It was just four hours and $6 by bus to Sihanoukville, on the South Coast, and at the bus station we grabbed a moto driver each who took us to a Guesthouse. The drivers get commission if we stay and it can often be a scam, but the room is nice and its just $12, so we made them very happy by agreeing to stay three nights. We headed straight out to see the beach, and it turns out there were lots of sellers of jewellery, fruit, manicures, threading and massages, but it's not so bad as we make friends with some local young girls who go to school in the morning and sell the bracelets and trinkets they make at home in the afternoon, plus we get some amazing mini lobster snacks prepared in front of us. We watched our first sunset on the beach, and relaxed in a few bars.

I got up early the next morning to explore the beach as our room was near to reception and very noisy! Lots of Khmer families come for their holidays here, so there's lots of children and lots of "Gangnam Style"- deep joy. We chill all day in the sun and do get a little burnt, one of the side effects of our malaria medication is sun sensitivity so we have invested in a higher sun cream for the rest of our trip! We also try out some massages on the beach which are really hard, and actually not that enjoyable! Then we have an have amazing BBQ dinner before passing out, all that sun really does take it out of you.

We needed a day out of the sun so we headed for a tour of Ream National Park, and see kingfishers, a fish eagle and some flying fish, and some fishermen diving for oysters. We have this one German guy on the boat taking millions of pictures of everything, I feel sorry for anyone that has to watch that slideshow! Theres not as much trekking as we were promised but its still a nice day out although at $20 it's well overpriced, especially as it turns out the Chinese government own a portion of the area and are building a big resort, which is disappointing as a National Park is supposed to be a protected area. We have Barracuda for lunch which we've not eaten before and it's delicious, then head back on the boat and go out on the town in a few bars, meet some fun Irish lads but roll back around 2. Cambodia does have a much seedier side than the other countries we have visited on this trip, you see countless old western man and young Cambodian girl couples, I would never judge anyone on this usually but the bars are home to many solo older men that look like they are on the prowl for men and wonen, not just in this town, we noticed it lots in Phnom Penh too.

The fourth day here takes us off to Bamboo Island for a couple of days as castaways but the boat taking us there turns out to be a tour boat which visits three islands. We didn't mind this so much and it helped to shake off a bit of the hangover by jumping in the sea and having a little look around with the snorkels. Next stop was our destination and we even got lunch included with the rest of the tour group so although it's taken twice as long to get there it's not so bad. We have to trek through the jungle with our backpacks to the other side of the island and the only resort here is called Koh Ru which is just 12 beach bungalows and a few dorms with a restaurant/reception area in the middle. They have a good range of meals and drinks, and aren't too much more expensive than the mainland, plus you don't mind paying a little more in this environment to be honest! Both of us chilled for the afternoon in our very own hammocks on the bungalow porch and I watched the crabs digging holes on our patch of beach and even a hermit crab shuffle past while Ben went to sleep. The island doesn't have any electricity or phone lines although they do have a few hours of light and power in the evening by generator, but tonight it's out of action so we ate by candlelight and then went for a nighttime swim in the sea to watch the plankton glow which is called phosphorescence and it's caused when you disturb them. Also, the stars out here are out of this world as there is no artificial light, though you have to be careful walking along the beach at night as the hermit crabs are everywhere! I'd never seen them before up close so it's really good fun to check out all the different shells they carry and gently poke them about! The next day leads us to do a bit of exploring, we see a lizard with a blowy out neck(?!) which we've never before seen happen in the wild! It's amazing how easy it is to pass the time with a bit of snorkelling and looking around and before we knew it, dinner time had rolled around again and we finished our day with some wine and deep fried mars bars! When the third day came around we really weren't ready to leave but unfortunately we have a bus booked to Siem Reap so we don't have a choice! We had until 2 and then its back on the tour boat and then a nice 10 hour bus to visit the 8th Wonder of the World, Ankor Wat.