Moving on

The time has come to leave the island. It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

When I last updated this blog, rainy season had worn me down and I was ready to move on. On my return, however, I changed jobs,  my lifestyle changed and I fell in love with the island all over again.
After low season I couldn't handle working in a bar anymore so i was very happy when someone else wanted to buy into Vagabonds and take over management (Courtney, you're great). With the freedom to work on what I wanted, I created myself a little office job, doing the accounts and bookings for all 3 of Dave's guesthouses.

The initial aim of this role was to eventually update all of the info available online about Koh Rong and create a press pack for each business. Snowed under by bookings over Christmas I didn't get much of a chance to do this before another project came up.

While working for 3 businesses I was getting my food and drink from Island Boys and Vagabonds, while living at Dreamcatch Inn. Being around Dreamcatch meant that I began to help out automatically, then in January took on the project to start a kitchen.

The kitchen wasn't even built yet so I recruited a chef (also from Glastonbury) and together we designed the kitchen, wrote the menu and bought the stock. When I first spoke to Bethany about starting the kitchen she asked if we could use all recyclable packaging and natural cleaning products so I knew she'd be perfect (and she was, Bethany you're great). We were also joined by another Somerset girl who took on the art work and organising the reception (and has now taken over managing the place completely, Nat you're great). So together the three of us created a little hippie cafe on the beach  :-) To anyone and everyone reading this, go check it out, it's great!



It was this lifestyle and community that was so hard to leave. I'd gotten away from 24 hour party bars and had found other people that wanted creative projects and early nights. I did a full year on Koh rong, and in that time started two guesthouse/restaurants, helped out with a tshirt business and created a tobacco brand (gave it a go, doesn't smoke amazingly but cheap, local, and not too bad). It's crazy what is possible in Cambodia. It's the wild wild east with no rules our taxes and the easiest working visa I've ever heard of.

I talk about that more in a podcast I recorded for walking the earth. if you haven't heard it already you can listen here: https://soundcloud.com/walkingtheearthpodcast/episode-14

Now is the time to move on. What was meant to be an 8 month trip in Asia has been 18 already. I've run out of money (a long time ago) and as much as I love Cambodia I know there are so many more places in the world I have to see. So to Thailand now for a final travelling fix before heading back to the UK for summer (yes that's right, I'll be in England, for a few months at least).
I'll never really be able to leave for good though, I'll have to visit, see how it all turns out, and you never know, I might not like the real world ... so ronguns, don't worry, I'll be back!

opening a restaurant

When I arrived on Koh Rong 4 months ago I had no grand plans and certainly never dreamed that I would be opening a veggie restaurant on this Cambodian island, but that's what I've done!
It started with a painting, I was looking for somewhere to paint a mural as I had done in Thailand and Laos, and Vagabonds had space for me to paint. I was told they wanted a mermaid so I started sketching and by the time I met Dave, the owner, I had already begun painting on the wall. He quickly offered me free beer, food and accommodation to continue painting and with a free rein to paint what I wanted where I wanted it was an offer I couldn't refuse.
My role as in house artist quickly expanded as I offered to help out with everything I could in this guesthouse/bar and within a week I was manager!
As the business was just starting up (we had the opening party two weeks after I arrived) and wasn't really serving much food, Dave said we could experiment in the kitchen, but we couldn't order expensive foods such as meat. This gave me the idea of trying to make some good vegetarian food...
My parents are vegetarian and I was brought up working in vegetarian cafes in Glastonbury so I'm used to cooking vegetarian food but my first couple attempts at veggie burgers came out as sloppy pumpkin mess.
With everything else going on it took me until the end of June to get a menu written but as soon as that was done it was amazing how quickly we transformed into a restaurant.
There is already a good selection of western food on the island and Pan Mai and Tom, the two girls who work in the Vagabonds kitchen, could cook a full English breakfast with their eyes closed.
Introducing a vegetarian menu, however, meant a lot of new dishes that they had never cooked before, using different flavours than they are used to and a whole new style of cooking. The girls have done an amazing job of learning a lot of new dishes in a short space of time but it's tough work introducing a whole new menu in a week, let alone teaching stock control, efficiency and what needs to be prepared in advance. At the moment it's low season though so there aren't many customers and we can use the next couple of months to practice and really get it right for high season.
Yesterday we demolished one of the dorm rooms to build a new, bigger kitchen and moved the bar to create more restaurant seating so in the next few days we should be able to have a grand reopening party of our new restaurant!
So if your in Koh Rong at any time soon, come check out the menu, maybe even stay for a 'Yolanda special' - a baguette with marmite, poached eggs and cheese  :-)

5 things I love about my life

1. Having pink hair.

People say blondes have fun. Pink's have more fun. Fact.

2. Living on an island.

It feels cut off from the real world. No roads, no cars, just beach, jungle and sea.

3. Starting a businesses.

The whole island is young and developing. Most businesses here are less than a year old and it's exciting to be part of creating the scene. I started by painting on the walls and was managing the place before we opened so it really feels like my baby.

4. The wildlife.

Every night I fall asleep to the sounds of geckos and crickets. Wake up to chickens, a snake coiling itself around a nearby tree and a buffalo rolling around in the mud. I go for a swim and have to tread carefully around the giant pink starfish dotted on the ocean bed and barracuda coming for me. Swim at night and there is phosphorescent plankton. At work my dog bounds up to me with a million kisses, dragonflies hover around and a giant butterfly lands on my head. (Of course not all the wildlife is good, sandflies are the bane of my life and it's not possible to keep anti venom on the island as we can't keep it refrigerated consistently. There is always a price to pay for paradise.)

5. The people.

You meet some interesting characters travelling but the ones that have decided to live on a Cambodian island are certainly a rare breed.