A Sparkling New Year

San Sok, Koh Rong, Cambodia -- Day 3

For the second morning we had breakfast at the "Chinese" restaurant followed by homework. There's no Chinese food, but the decorations at the accompanying store/office/home are clearly Chinese. Dex was unhappy that today, not only was the advertised cheese to accompany the bread not an option, but neither was the jam we had yesterday. Then, to add salt to his wounds, thin banana slices were embedded in his pancake, which he adamantly refused to eat. Ironically, Arno would only eat the part of his pancake with bananas!

To switch things up a bit and keep us from falling into a rut with our daily routine (no hardship mind you), we reserved a boat for a day trip away from Long Beach. Practically every restaurant and guesthouse offers the identical trip and itinerary: head to a nearby cove for snorkeling, follow up with an hour of fishing, stop at a west-facing beach for a dinner BBQ and sunset viewing, and finally take a night time swim with the phosphorescent plankton on the way back to the pier.

Ours was one of four or five boats to leave the various wooden piers this afternoon. We left around 1:45 for the 1:00 trip -- this is beach time and, of course, we're in no big hurry. Actually, our boat thud, thud, thudded away from the dock at least ten minutes before the others.  We only realized there were others when they all overtook us half way to the snorkeling spot.

Passed by faster boats

We tied up along side the other boats, grabbed snorkeling gear, and jumped in. Unfortunately, the generic black masks and snorkels, though new, were adults sized and didn't work so well for Dex and Kylie. Still there was a fair amount to see: big fan shaped coral, small mounds of brain coral, big clumps of swaying rose colored anemones with their own resident pinky clown fish, black spiky urchins, and various hand sized stripped fish. I had great fun. Probably the most colorful things were the long wavy “lips” of giant clams sticking up from the sand in various shades of blue, green and purple.

After an hour, we moved farther from shore for the next activity -- dropping weighted fishing lines with small bits of calamari off the sides of the boat. We naturally assumed it was a competition between us and the Cambodian crew, two young men and a small boy. For most of the outgoing trip, it was the boy that drove the boat. It started off bad for foreigners as the Cambodian team took an early lead plucking fish from their lines every five minutes or so. We carefully mimicked their technique and copied their every move with the exception of the final step… actually removing fish from the hooks. The US / Swiss team was not completely shut out however. Dex and Meg assisted each other to score late in the third quarter, Dex scored in the forth, and Arno came up with a last minute surprise just before the final buzzer. Final score: home team, 17; away team, 3.  

For dinner we got to eat our haul, cooked whole with lime and black pepper. It was really quite good though I prefer my fish without head and guts. The sunset was a fizzle due to a low band of clouds, but there was an impromptu game of sand volleyball with some of the other tourists, which worked up a sweat.

As dusk approached, we waded back in the water, the kids taking a few final rounds of jumps into the water, before the slow ride back to town. A thin crescent moon was on it's way down and we picked out a few familiar constellations -- Orion, Palleades, and Cassiopia -- and enjoyed the warm sea air. Finally, the captain cut the engines and motioned for us to jump in. Avoiding the moonlight and obnoxious, flashing green boat light, the faint sparkling flashes became clearer and clearer with every swipe of the hand. It was truly magical. Waving your arms, hands and legs created a flurry of tiny firefly flashes. Meg declared that 2017 will undoubtedly be a sparkling new year.