So the last you heard we were going to help build a house. We woke up early to cycle the 3-4 mile to the site just past the school we had been to the day before. On arriving at the sight we noticed that there was a house still standing and we had actually had to demolish the existing house so the locals could build the new house. We started by clearing the house of the family's belongings. Considering that this was a family of five you would think that they would have quite a bit of stuff to shift. We were shocked to find that all they owned were some pans, a couple of fishing rods made from bamboo and two large containers for carrying drinking water. We moved the family's belongings over to a neighboring house where the family would be staying until the new house had been built and after is when the fun begins. We were asked to take down the walls that were weaved palm in sections as they were tied and pinned to the wooden frame of the house. Whilst doing this Spiders, Cockroaches, Beetles and even Scorpions were running everywhere as we disturbed their hiding places. We then had to sort out the panels of weaved palm into piles that could be used again and those that were too old and worn to be thrown away.

I was then handed an axe and asked to chop all the tiers of the palm weave that were secured to the roof beams. This was a hard job as there was a lot more weave placed on the roof that had been on the walls and this could only be taken down in large sections. By this stage we were both covered in everything from dust to bits of palm weave that had stuck fast to our sweaty skin. Once all the weave had been taken down and sorted into the relevant piles, we had to make a start on the wooden frame of the house. After taking down beams one by one we were left with the four main beams of the actual house. This was our job down for the day as we then had to let the local builders take over to ensue that the new frame of the house was placed in the ground correctly and also that the house frame was put up correctly. So a matter of fact we did not help to build the house but helped to take one down to allow the locals to then build a house that the family deserved and needed. We got back on our trusty bikes and took a slow ride back to our digs with only one thing on our minds, a long cold shower.

For the rest of the day we pretty much lazed around enjoying the sunshine and as we done this we got talking to a new arrival at our digs called Ian Maclaren. After chatting for a while we got onto the subject as to what we do for jobs, and it turns out he is a session musician (bass player) and played on Massive Attacks Mazzanine album and worked with Spiritulized to name a few. He also told me that the guy that sings on the song Angel is an African prince with 28 wives and 72 children. Busy guy! As the night went on we carried on drinking and chatting and all of a sudden a guitar appeared from somewhere, we ended up having a little jam and with our drunken confidence decided to do a song at the open mic night the following night, which just so happened to also be my birthday!

Waking the next day to hear Ashleigh sing "Happy Birthday honey" put a smile right on my face! On one of our bike rides the previous day she went into the local book shop to buy me a little something for my birthday while I waited outside. On opening these I found she had bought me two books, one about S-21 and the Khmer Rouge and the other Star Wars: Heir to the Empire which I am totally loving, even though I loo0k like a right nerd sitting everywhere reading it. I also had some cards to open that I was given before I left home and to keep to open on my birthday. So Thanks Da, Ma and Ray, Andy, Ernie and Marg because these cards made me not feel so far away from home and actually like my birthday and not just another day travelling. We pretty much sat about for the most of the day drinking and eating and looking forward to the evenings activities. The place started to get busy around 7pm and as I was eating my Kampot peppered Lok Lak (I will come back to this in a bit) Ashleigh slinked off and emerged a few minutes later carrying a large birthday cake with equally large 27 candles sticking out of the top. To have a room full of strangers and friends I had made throughout the week sing Happy Birthday to you is quite humbling. So after eating my dinner I cut up the cake and shared it through out the whole bar. As the night went on the open mic night started and the drinks were flowing and after a while I was summoned to the stage by Ian. The night before we jammed through People are Strange by the Doors and thought we would give it a go. Ian played a finger picked bluesy version of the song which I sang over the top of. It felt like we only played the song for about 30 seconds, but obviously I had been playing it for a lot longer than this. We finished the song and the place went up, I got off the stage to another rendition of Happy Birthday, this time even louder. The night went on and we drank and danced our night into the early early hours of the morning. Huge the owner has kindly put the live recorded version of our song onto a cd for me so I am quite looking forward to listening to see how it actually sounded.

The next day there is not really much to report as we spent most of the day in bed after celebrating my birthday a little too much! So instead I will talk about the Beef Lok Lak. This is a dish for any meat lover, and Peter Allan you will need to look up the recipe and give it a try as it is right up your street! Its simply think strips of filet beef steak with vast quantities of Kampot pepper and about 3 cloves of garlic. There is also something else that I just cannot put my finger on aswel. I think it may be lime juice. I had this dish 3 nights in a row, but that is nothing compared to the Lok Lak Queen - Marcela! A girl from Chile that we met early on in the week, and she had this dish at least once a day for the whole week she was staying there. She actually said to me "If I could I would take a Lok Lak shower…….we should take a Lok Lak shower together" and the funny thing is she wasn't even joking!

The following day we packed our bags and with heavy hearts had to say goodbye to Bodhi Villa. Its one place that is going to take a long time to forget, but we know that one day we will definitely be back, Its been so hard moving on from there but that is what travelling is all about. Before leaving Bodhi Villa the bar man Parrot (Lego man) made me drink my last free shot of Tequila before lunch time, that was a bit of a choir but how could I say no! We boarded our trusty Tuk-Tuk that took us to the bus that would bring us to Kep. After spending an hour on the bus we were dropped off outside our new digs Vanna Bungalows around 1.30pm. When I say we were dropped off outside our digs we were dropped off at the sign and still had to make the 500 metre trek up hill with our backpacks on our backs in the sticky muggy heat. The view from our little bungalow are absolutely amazing looking out to the Gulf of Thailand sea. On our porch aswel we have a hammock which we are both over the moon about as its our first hammock we have had since our travels began. After dropping our bags off as per usual we got out and about and had a walk around our surroundings to find our feet around Kep. We took a walk down to the local crab market that was bustling with activity. The smell of salty seafood was quite over powering aswel. We continued our walk down to Kep beach and the amount of crab shells along the pavement as you are walking is outstanding! As crab in Kep go hand in hand and you can buy a bag of little crab for as little as a few dollars. Whilst walking down to Kep beach we walked past a family of monkeys sat on the wall, but unfortunately we did not have our camera with us to capture the cheeky little chaps. Later on we returned to the Crab Market to eat at one of the local seafood restaurants, and we both ordered prawn dishes. The prawns over here are more like lobster tails, im sure they must feed them steroids or something. But what ever it is they are delicious either way.

Today we have visited a place called Veranda which is next to our digs. It is a spectacular building made from stone and timber. If you spend over $5 you can use the pool, which we did. The place seemed great however seemed to be full of rich business men and people who were there to holidays for a few weeks or so. It was not cheap either, and we weren't just sweating with the heat but also the prices of the drinks and food! It was great to use the pool for a few hours, but we soon got itchy feet as it was not really our kind of scene around here, in all honesty we were both a little bored. We are finding Kep a lovely place but rather expensive to go with it. It seems Kep has a bit of wealth behind it which has a knock on effect on the prices of drinks/food. So tonight we are going to chill out in our little bungalow, swinging in our hammock and drinking a bottle of wine that Ashleigh picked up from a shop for $4. Tomorrow we have arranged a trip to visit Koh Tunsay (Rabbit Island) which should be great as we have heard so many things about this island being a little tropical paradise. We plan to stay on the island for a night and then move on to Kompong Cham the following day.

Love Peter and Ashleigh X