I hadn't intended to go to Sihanoukville, but I also hadn't intended to only visit two cities in Cambodia, and Yoholi and Darren were going, so I decided to tag along and see a bit more of the country. The three of us caught a morning bus down - much to Darren's disgust! - and arrived at lunch time to find that unfortunately the cooling effect of the sea breeze doesn't exist in Cambodia. It was absolutely stifling. We argued our tut-tuk driver into taking us to Monkey Republic, despite him stopping at a completely different hostel on the way. We were all exhausted, after burning the candle at both ends for the last 4 days, so ended up sitting in a boiling hot, dark TV room all afternoon watching DVD's. There wasn't really much culture in this town, it was a beach resort pretty much filled to the brim with westerners, mainly backpackers, but it had an nice enough beach. I saw this really as a break from a lot of temple visiting and sight seeing, which I really needed. We inevitably met a large group of Brits (Darren's friends we'd met in Phnom Penh were also there) so we spent the first evening at a bar on the beach where I'm sure they can't make any money, as they were selling beer for 25 cents and at 11 it became free....

The next day Yoholi and I went down to the beach only to find it started raining as soon as we got there! We had to shelter inside a restaurant, where we drank tea and where our boredom was exploited by all the people selling things! I got my nails done by a "lady" called Sarah who also attempted to thread my legs which took ages! I was made a free anklet by a girl called Laurie, who then I obviously felt obliged to buy some fruit from! The rest of the morning we were surrounded by small girls trying to sell us things, boat trips, food, lobster etc... it was not very relaxing! I had heard that there was less of this on some of the other beaches, but we didn't venture as far away as that. They were very cute though and although we didn't really buy anything else we did promise (pinky promise) that IF we bought a boat trip we would buy it from them. It was actually the only way to get rid of them! Unfortunately it also meant we couldn't come back to the beach!

That afternoon Paddy arrived from Phnom Penh, so we spent another evening in the hostel bar with our ever increasing group. The hostel had organised a fancy dress mardi gras party which was quite fun as lots of people actually went the effort of dressing up. I managed to assert myself to some degree after meeting the manager from the beach bar we'd been to the night before as after quizzing him as to how they can afford their drinks deals I discovered they couldn't! The other bar was actually putting them out of business, so he told me if I could get 10 people there after the party finished he would give us free drinks. The "free" tuk tuks had obviously been laid on by the other bar, but somehow I managed to get everyone in them - about 15 people - to agree we wanted dropping at the other one which was miles back up the other way! result. Another cheap night for me!

Having not recovered at all from Phnom Penh my last day was pretty relaxing, eating western food and hiring out the cinema over the road. It was a great idea, you all pay a few dollars and get an air-con cinema with basket chairs and a film of your choice. There were only 8 of us so we had the whole place to spread out in and got a good dose of schlomping while watching Seven Pounds. Yoholi and I were leaving in the morning so we managed to convince Darren and Paddy to detach themselves from the large group and come out for a last dinner with us before we all got an early night - or tried to! I was rudely awakened by my mobile to a call from Virgin Media. I couldn't remember what Country I was in, let alone have a rational conversation with them at 2 in the morning so I said I'd call them back from a land line soon. It had to be soon as they were threatening to get an "external agency" involved...

The following morning I climbed aboard a motorbike (my rucksack nestled in front of the driver) and head off for the bus station. The food selection was at best poor to bad, and after shunning the baguettes stalls I ended up with a random pastry type thing to take on for breakfast. One bite in though and I realised dried fish pastry is really not a nice thing to put in your mouth - ever! Luckily it was one of the better VIP buses who gave us sugar buns and later on a sandwich! The bus went through Phnom Penh, where I saw all the tuk tuk drivers from my last guesthouse queuing up for business - and they remembered me! I was dumped off the bus for an hour during which I hunted down the internet for Virgin's number. I then tried calling them back - 3 times and lots of money later I got through and asked them to call me back as they were dithering - they didn't. A few more stops later we reached the Vietnamese border, where we had a man come on board and check us for swine flu - thermometer in ear - something I was getting fairly used to, along with filling out a health form. We then all had to lug our bags off in the pouring rain, head through Immigration and lug the bags back on the bus when our name was called. When I heard "Anna Lucees" I climbed back on for the last bit to Saigon - I didn't bother correcting them...