A very choppy hour long boat journey, resulted in not being able to be dropped off at the pier near where we were staying. Because of this we had a very long walk along a beach, through a jungle, across a rickety bridge, and through a fishing village, right to the end of the bay, all in the pitch black, and of course with our rucksacks! But we made it to 'Sunset Bungalows', where we would be staying for the Christmas period, 4 nights in total.
'Sunset Bungalows' seemed to be owned and run by a French man, his young Cambodian girlfriend/wife, and another younger French man. The younger French man guided us to our bungalow, which took precisely 6 minutes to walk along the coast to (not timed by us, but a couple staying in the bungalow next to us, who we later became great friends with). Upon entering, Amelia noticed a huge gecko on the wall just next to our bed, the young French man said not to worry about our 'little' friend, and that it will keep the mosquitos and other insects at bay - bonus!

Koh Rong Samloem is currently a very undeveloped island, especially on the side we were staying - M'Pay Bay. There were roughly 5 different choices of accommodation, a restaurant or two, a dive school, and as mentioned earlier the fishing village.

We couldn't wait to wake up and open our shutters to see our view - our bungalow was a stones throw away from the sea, and had a small garden area with a hammock for relaxing in.

Christmas Eve, we had arranged to have dinner at 'Sunset Bungalows'. The French traditionally eat a big meal on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, so keeping with their tradition they'd prepared four French style courses, bruschetta, cold meats with pickles and salad, coq au vin, and crepes with mango jam.

Christmas Day was spent chilling on the beach. Christmas dinner was another four course meal costing $12 per person, a lot more money than we were used to, but it was still good value considering the service and amount of food. This was at a restaurant called 'The Fishing Hook'. The owner, who was also the chef, waitress, and bartender was an American lady who'd fallen In love with the island. We had potato soup to start, broccoli salad - nicer than it sounds, for main - breaded chicken for me, and fish for Amelia, with an amazing cinnamon sauce (tasted a little like katsu curry sauce) and rice, and what seemed like the best brownie we've ever tasted, but in all honesty it could've just been average, as we hadn't eaten chocolate for a long time! And of course a glass of red and a baileys to finish was inevitable!
It was all very nice but not a touch on my mums 'pretend' Christmas dinner we'd had at home before leaving!

Boxing Day, I spent the day alone, on a boat travelling back to the mainland to get more cash from the ATM, whilst Amelia spent the day sunbathing! There are no ATMs or card machines on the islands off Cambodia, so everything has to be paid by cash. We had an issue with getting cash out the day we left for the island, and because everything was so rushed we could only get enough for our stay on this one island, and we needed more for the next.
Dinner that night was spent at 'The Fishing Hook' again, and after dinner we were asked by the owner if we wanted to stay for 'movie night'. Her husband (Cambodian) had just acquired a projector and wanted to try it out, with one of my favourite Christmas films 'Home Alone'! We even got complimentary popcorn!

Next stop Koh Rong...