It was another 10am pick up, so Edd and I got up and ordered tea and coffee for our balcony. We then all set off showering and packing up as we were moving hotels today, but also had to breakfast before we set off. The food took unusually long to arrive, but we had ordered juices that weren't on the menu, which meant they had to be specially made. Everything was delicious and we managed to finish just in time, heading back to our rooms, doing one last sweep of the place and then leaving for our minivan that was waiting for us outside.

Edd's bag was so heavy it felt like he was carrying a dead body in it, so sat down in the boot while he unattached himself to the coffin bag. We all hopped in, he and I sitting in the second row, while his folks sat in the front row asking Wafiki questions about the things we were driving past.

Our first stop was a stone carving shop, where statues were carved from volcanic stone and white stone (I can't remember the name). The skill required to carve such beautiful pieces was amazing, but Wafiki did tell us that they did super glue bits back on if they accidentally hammered them off.

The next stop was a silver shop, where items of silver jewellery were hand crafted and sold in a store. A brooch took about 4 weeks to make, each piece being attached individually first by a type of glue made from a plant and then finally soldered on. There were lovely items on sale, but the prices were geared towards tourists and although I am sure some of the pieces warranted their price tag, Edd and I were also pretty certain we looked like walking dollar signs, and by dollar I mean US, not Singapore. We left empty handed again, not willing to pay the extortionate prices.

Our final stop was a wood working factory - I was particularly enthused with the hibiscus wooden cats they were making as the wood is 2 tone, depending on the flower, which was also very interesting. Again we left empty handed, even though a wooden cat miraculously went from $35 to $15 within about 6 steps towards the door. Amazing.

We were finally dropped off at our next hotel; this one was apparently 5*, so was one up on the resort we'd just left. We were all ushered into the reception area and given welcome drinks of a coconut nature - I took one sip of mine and gagged, so everyone else drank theirs and Edd had a few swigs of mine before we were taken to our rooms.

Edd's mum had booked a villa, with Edd and I downstairs and his folks upstairs. Downstairs had a bath that was sunken into the ground and could sleep 2 people, much like the hotel bus we were on in Cambodia. The only downside to the bathroom was that they'd used wall tiles on the floor, so when it got wet it was a bit hazardous. The bed sported a hug canopy with bits tied back as a mosquito net; the room had an aircon though, so we weren't going to be sleeping with the doors and windows open anyway.

The room upstairs had a private pool overlooking the paddie fields with an undercover area to sit at and dine / read, etc. Their room was exactly like ours, except for the fact that their bath wasn't in the floor and it had 2 sliding doors - one was an entrance and the pool area and the other was a little balcony to the left as you came in. Edd and I were excited about the private pool and he hopped in to test the water - hopping out quickly as it was arctic. I took his word for it and skipped the testing phase.

We had lunch under the covered area by the pool and then all parted ways for an afternoon of relaxation; I went and immediately had a bath for an hour with a magazine while Edd shopped for potential cars in Australia and his folks minced by the pool, reading and dozing.

They came down at 6pm to get us and go for a little walk around the grounds, the sun was setting and we were going to eat in one of the restaurants (there were 2) after a drink. We counted 4 pools in the resort / hotel and had to walk back the way we'd come as it hadn't been designed in a loop. It started to rain, so we had taken a walk at just the right time, as we got back to our rooms quick enough to fetch umbrellas.

We weren't far from the top restaurant and sat in the bar area with a round of G&T's. The restaurant had been designed a little backwards as we were overlooking the car park, so there wasn't much of a view of the river that through the resort. We were called to our table when our food was ready and drank a bottle of rose wine with our meal.

We then all went back to our rooms, changed into more comfortable clothes, grabbed my Mexican Trains, travel version and went upstairs to the undercover area by the pool. We had a cup of tea while we played a few rounds of trains, our midway scoring found Edd's mum thrashing everyone and me coming stone last, by a long shot.

We went downstairs after 11pm and were engulfed by an enormous bed; it was lovely to go to sleep on such comfy mattresses, not have bed springs digging into our ribs, with biscuit pillows and potential bed bugs. This was my idea of travelling.