Have spent the last 4 days or so in Sihanoukville on the south coast of Vietnam. Found a nice little bungalow at a place called GST (not actually sure what is stands for, if anything).

Arrived in Sihanoukville at about 5:30 in the evening on a bus from Phnom Penh, I think it was the night Australia was playing in the world cup. Got a bottle of vodka from the supermarket and sat on our front porch playing cards and drinking some vodka. Pretty low-key night but waited up until 1:30am for the Australia game and found a bar that was open and sat to watch the game.

Got back to the bungalow about 3:00, left a little early because Australia was getting demolished, and went to bed. Woke up at some stage during the night with a massive stomach ache and had a nice little spew in the bathroom. Next day was feeling rough with numerous trips to the toilet. Haven't felt like that for ages.

Not sure if it was something I ate or drank or what because Derek, the guy I'm sharing a room with, had exactly the same as me all night and he was fine. He has been travelling for a few months though so maybe he was used to whatever got me. Anyway, felt average for the entire day but a solid nights sleep fixed me up.

The next day hired some bikes with a couple of English girls and took a ride to a more secluded beach (the main beach is pretty croweded with tourists and bars and there is rubbish in the water as well). So we pedal along having a great old time, stop off at a bar along the way for a coke; they only have one and it's not cold but we drink it anyway. A bit of a storm hits and we go for a swim in the rain which was quite nice. Then we continue on our way to find our little piece of paradise.

We find it! It's not really paradise, but it is the end of the road/beach so we get off and go for another dip. While we are only metres away from our bags, mine of which is in sight, the others were a bit hidden to shelter them from rain, the girls cameras and some money is taken from their bags. Was unbelievable, we think there must have been a trained monkey. But anyway it happened. Nothing of mine was stolen, thankfully. I will learn from their mistake and leave my bag in full sight from now on.

Today we went on a boat trip to an Island about an hour out of the Sihanoukville port. Was a pretty good day. It was a three level boat with a small restaurant on one level, a bar on the second and a top deck for sunbaking and the sort. Spent a bit of time up there on the way out and then did some snorkelling around a reef and a bit of jumping off the boat. I did a backflip of the top which was about 7 metres high.

We then made our way to a beach and went for a couple of walks, one up a river, the other into the jungle. The river walk was pretty good but the guide we had was very entertaining and knowledgeable so that added to it. Then on the way back did a bit more baking on the top deck while some of the others got a bit pissed at the bar.

Have put some photo's up of today but only a few would upload. Heading out tonight to see what a Khmer club is like. Hopefully will be good. Will let you know.