very sad, angry and tearful..they will no longer see their homes on the shores when out fishing. They fish 4 months on the west coast then 4 on the east with 4 off for the monsoon season. Hong laughed because he said most kids are born during the same time of the year, monsoon season, because there is nothing better to do than have sex.
Typical fisherman's house, complete with location, location, location, satellite tv, front deck, the simple life.
Steve: Next stop was a pearl factory, with the farms just offshore right in front of the place, and of course a sales outlet. It was pretty interesting as they had people out front explaining the whole process and popping oysters open to show us where the pearls were hidden. And the shop had lots of pretty high-end jewellery at what I thought was very reasonable prices. Couldn't talk Deb into any pearls, but she did get a very nice carved mother-of-pearl pendant of the Phoenix.
Deb: The pearl farms were interesting, learning about the different qualities, sizes etc. but I was not in the mood to buy...besides my friend Betty had just given me a string of pearls that make these pearls look fake. Having said that, the prices were cheap compared to what we would pay at home. I bought a beautiful Mother of Pearl Phoenix for about $10.00.
Steve: Then it was up the highway to the north end of the island, and we took a 20-kilometre country road (basically one-lane rough pavement) through the rainforest and over to the north-west corner of the island. The drive through the forest was beautiful, with the trees hanging over the road and making a cool shady path for us. Mid-way through the rainforest we stopped off for a 'jungle walk' which was pretty tame for anyone from BC but gave us a chance to get a look at the bush and take some photos before we headed off again. A few kilometres later I noticed a VERY significant black-and-white spider crawling across my driver's back about 8 inches in front of me. I couldn't decide whether to slap it and startle him enough to drive off the road (a Bad Thing) or flick it off and have it land on me and bite me in the throat (a Very Bad Thing) or try to twist out of the way and fall off the bike (an Extremely Bad Thing). So I just yelled at him until he pulled over, climbed off, flicked it off, climbed back on, and away we went. While I got to spend the next 10 kilometres wondering what was on MY back....
Deb: On the way through the forest, we stopped at the ‘rain forest’. Here is our guide Hong hamming it up for the camera on the Bunion Tree that is the oldest tree in that forest..approx 500 yrs old.
Steve: When we got out of the forest and back to the ocean we had a brief photo-stop at a little 'fishing village' right at the north-west tip of the island, where we were only 4 km from Cambodia. Thong explained that the local fleet is 50% Cambodian and 50% Viet, and that they have actually been known to catch fish when they take the occasional break from smuggling. Apparently there is a thriving business here, to the point that Hong says there is more traffic on the highway at night from smugglers, than there is during the day from us normal people!
We then headed down the island to a lovely beach in a beautiful cove with maybe 10 people on it. There was a little bar-restaurant, palapa tables, and hammocks on the beach, where we had lunch and drank beer and swam for a few hours. Have to decompress, you know.
Deb: After an exhausting morning riding on the back of a bike, we stopped for lunch.
From the lunch table.
Yikes! Get the lotion!
Steve: By then it was mid-afternoon and time to head home, but Hong had one more stop for us at a pepper-farm which was very interesting. We had seen these plants that looked like pole-beans or hops, very tall and cylindrical; turns out they were pepper-trees which form one of the principal cash-crops of the island. Hong walked us through the whole process, explaining how the trees are cultivated, fertilized with cow dung & fish and the crop is harvested and the fruit is processed to become pepper.
Deb: The Pepper farms were pretty cool. The green peppercorns mean they are not ripe. They say the red is the best, but once they are dried, they are all black so you can’t tell the difference. I looked in the market for just red peppercorns but they were always mixed with salt, or shrimp, or some other food I had no idea of what it was. I finally gave up and bought none.
"Pepper Heads"
Steve: Very cool, but I'm not and I hear a beer calling back at the hotel! But that would be too easy...
Deb: When out in the middle of bloody no where, should our wondrous eyes should see, a Disneyland Water Park that you just wouldn’t believe. I can’t remember just how many hectares this place is, but it is massive! There is a 5 star hotel beside it that is recommended for Russians only and they have blocked off the beach to anyone who is not Russian, including & especially the locals. Anyone can go to the water park though.
Then we went past the Russian War Memorial, which our guide quickly drove by but did point it out. He also pointed out huge ‘apartment’ complexes being built in Russian only area’s that come complete with guards at the gates. Since the Ruble started falling, its estimated that at least 30% of the Russians have left the island. Not sure what will happen to all those huge hotels that are being built on both coasts.
Now it's definitely time to head home for a beer and a nap, tomorrow will be a big day!
