So today was defiantly going to be our last in Sihanoukville. We decided it was now time to move on and explore some more of Cambodia. A lot of people staying there have been there for weeks and we both agreed there comes a point where you have to get new experiences.

The morning was quite muggy and I woke before Laura and managed to book our exit flights from Myanmar and get other admin stuff done. Once Laura was up I ordered a pot of tea which we drank on our terrace out front. The chap from Margate who we bumped into last night appeared from next door. He was off on an island trip today to do one of his favourite past times, snorkelling. We wished him well and it was time to pack up our gear ready for the 12pm check out. As usual the bags felt heavier, we said our goodbyes to the very friendly owner and headed down to our old haunt, Footprints, where we would catch our bus later.

We grabbed a couple of sun loungers from outside Sam's bar and we chilled out for the morning engrossed in novels. At lunchtime we decided for our old favourite, rice and eggs with sauces! The afternoon eventually brought on the inevitable urge for a cold beer which proved too great to resist. Cody, the drunk man from last night, we learned, had been drinking beer again since before 9am, I'd hate to be his liver! By the mid-afternoon time he was pretty much hammered as usual.

It was quite an overcast afternoon which always seemed to threaten rain but it never materialised. Laura informed me of the role of this quite posh looking, light blue coloured house across the way. I had noticed it before but assumed it was residential. Laura had thought it funny to be quite an elaborate, colonial looking building but to have no windows?! Apparently, its role is to attract birds inside with music which is constantly playing. They people then collect the bird saliva which are considered very valuable (over a thousand dollars a kilo)and used for delicacy known as birds nest soup. We had seen a similar operation in Maya bay in Thailand where they would use bamboo scaffolding to climb the precarious and slippery caves to reach the nests up high. This was quite controversial how you have Cambodians struggling to live in huts whilst birds can be housed in a mansion, pretty crazy?

As the afternoon strolled on a lady selling noodles from two pots balanced over her shoulder by a pole, was selling to the local ladies from the bar. Interested, I bought some noodles which turned out to be covered in a green curry type sauce. It was actually very tasty but the girls looked at me like, 'I can't believe a westerner has actually bought it and eating it'. This makes me quite sad, because the food is amazing and incredibly cheap. I just wish more of the westerners here were a bit more open minded and think just because its their local food, it's not going to kill you! I thanked the lady and explained how good the food was which was demonstrated by a completely clean bowl, she looked genuinely humbled!

The overnight bus ride was looming at 7pm so we had to make sure we filled up on food and ordered the last supper of stir fry, rice and eggs! We said goodbye to Rory, Sam and rest of the gang and headed over to grab our bags to catch our tuk tuk to the bus station. The driver was on cue and luckily had only one other person to share the ride with us. She was one of the volunteer staff from Footprints who was now crossing the border to Vietnam. It made me and Laura think of volunteering for lodgings and food as could be a rewarding experience and a potentially good money saver. We disembarked at the coach office and waited until we were called onto the bus. On arriving the bus was a seemingly normal looking coach with one big difference, sleeper seats! Basically they looked like reclining sun loungers, two together, stacked in two rows down each side of the bus. It was obvious that both being quite tall, it wasn't going to be particularly comfortable. On the plus side there was a toilet, air conditioning and wi-FI, so not all bad. On setting off the next hour involved working out the best position for comfort which we'll let you know how we got on in tomorrow's entry!................