I had been in a very deep sleep until around 5am, when we awoken by two girls coming in from a big night out. They were both obviously quite drunk and did not realise how thin the walls were separating our rooms. Basically, one had lost the other who was very drunk and one had ended up sleeping on the beach..... and so forth! It would have made quite entertaining listening if it hadn't been keeping us awake! Luckily after a while they just seemed to stop talking which must of signified them passing out. Laura couldn't really sleep after that so headed out to catch the sunrise... She snuck downstairs camera in hand... Past the drowsy guy smoking a joint and out into the early morning light. She got as far as the beach when she realised the memory card was still in the room.... On returning she noticed the sun was rising behind the buildings so just have up and fell back into bed.

We both got back to sleep and woke to the sun beaming through our mesh window. It was 8:30am and myself feeling energetic decided I would make the walk to town leaving Laura to rest who had a mildly upset stomach and was feeling pooped. I set out and headed down Otres Beach and had to climb over the hill at the end to get to the next beach. I kept walking and eventually reached the town about one hour later..... quite a walk. By this point it was getting hotter but luckily bearable. I found my goal which was the ATM and got the cash we needed before stocking up on provisions from a nearby supermarket. Obviously then came the long walk back which I turned into a power walk!

On arriving back to our beach, I predictably found Laura sunbathing on one of the loungers. I told her about my little rambling adventure and I went to take a much needed shower. The early afternoon mainly consisted of relaxing and not believing how much this American chap looked just like my friend Maz, really, really uncanny! Its so uncanny that every time we walked past him and he doesn't say hello we are really put out.

At about 2pm we decided to make the walk down to the north end of the beach for hopefully, cheap food and beer. We got a couple of beers after searching at a bar occupied with men who looked like they had stepped out of the classic Keanu Reeves movie 'Point Break', if you can imagine that. A couple of doors down was a rather ramshackle looking restaurant which sold all you can eat Indian curry. We both had that, "we could regret this tomorrow" thought but we decided to take a punt! The three curries of chicken, vegetable and dal came out in small bowls accompanied with rice and a naan. We quickly learnt that all the curries had the same sauce (not quite like India standards!!) On top of this the curries were super hot and the after burn was really intense, I couldn't even feel my lips. Whilst eating we spotted on the menu board "a joint $1.50" or mushroom (magic) cakes and weed cakes on sale.... we both thought that wasn't a very subtle way to advertise selling cannabis. But people, looking stoned already, were coming to the bar and paying for quite large joints so was obviously working. to be honest I don't think there is much police presence in this area anyway!! Moving on, just before our meal arrived a young chap who was buying more beers got talking to us about travelling and asked us to join them once we had eaten. We took him up on this offer and headed over mouths still burning from the curry!

The couple introduced themselves as Hamish and Milly, who were living in Cornwall and had been on the road since November like us. There was another random American chap with them, who Hamish explained was very strange and likely an alcoholic, I explained that we normally attract them types! Unfortunately for him he had lost his room key which we aided the search but to no avail. After a long chat about travel, us two couples headed to another bar for 50 cent beer which was initially flat, making it a not so happy hour!! As the talking and drinking carried on, darkness descended and we realised we would have to get a tuk tuk back. We arranged with Hamish and Milly for them to stay up our end of the beach tomorrow night for open mic night at our hostel. We then suggested that we all head down to town for a couple of nights for a proper experience of Sihanoukville nightlife! We let them go off and have dinner as at this point it was spitting with rain and me and Laura made the very strange decision of walking back down the beach in the dark alone...

We walked back down the beach with only the moonlight showing us the way. It was quite eerie with just the sound of the waves and having to pass this house where dogs started barking at us. It was actually quite scary and we really upped the pace willing the lights of the bars of our resort to get closer. Luckily we had survived the gauntlet and at this point it was raining quite hard. Soaked and a little out of breath we ordered a beer from a bar close to our hostel and basically interrupted a couple but I don't think they minded. The guy owned an Indian in town and was happy to advertise a bit. After the beer, we headed back to the hostel and chilled out and watched the heavy rain as it leaked through gaps in the roof. We were hoping for a good night sleep, as tomorrow with the open mic night, not much sleep will be on offer....