I had a very different Christmas to usual. Some fellow volunteers and I decided to give ourselves a holiday after all the hard work we've been...urm...doing so we packed our bags and travelled to Ko Chang, one of the Thai islands.
As soon as we crossed the border it was like stepping into another world. Despite the landscape and climate being similar to Cambodia, there are many differences between the countries and it struck me how much I have got used to from the relatively short time I've been in Cambodia. For example, Thailand has roads laid with tarmac WITH ROAD MARKINGS!! And because of the tarmac, there are no clouds of dust covering everything in sight. The trees are green instead of dirty brown, the cars and people look clean and are not covered with a layer of brown dust. I absolutely adore Cambodia but the dust is unbelievable!
Ko Chang was amazingly beautiful; palm trees, clear water, warm sand and our beach hut was less than 5 metres from the sea!
On Christmas Eve, Jean treated Corine and I to a day on a kayak so after we had applied plenty of suncream (or so I thought) we paddled over the sea to some smaller islands. It was great exercise. I sat at the front and Corine behind which meant that she was apparently in charge of steering and could also unfortunately see when I occasionally stopped paddling! The island that became our destination was surprisingly crowded with other tourists on snorkeling and diving trips but other than that it was very beautiful. The only disappointment was that my tan washed off in the sea and I realised that I am still whiter than Casper the Ghost! Over the weeks spent in Phnom Srok and Sisaphon, the dust has become so ingrained into my skin it gives the impression of a vaguely attractive tanned appearance. It was good to feel clean though!
We made it back to dry land (me with a sunburnt tummy and legs - sorry no pictures, but at least I've changed colour!) in time to don Christmas hats, crack open the gin and decorate the Christmas (palm) tree. And then Santa arrived, on an elephant of course! The rather more up-market resort next-door to our modest beach huts, obviously had connections in high places and had arranged for none other than Father Christmas himself to visit on the back of an elephant. I like to think that he prefers a sleigh personally, but the staff there had made a real effort to decorate the grounds with fairy lights and dress up as elves - all a bit surreal really but great fun!
After a lovely meal we retired to our hut with the gin bottle and Jon's iPod and sang the collection of Christmas carols he happened to have with him. Merry Christmas!!
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