After a pretty pain free 10 hour taxi, bus, tuk tuk, bus and boat journey. We arrived on the remote island of Koh Rong, on the south coast of Cambodia. As I mentioned before, we thought it would be good to get some relaxation time in for the Alice and Laura while they're with us seen as this is their break from work. Especially after their first day in Cambodia was quite intense. Plus we planned to meet Christa and Nelen there too.

We found the hostel we had booked into, it was a hostel on stilts in the sea, like a pier is. We approached it with an open mind of it being something new. The reception staff were quite rude and unhelpful about our booking and said we have to pay more. We agreed to pay for one night at the higher rate but wanted to cancel our other two nights that we had booked. The guy directed us to our room, 8 bed bunks in the smallest, darkest, hottest room with each bed half draped with Mozi nets that were somehow covered in sand (wasn't fun laying in bed that night and having sand fall in your eyes if you moved). We sucked it up and went to shower, turns out we forgot what remote island means. No water pumping through the shower, just a bucket of water next to the toilet, oh that we also used to flush the toilet!! We were so sweaty and dirty from the journey we just needed to be relatively clean so grabbed the bowls of water and went back to basics. Next on the agenda was food, we found a nice place on the beachfront, and had a BBQ in one of the restaurants, lovely food and lovely setting. The sky was just starting to get dark, red streaks covering the hills on the island from the sunsetting in the west. The sea had a glimmer of light from the hanging lanterns and fairy lights. I should mention the island only has a small row of bungalows, bars, hostels and restaurants then we locals intertwine with them all. It's very quiet and still feels like an undiscovered paradise, everyone was very chilled out, friendly and just enjoying some down time. I reckon there was a maximum of 60 'foreigners' there. We told Christa and Nelen where we were so they joined us for an after meal beverage, we were all shattered though so it wasn't a late one. My end to my night wasn't so great though, turns out some swampy traveller couldn't afford new flip flops so decided to steal mine, back to square one, no flip flops.

The next day was an early 6.30am start again but for a better reason then getting a bus. We were doing an introduction to yoga class at 7am on the beachfront! Now, I've never done yoga before but we say a sign outside this hippie bar saying free yoga sessions so we thought it would be a great place to try it. The sun had been up for about an hour, we could already start to feel the heat, plus the sweat of doing the exercise, chuck some sand in there and it gets messy! Especially when you're told to put your forehead down, Kate and I were off our towels at this point so it would mean if we put our heads down, we would be eating sand. I thoroughly enjoyed the lesson though and so glad I got my lazy lump out of bed to do it, what a place to try it. After the lesson, we needed to shower but there was still no water and there also wasn't any water left in the buckets so a dip in the sea was the last and only solution. After a fruit and muesli breakfast, we changed hostels into nice beach bungalows, and made our way to the local school. When we was at breakfast I saw a poster advertising the opportunity to volunteer at the local school, they did English lessons three times a week so we went down to see if we could. They didn't have enough children in the class so the teacher went out to the local village to round up some children. Kate and I then got paired with two children who had just started to learn English, we sat and helped them read through their alphabet, sound out the letters in short words and do word/picture matching. They were very sweet children and were so eager to learn, even if we stopped to swap activities they carried on without us because they enjoyed it so much. At the end of the class, Liv and Laura had brought books, pens and sweets with them to hand out, the kids were so chuffed and excited. We did leave feeling bad about filling the kids with sugar before their next class but we couldn't resist the smiles on their faces. Good deed for the day done. We spent the afternoon chilling on the beach and swimming in the sea. That night we finally had working showers, and just in time for The Full Moon Party, there was a party being held on a neighbouring island so we got on the 6pm transfer bus and headed over. It wasn't as crazy at the last one we went on but it was still fun, just had a more chilled vibe to it. It got to about 3am and I was all partied out, only problem was, the only boat back to the other island was at 6am. With no other option, Kate, Alice and I found a little cosy spot in an outside shack that was full of cushions and tables and settled to sleep for the next few hours. Liv woke us up when the boat arrived.

After a few hours kip, we headed to the beach for a relaxing day. Spot of lunch at Monkey Island hostel. Little swim, and a lay in the sun. Although we were either getting nipped at by the sea fleas/fishes or getting bitten on the sand by the sand flies so we couldn't be on the beach for very long. We decided to sit in the big chairs outside our bungalows on the beach, Laura and I was using our iPads while people were taking it in turns to shower. All of a sudden a group of kids from the school came over and wanted to play computer games, sadly I didn't have any games on my pad but Laura did so they flocked around her and played temple run for absolutely ages. Liv was going to braid Christa's hair so we had all the kit out, Kate, Laura and I started to make bracelets. How sweet, plaiting bracelets on a beach, just as the fairy lights were coming on, listening to good music and smelling the BBQ. I didn't go to dinner with the girls because I was still full from my lunch. Plus I wanted to wash my hair properly now we had running water and Alice said I could use her shampoo; I hadn't had any for a week, just been using free sachets I had as emergency shampoo. I miss the luxury of Conditioner. Anyway I met the girls later on, we played card games out on the beach again, don't think we've ever played cards so much on our whole trip.

I woke up to my 6am alarm, not because we had an early boat but because I wanted to do the 7am yoga class again. Alice woke up in the process of me getting ready and said she wanted to come with so made our way down to the beach. Turns out the class was off today, we didn't just want to go back to bed because it was pointless so we decided to recreate our own class. We sat on the beach and welcomed ourselves to Alex and Alice's Yoga Aerobics class. Starting off with the exercises we could remember, then switching into Aerobics. Stern voices, counting the squats, push ups, birpies and jumping jacks then when we remembered a yoga move our voices would calm again and speak in a soft tone instructing the next move. We had fun, bit of Alice and Alex quality time. Turns out there was no water in the bungalows or community showers that morning so back in the sea for a wash. We was leaving the island this morning to move onto the next place, we packed our stuff and waited for the 10am boat. Kate borrowed my 'Toms' the other day because she lost her flip flops but when I asked for them back, because I didn't have any shoes, she couldn't find them, she'd lost the bag that had mine and Alice's 'Toms' in it. We all got on the boat, Kate and I barefoot, two hours later we arrived in Sinaoukville. We were staying a night here before our next bus so we dumped our stuff in a hostel and headed to Otres Beach, which apparently was meant to be nicer then Serendipity beach, I didn't rate the beach much and the water was warmer then a bath but it was nice to chill on and read the girls magazines from home. We headed to a bar for some cocktails, I got an ice coffee though, haven't fancied drinking the last few days. We all had a snooker tournament in the bar, Liv and I was left to play for the title, Liv won!! Well done girl. That night was spent in the bar of our hostel, listening to live music and just taking it easy.

The next morning, 6.30am, up and out for the next journey. We managed to miss our transfer minibus to the bus station so we had to frantically jump in a tuk tuk to catch it in time. Luckily we made it!! 6 hours to Koh Kong for some jungle times.