We timed our arrival in Sihnoukville very poorly, not only were there millions of young Aussies on holiday but it also happened to be Chinese New Year. Consequently every room in the whole resort was booked out. James had booked us in for two nights at Otres Beach, the quieter end of the beach. Unfortunately it wasn't the nicest of rooms and we had to pay a lot of money for the privilege. We were so disappointed at first as we had thought we had treated ourselves but as we watched over 40 people being turned away we realised we were lucky to have a room. Otres beach was nice but it was so busy during this period. We did time it for the Saturday market, which turned out to be more like a mini music festival, very cool and a lot of fun. There was a lot of urming and arghing about what we were going to do next, we wanted to stay at the beach for a few more days but were not happy with where we were staying. Nowhere let you book in advance and with more people then beds we decided we needed to move on.

Some of the people we met in Kampot had booked places on an isolated beach on the island of Koh Rong Samloem. I decided we would go over after we had booked one night in a bungalow and maybe two more nights in a tent. The morning was a massive rush as we tried to get packed up, pay, book a bus for our return and catch the morning boat. The boat left earlier than planned so we missed that one but met up with Kelly and Vivienne (Kampot) for lunch. The boat ride was calm and fast so we got to the island with plenty of time. Our accommodation was on the other side of the island so James and I felt like intrepid explorers trying to navigate our way through the jungle, over a hill and finally found our hostel. The beach we were on was quiet and nice and again there were some interesting and friendly people for us to chat to. The other side of the island (where the boat dropped us) was beautiful, it was like something out of a bounty advert and we began promoting the walk to the other guests telling them they just had to see it! We had lunch at Lazy Beach, an even further walk to a more upmarket resort. We imagine it is what our bungalows will look with some work in the future.

Our time here was mainly spent walking to and from the different beaches, talking to the other guests and if you are James jumping into the sea from the jetty. If we hadn't have booked our bus to Siam Reap we would have liked to have stayed for one more night but those temples were calling so we got the slow boat back to Sihnoukville and onto the sleeper bus to the old Khmer capital.