Life goes on on Phu Quoc Island

16 02 2010

We are still on Phu Quoc Island and will be for at least one day.  We wanted to go to mainland Vietnam today but the boats were all full because people are going home after celebrating the new year here on Phu Quoc.

We arrived at this guesthouse where on Long Beach that seemed kind of nice.  We failed to take notice of the fact that there seem to be more bugs here on the island than we have seen before.  We didn’t bother setting up the mosquito net for the first night and now we look like a couple of Klingons, with 10-15 bites each on our foreheads and faces – but Elínborg has always been a Star Trek fan so that is ok :)

The mosquitoes aren’t the only bugs we have encountered because Elínborg said that when she was flushing the toilette she saw “something big and hairy” going down the drain.  This monster remains unidentified and hopefully stays that way.

Since we were kind of sick we stayed in bed our first day on the island.  That didn’t mean that the guesthouse was quite, ohh no …not at all.  The other guest celebrated the new year along with the owners of the guesthouse so the wine flowed and the techno music was blasted on highest volume …all until the owner (French guy) went mental and threatened to kill people and we were later told that he both bashed the furniture and his Vietnamese girlfriend – not quite the entertainment we were expecting.  This is not good for the Frenchman and his family since the Vietnamese believe that your actions during the first day of the year indicate how the rest of the year will be like.  Therefore you have to take special care not to break anything, behave nicely and enjoy our self.

We are doing better however, we went to the beach today and had a great day working on the tan.  It was supposed to be the last beach day for a while but it seems like we’ll have another one tomorrow and I better concentrate on those sunglasses marks that I have going right now :)


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Danger in the jungle

27 01 2010

We are now on the bus to Krabi after a night in the Jungle.  We stayed at the Bamboo House in Khao Sok National Park, which is the biggest jungle in the South of Thailand.  The first thing we noticed in the jungle is that there are a lot more insects: flies, ants and other bugs  …oooppss just jumped to change busses… Yeah there are definitely more bugs in the jungle, not that it should surprise us, we just didn’t think about it.  We haven’t been plagued too much and the bites seemed to get fewer every day until now.  Elínborg got some red spots the other day (100-200 of them) and we thought that she had been attacked by ants but the woman at the pharmacy convinced us that it was something from the sea. My theory is that she is allergic to coral sperm as I saw some of the corals release something into the sea.  At least she got a crème that seems to be fixing the problem.

IMG_4892 Pigs on the way to the islands

Elínborg faced another danger in our bungalow when we were preparing for bed time.  She spotted something hairy dive behind our bed and I immediately  thought we were either dealing with a rat or a tarantula spider.  A rat seemed unlikely in the jungle but the other option was still open.  I had read that tarantulas are actually not poisonous so I grabbed the flashlight while Elínborg stood still frozen by the door.  When I moved closer to the bed I saw something shoot up the wall and down again so I couldn’t see it properly.  When I pointed the flashlight behind the bed I saw the cutest little eyes of a tiny mouse that seemed as scared as Elínborg ;)  As she saw me she moved frantically up the wall and out a hole close to the ceiling.

IMG_4898 The bungalow with the frightening animal

We only stayed one night in the jungle so we weren’t able to see everything that was on offer but we went to a fantastic elephant trek where we went for a walk into the woods with Kaidam, a 17 year old elephant boy, and his keeper.  Riding Kaidam was a fantastic experience, he was so careful and gentle going up the rocky slope.  At first we were in the saddle but on the way back Elínborg got to sit on his neck like a proper elephant rider.

IMG_4907 The elephant riders

During the trek we didn’t see too much wild life since an elephant has quite a presence.  We did see two snakes though just before they managed to hide in the bushes.  After the trek one of the guides guessed that the snakes were Black Cobra :-o

IMG_4910 Kaidam getting his payment

In the middle of the trek we were able to wander around the jungle on our own.  We walked along this stream and as Elínborg walked over a tree trunk a big Black Cobra started moving within a meter from where she stepped down.  Elínborg’s instinctive move was to jump back into a karate position, which scared the cobra away!  I was quite impressed that she didn’t even make a sound even though I heard her heartbeat pounding for the next minute.  It seems like Elínborg has nine lives like the cat and needed three of her in just two days :)

IMG_4903 Quick to regain her cool :)

ps. I’m trying out Windows Live Writer that allows me to blog while offline, setting up the photos and everything and then posting when I have access, so bear with me the posts look a bit funny for now.


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