Day 86: Castaway Island ... muahahaha

View from our Cabin on the Boat

Awake abruptly, cabin mate's destroying the toilet, no biggie, can't smell, but here lies the problem - nose running like a faucet, need to blow.  Patiently wait and wait and wait. "Yo Deano, know where the toilet paper is?" Yeah bro, Above the towel rack, know where the courtesy flush is? "The what?" Courtesy flush. Come on now, you must have that in England. "Nope, but kinda busy as of now." Yeah, it's why I mention it. Basically while your dropping your load, you flush the toilet after each release, minimizes the odor. "Why would I do that? You love the smell." You're not well.

Karst

Pack my bag and head to breakfast. It's what you'd expect, eggs, bread, jam, and bananas. Buy a water, had I mentioned no drinks are provided on this boat, and the only cold ones are beer? Relinquish the key by 8, and we are on our way. The bay only gets better, limestone islands stretching to the sky, some resting on the smallest of bases, hidden secluded beaches through coves or swim throughs. The sun still refuses to come play, billowing gray clouds blanket the sky. Boat stops, another smaller one pulls alongside, "All those to Castaway Island, that boat." We transfer and continue on, through more and more massive outcroppings and islands, scenery is brilliant, by 10:45, 3 hours after pulling up anchor, we arrive, Castaway Island. It's just a few open air huts, mattress pads, and mossi nets. The bar is the best constructed building on the premise, surprise surprise. So here we are, secluded beach, all to ourselves, this should be rather adventurous!

Castaway Island

The mist drizzle has decided to join us here as well. Even so, the view is spectacular. We are allowed to pick some kind of watersport, either wake boarding or tubing, with the condition of my palms, I opt for tubing. Jump on the speed boat, air temp is maybe 60, water is 70, and I have no warm clothing on the island to change into, remind me, why am I doing this again? My turn, doubles tube, Amir jumps into the water to join me. The driver is a Vietnamese guy with clearly no concept of liability or limits, his whole goal is to destroy. If he knocks one off, you do not want to be the last one on, he will do whatever it takes to end you ... Seriously scary. Amir tucks his one hand under mine, we do the cross cross arm thing, grab for the wide handle and off we go. Picks up speed, we are in the middle, no biggie, swings us outside and accelerates, ok, pulls us back across severally times seeming to accelerate, fingers are starting to ache.

Amir and I's death r

Almost lose Amir once or twice, he miraculously holds on, driver throws us into a figure 8, goes wide throws down the throttle, we are jolted but still on, now he's pissed, full throttle takes us back an forth across the wake, feet dragging, hands gripping, we survive, slows for a moment, slack in the rope, full throttle, not sure how it happens, both up us feel like the tube was yanked from below us. My wounds have reopened, my fingers show signs of bruising as do my feet, good thing the waters chilly. I'm done, the boat picks me up, kamikaze driver makes quip at me  about boat not being fast enough, did I ever say that? I asked why only 5 people were going, guide says because it would be too heavy, so I reply, oh, we'd be too slow. All the local heard was SLOW ... So that ride was about vengance? Pull the tube back in, the entire fabric covering is shredded, from handles down it has literally been torn off save one small connection near the back, excess dragging in the water, half deflated. Yep, we broke it, eh, kamikaze driver broke it, serves him right for trying to kill us.

Boat ride back, you realize how beautiful and serene the bay is, water is glass, not a soul stirring save a few hunting birds and the occassional jumping fish. God's creativity again amazes me.

Return, attempt to warm up, still overcast, slight chilly breeze, open air everything, no where to hide, to warm up, no hot showers, only solace is in your sleeping bags. Recline for a nap before dinner, I think we are having ... you guessed it, fish. Veggies again. A healthy game of "I never" teaches us much about our fellow adventures, especially since it was made into a drinking game. Not sure if you are to drink if you have or have not, so we just drank. Drinks were for purchase, so I stuck with sprite or water ... yeah, I am crazy like that. Night fell, I hear a scream, look over our shoulder to see a girl running from a local holding a 10 inch long centipede. Apparently they are very poisonous, and though not deadly, can render it's victim in much pain. Uh ... that's enough of the locals for one day, I am heading to bed ... but there is no lights, no moon, I'm barefoot and there are large centipedes roaming the island ... Marie to the rescue. Sporting a mini flash light, staying under my palapa, we navigated our way back, snuggled under our respective mozzi nets in our camo bags and drifted off to lala land.

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