Woke up in the Magic Sponge, a great hotel and cheapest room we have stayed in yet. We decided to explore Kampot by bike, and with my map in hand (I'm getting rather good at cycling and map reading at the same time) we set off. Kampot is like a French colonial town, and everything seems very traditional here. It was nice to see a market whose purpose it was for the locals to get their food from, even if the raw meat smell hanging is starting to turn our stomachs, and not just touristy souvenirs. We stopped at a place called the epic arts cafe, a small cafe which is run by deaf people and is a complete experience. You order your food or drink using a tick menu (the chocolate brownies were incredible) and there is an art gallery upstairs that you can visit. Being at this Cafe made us even more disappointed that we had to skip our volunteering stage of this trip but also more determined to do something more when I get home. We continued with our exploring and ended up taking a 'Morgane's mystery tour' (this is where I think I know the way and we get a bit lost) Que to me leading us through massive puddles and Carly almost falling off and having to drag her bike out of the mud...whoops! Tonight we decided to check out the open mic night ran by the hostel owner (who we have decided is definitely a serial killer). where the musical interludes of Phantom of the Opera were not to be missed and Carly proved to be a dab hand at playing the tambourine...! At 2am, we decided it would be a good idea, along with Jason our new scottish friend, and Adi, the italian bar tender to play crazy golf- another random aspect of this hotel owners visions of a great hostel. We were sure however that its sole purpose was to house the dead bodies...After the game, we were on the look out for a new place to drink so played a game that we often see the locals playing of 'how many people can we fit on a motorbike?' (answer in this case was 4) and headed to an ozzi run bar where we were offered Kampots speciality of a 'pepper shot'. My mouth is still on fire. Towards the end of the night, we started to get a bit peckish and the bar owner George pulled round his motorbike and told me and carly there was something we needed to see. George took us round the corner to a bakery, that at 4am had just started work. The guys inside were barefoot and making bread in huge wood fire ovens. Very random but an amazing sight. We bought our baguettes and at 5am we walked home. Kampit was supposed to be our chill out place!!

17th October- Shinoukville

Began our day being shoehorned into a mini van for the 2 hour journey to Shinoukville. needless to say our hangovers were in full force. On arrival to Shinoukville, our impressions were both the same... definitely the magaluf of Cambodia. Very glad we are only here for one night then heading to Koh Rong tomorrow!

18th- October- Koh Rong

Woke up at 6am- Carly was not amused, the boat journey to Koh Rong was 2 hours long and spent mostly asleep but we awoke to what we can only describe as the most idylic island place we have visited yet. We'll just ignore the fact that an American woman was murdered here just a month ago... Our accomodation was a wooden shack with a bed and a mosquito net right on the beach would have been perfect if it wasnt for the rats...

19th-22nd October

Rosie, Storm and James have arrived from the mainland today along with Ben and the gang that we were travelling with through Vietnam. Today the 9 of us hired a boat and went snorkling and swimming on countless secluded beaches. This year off work is going well! Tonight as it is a full moon, we decided to have our very own Full moon Party. Not quite within the tradition of a 'proper full moon party' but equally as much fun. Local rum, sprite and uno- what else do we need? The night ended with a midnight dip in the sea to find the famour neon plankton. The beach was completely lit up by the moon, it was incredible. Disappointingly, it also made the plankton very hard to spot. Carly 'I'm a sea urchin' was happy enough in the sea though and getting her out at 2am proved to be a challenge...!

We spent the next few days on Koh Rong with early morning swims and relaxing in the sun. It seems that rainy season is finally coming towards an end and boy are we glad! We had spent the first 6 weeks of our trip carrying round cheap ponchos in our bags and wading through the streets with no shoes on!

On our last morning we held a farewell breakfast with Storm and James who will be catching up with us when we hit south Thailand. Rosie, Carly and I jumped back on the boat towards Otres Beach for our night bus up to more culture and amazing Cambodian sights, Siem Reap.