Under the Sea!!

20/01/16

koh ta Kiev (Cambodia)

We're still on our little island of paradise.

This morning we use our time to plan out for Vietnam with the bible (lonely planet). Once we're suitably bored of this it's into the bright blue clear water (3m away from our tree house). The only problem with paradise is that everything wants to eat/ injure you! So even in the sea we are aware of the many massive sea urchins protecting the rocks! Playtime is tentative at best! Flying fish jump past us and we watch 6 inch crabs scuttling on the rocks, attempting not to get wiped out by the waves!

We're due to go out fishing this afternoon on our DIY excursion. We sorted this by speaking to the alcoholic/ high as a kite French 'boat captain' and agreeing to pay him $6 each to go out for several hours (compare this to the $20 it should cost and we're on a winner right? What could go wrong?)

We arrive at the bar where we met this boat captain and enquire as to his wareabouts. He's still asleep.... The bloody French!?!? Honestly.

Whilst he's getting himself and the boat sorted we down some pink coladas... Piña colada with Malibu and pink stuff and get beers in for El
Capitano.

Load the boat (sack of beers) for our team outing and continue to get on it. Motor out off the shore, drop the anchor. Tiere shows us how to cast a line and we're off! Uuuu this is so exciting.... For five minutes. We quickly learn this sport is a good excuse to drink, and attempt to catch tea.... But not really a sport at all.

On the other hand, the pissed captain finds two fish within two minutes so we are certainly lacking skill! One of the ones he pulls up comes up with a piece of coral the size of a football as the fish was hooked and got wedged in the coral so they came up together.

So there are fish to be had and it's back to concentrating. Within 5 minutes we have caught coral and lost weights on two rods!! Hmm... El capitano perseveres and we decide to move so we can see elephant rock (which we missed yesterday) and watch the sunset... Easier said than done and the anchor has got caught on some rocks, so raj has to dive in and kick it loose, he does this fully clothed even leaving his crocs on as he jumps into the sea!

We move position and drop our rods again!

Ding dong... NOBLET HAS CAUGHT ONE.... And it's massive. Well, massively poisonous, and approximately 3inches long, he's in the lead.

Then Pakora comes a knocking, 'Tal, don't move' he says 'what?' and starts moving.... pakoras hook went straight in his foot 😂. Wonder who donkey will go to here?

And then ten minutes later pakora some how gets her hook stuck in her thigh!!!! Wtf how do you even do that 😂😂... Twice!

We watch the sunset with our rods dropped, but as we turn around towards elephant rock (which actually looks like an elephant) we see a huge front coming in.

El capitano seems fine though stating 'we watch the sunset and then we go home fast'. So we finish the sunset, casually wind our rods in (Tal catches a sea big which he thought was his bait lol) and I go to the toilet (quick dip). Only once I finish does he start to get a bit twitchy and it's full steam ahead! By now the storm is fast approaching. The other boats have only just seen the front as they were so close to the island and are hot on our heals following our route through the coral which we now couldn't see due to the dark clouds.... We were in the hands of a pastise infused captain around shed loads of coral in shallow water... Great.

The storm picks up, as do the waves and we're getting soaked and blown around. The captain is worried and strains his eyes to see Raj who is attempting to avoid the coral. 10 long minutes later and we're heading into shore at last... We're lucky we're at the north West side of the island pretty close to where we were. When we got to the shore there was the bar tender waiting for us and the urgency of the situation was realised with the statement 'get off the boat quick, we need to tie this boat down NOW!'

We did as we were told and ran to shelter in the bar. Only one thing for it... Get the beers in until the storm passes!

An hour later the captain and bar guy come back informing us the boat was ok at last. We learnt the next day that the other boats heading to the south of the island were forced to abandon ship 500m down from us. Crikey.

To summarise the fishing competition:

First place Pakora with 2 big catches
Second place Noblet 3" fish
Third place Tal for his small worm
Last Holly with absolutely nothing. Brilliant

Man: the captain for getting us home
Donkey: Thirsty Pakora for hooking herself and Tal on a fishing hook.Read more