Day 36 Stress and Relaxation

09/04/13
I hopped (as well as you can with a rucksack on your front and back) onto the back of a motorbike, it took me to an intermediate bus station. It was 21.30. I was meant to be getting another bus to the proper station just after 11, but at half 10 I was told my bus was outside. As I got to it the doors closed and they weren't opened even when I showed my ticket to the driver, as he pulled away a boy on the bus pointed and said something about me and the whole bus laughed. I had to wait another 10 minutes for the next one, which gave me a 5 minute window to get on the sleeper bus, which was in fact plenty. Calling it the sleeper bus is really rather ironic as I have never once slept on one and I have now got 5 or 6 of them. Looking back at this I realise it was the worst one yet, it took roughly 6 hours, during which I read HP 3, listened to 1/3 of the Hobbit audio-book and was eaten alive. You always get given a blanket to cover you, mine was obviously infested with lice or something as when I was waiting for the boat and on the boat itself I counted 20 bites just on my hands and a similar number on each arm and shoulder, it took all my willpower not to scratch and itch them, I resorted to stuffing my hands in my pockets so I wouldn't be tempted. The island itself is beautiful, really quite something. A few of us piled into a minibus and taken to the stretch of beach known as Long Beach, which is the main tourist area. I picked up an early lunch then walked a few km down the road to the island's main town, Duong Dang, I then decided it would be nice to walk back along the beach rot, not such a smart idea in hindsight. At times I was wading through thigh high water and crawling/climbing over struts that belonged to a stilt house, whilst getting battered by waves. Back at the beach hut I am staying in I changed and went for a swim, sunned myself, read a bit, whilst sipping a nice cold beer. Dinner consisted of BBQ shrimps which were lush then I spent quite some time wandering the streets and ended up in a coffee house, then I had to walk all the way down the strip again.

Long Beach

The night market