On the 6th January we got a bus to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, and for the country I was expecting to be least advanced I was very surprised to see our first finger print machine at the border crossing, outside of Bangkok airport! This made for a good first impression, which was swiftly swept aside when we encountered a young girl, maybe about 10, with a baby on her hip, its hands covered in blue antiseptic stuff, begging for change at a ferry boat crossing. This was only the first taste of the poverty some Cambodians are living in, and it didn't get any easier to see the entire time we were there.

Phnom Penh itself is not a pleasant city, the abject poverty of children sleeping on pavements (face down in a starfish - can't be a comfortable position...), scruffy kids trying to sell you bracelets and books when sat eating your food, old people staggering along holding a hat out for small change, people digging through the rubbish bins for food, and the general malaise shown by the rest of the population, is a disturbing sight, especially with the growing tourism that is coming into the country.

Alongside this the city is pretty seedy - full of prostitutes and 'lady bars' with bored looking Cambodian women in miniskirts sat outside, and dirty old men on the prowl, we didn't particularly relish the thought of wandering the streets too much on a night. It is a strange city, definitely somewhere to go for the history not the nightlife. Such a strange place in fact that both Nina and I had mental dreams that night, with first me getting out of bed and beating it with my pillow as I thought there were little spiders all over it (precipitated by all the ants about I'm sure) and then Nina leaping out of bed at the speed of light thinking that a load of 2 by 4s were flying at her face. Very odd!

Despite the bad first impression Cambodia gave me, once out of the capital I came to love it and so far it has been my favourite place to visit. We went down to Sihanoukville, a beach resort on the South coast, for a couple of days of relaxation. Now Cambodia is hot, swelteringly hot, and as it is still not very modernised there isn't much aircon so you're relying on fans. Not so bad in a room, but on a bus with 30 other people makes for a very warm bus journey to Sihanoukville! Luckily it was only 5 hours, but was delayed by an hour whilst the bus ticket man tried to kick two American girls off as they had overbooked and there were some locals needed to get on. Obviously they refused, and rightly so, so we were delayed for ages while this German man got angrier and angrier at the delay, was quite amusing to watch him storming about in the end!

Anyway we got to Sihanoukville fine and booked into our little guesthouse place, then wandered down to the beach for a few drinks, only a couple since we were tired from the bus journey and a restless night the night before, however as ever this was not the case, and I ended up staggering to bed at 3.30, having seen an impressive show of fire baton twirling (like extreme majorettes), daubed in UV paint (a pain to get off btw) and exhausted from all the dancing! Nina finally rocked in at about 7 after watching the sunrise, crazy lady!

The next morning we went to ask if we could stay another night, but horror of horrors the hostel was full! So we spent an hour asking around before finally checking on hostelworld and booking a hotel for the night, call it a late birthday treat! So we ended up spending more than we wanted, but after so little sleep we really couldn't care less, and on a positive note the hotel had a pool so we didn't have to worry about sand getting in our undercrackers! The remainder of the day was spent lounging by the pool, booking somewhere at Otres beach, a quieter beach 5km away, for the next night, and generally doing nothing.

Another day of not very much followed, we got a tuk tuk to Otres beach, which is like the beach of your dreams, clear turquoise waters, white sand, and palm trees sheltering the little beach hut bars and sun beds - a world away from the madness of backpacker central, Serendipity beach, where we were before! The place we were staying in was basically a giant beach hut with individual rooms, our little twin room had 2 mattresses on the floor, mosquito nets, and a fan. and that's it. It was so quaint though, as well as being scrupulously clean, and as a new bar/guesthouse everything was all fluffy and nice! The day was spent lazing on a sunbed under a thatched umbrella, playing cards, and reading. Heaven!

Becca x