Hello all, apologies for the long delay in updating this blog. We have just returned from spending a few days in Kep, an extremely quiet seaside town with little to do but admire the lovely view of the ocean and watch butterflies dancing around the greenery. Two of our nights were spent on Koh Tonsay, a nearby small isalnd. We had a ridiculously relaxing couple of days, although it was pretty basic. Tourism is quite new to the island and there were less than 20 people sleeping there at night.

We arrived by boat to a small beach with a few shacks and 'bungalows'. After a bit of gesturing we managed to communicate that we wanted to stay in one of these bungalows and were shown to a small room on stilts, containing a mattress and a mosquito net. There were no windows and the door closing mechanism was a rusty bit of wire which left a gap between the door and the frame that even Rick Waller could fit through. Behind the string of bungalows were a couple of basic toilets and a jug of water which served as the shower. All meals on the island consisted of either crab or fried rice. We gave the local people some amusement by ordering crab and having no idea how to get into it when it arrived (even 2 year olds who live on the island can do this), until a small team of people came to help us.

It was really lovely to stay somewhere with no electricity for a few days, night was completely silent until about 2am when the dreaded cockerels started up their caterwauling. Cockerells were not the only wildlife on this tiny island. We were surrounded by ducks, cats, dogs, cows, goats, piglets, chickens and lots of other animals, so it was a bit like a farmyard. Jon woke me up on the first night to check that he wasn't dreaming because he could see 3 chickens in our room (he wasn't, they were really there). The cats and dogs seemed to think they were the same species and spent their time grooming each other, very cute. I did not find the small present at the end of our bed one night quite as cute.

Our highlight for the trip was swimming in the sea at night and seeing lots of phosphoresence glowing under the water as we moved. Magical. We would definitely reccommend a trip to the island for anyone wanting to escape and kick back for a few days. It's certainly a world away from the development on Thailands beaches.

We are now on our way to Laos, which is turning out to be a very long trip, partially due to the fact that many of the roads are dirt tracks. The other reason is that Cambodian time runs a little differently. This morning no-one batted an eyelid when the bus was over an hour late, however I spent my time anxiously eyeballing the road until it finally appeared. Will have to get used to the laid back approach to waiting for a bus.