Beach Corps

This past weekend reminded me why I traded in my Prada bags for a backpack. After IST, Deidre and I hightailed it down to Kep beach where we would be meeting Dan and his friend Nina for a few days of beach bumming. Think fresh seafood, empty beaches, straw bungalows, and miles and miles of clear blue water. Now that’s what I had in mind when I joined Peace Corps.

Kep is off the beaten path of the usual tourist circuit, so we essentially had the coastline to ourselves for three whole days and nights. We spent our lazy days staring out at the calm waves, reading, and chatting. There was a cool breeze rolling off the water that made the sun feel deceptively mild. The ocean itself was so warm I felt like I was swimming in a giant bathtub.

Odd as this may seem, this was actually the first time I’ve been to the ocean since I left the States. Living in the North-Western part of Cambodia has its perks, but a nine hour bus ride to the beach is not one of them. As Deidre and I rode into town, we both began clapping and giggling. You can imagine what a scene this was on a bus full of Cambodians and the few scant tourists passing through (I probably should have mentioned Deidre also had her scarf wrapped around her head for “lice protection” due to the questionable nature of our bus).

The smell of brackish water and salt air was like a tonic I didn’t know I needed. Jimmy Buffet once said every illness can be cured by the sea … and after this trip I’m inclined to believe it. Granted, in our zeal to soak up as much of the sun as we could, D and I ended up getting a little burnt -- but it’s a small price to pay when you’re watching the waves swallow a huge yellow sunset over a plate of fresh-caught prawns.

Our last night in Kep was by far the most memorable. During the afternoon, I hatched a plan to make homemade sangria using the infamous Randonal wine (which doesn’t even deserve to be called wine) and fresh fruit. Deidre and Nina seemed a little skeptical, but Dan jumped on board and helped rally the troops. After we had our fill of sun and sand, we headed to the crab market to pick up pineapple, oranges, apples, sugar and of course – the vino.

Our hotel restaurant hooked us up with a huge bucket cooler, knives, spoons and mugs so we could get down to work. After dinner, we set our bucket on the beach and kicked back to enjoy the setting sun. Now, the water around Kep is said to contain glowing plankton that makes the water sparkle when you swim at night, but I’ve never seen anything like that before so I had my doubts. As I stared out at the black waves, I noticed the swimming pier was completely obscured by the dark, moonless sky.

Clearly, the only logical thing to do was to go skinny dipping with the plankton and the million and one stars shining down on us. We scrambled down the pier, threw our clothes into a pile, and jumped in. Sad to say, the water didn’t glow at all as we waded out. We began complaining about how our sources had misled us when all of a sudden, as we moved farther and farther into the still water, we began to see flashes of light below the water’s surface following our fingers and toes.

It looked like the stars had fallen into the water and were swimming with us. It was truly one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. We tried different swimming strokes to see how the plankton would respond, jumped around, kicked our legs, and scooped water into our hands to see if we could catch them. When we were tired of that, we floated on our backs, looking up at the stars and contemplating the Milky Way.

In a word: paradise. And if that doesn’t make you want to jump on a plane and come visit me, I don’t know what will.