… rightly says the Ancient proverb…

Friday the 24^th August was Imogen’s 7^th birthday and following an early morning Skype with Granddad we were picked up for our Island Cruise where we were to enjoy a day of swimming, snorkeling and island hopping. A perfect day for Immi as she is such a water baby, or so we thought…

You know how sometimes things don’t work out like you planned … and then you find out things are going to get worse before they get better?

We were picked up at 8am by a dilapidated mini-bus and when it started pouring with rain a minute down the road  it created a waterfall inside the van because the door didn’t seal properly. On the way, Immi asked “will it be like Grandad’s boat?”

On arrival at the jetty the answer was ummm definitely …no.  The boat looked quite different than what was on the brochure.   Although there were lifejackets, there was little else in the way of safety equipment. The crew’s lack of English, combined with the dangerous boarding of the boat by climbing down from the truck tyre fender onto the slippery front deck as the boat moved up and down in the swell, were enough for us to look at each other anxiously.

The sea was a bit rough heading out to the islands and Immi does sometimes suffer from a bit of seasickness, something I’d conveniently forgotten. So when a Dutch girl sitting in front of us hung her head over the side, Immi asked for a sick bag too and held it close to her face until we reached the island, about 30 minutes away, thankfully with nothing coming up!

Pulling up at ‘Bamboo’ Island (god knows why it’s called that, because there is not a stick of bamboo in sight),  I made an ungracious exit while climbing down the rusty ladder hooked onto the bow of the boat. I fell into the water fully clothed after misjudging the depth of the water where the beach sharply drops off. Shortly after, the heavens opened again and we couldn’t see more than 20 feet through the tropical downpour.

We pulled out the emergency plastic raincoat to cover up our day packs and prompty jumped into the warm ocean while the rain poured down – it was the best place to be and we spent a couple of hours just floating and playing with the girls.  It rained off and on the whole day but cleared for long enough to enjoy a lovely lunch of salad, rice and barracuda. The beach and water on the islands were really nice and we ended up having a lot of fun. The sea was like glass for the return trip and we were back on the jetty by 3pm. The experience reminded us that as long as your expectations aren’t too high, you keep your sense of humour and treat each day as an adventure, everything usually turns out ok!

The previous day I had headed into town to get a few presents together and organised the local supermarket bakery to decorate and deliver a cake to our hotel. On our return from the boat trip we Skyped with Nanna and she joined in singing Happy Birthday to Immi and together we ‘blew’ out the candles.

After cake and a couple of hours in the pool, we walked along the beach path into town for  dinner.

 Immi’s choice was pizza, pasta, and a shake at Café Mango – the local Italian restaurant.

As motorbikes are the most prolific transport on the roads of Asia, if Dave or I need to go anywhere alone (like when I went into town) we take a taxi-motorbike rather than tuk-tuk as it is usually half the price.  Immi had expressed on a few occasions that she really wanted to go on a motorbike so we decided Sihanoukville was the best (and quietest) place to surprise the girls with a motorbike ride back to the hotel after dinner.  Immi agreed that this was a fantastic way to end her day!

T

The bend in the road is not the end of the road… Unless you fail to make the turn (Helen Keller)