Koh chang

After the annoying journey we checked in. It wasn't the typical hotel. Basically a group of little huts facing the sea. They were very basic with no aircon and a mosquito net around the beds, it suited us fine.

On the first night we went to the market area closest to us. Since we were in the quietest part of the island there wasn't that much there. If we took a 10min tuktuk we'd arrive at the next beach along which had far more restaurants and bars. Walking down James was muttering to himself he wanted western food like a burger or steak and not fish. Sadly being a fishing village there was nothing but fish.

After eating we bought a couple of beers and went back to the huts where we found a couple of hammocks and small pier to walk out on so we could sit over the bay and drink our beer.

The second day we got up early because it got pretty hot in the hut and walked 15mins down to the closest beach. We walked along the beach and found some comfortable seats on the beach. It was pretty good as if you bought a drink from the bar they'd let you sit or lie on their stuff. We went back to the huts, got ready and went down for some more fish. The day after that was spent doing the same thing.

The third day we hired a moped and toured the island. There is only one long road on the island covering the outer edge so finally we couldn't get lost! The middle is made up of a tropical forest. The roads at the bottom of the island where we were didn't meet up so we only had one way to go. To get to the north of the island took over an hour. The roads were pretty crazy, the best way to describe them is as Top Gear roads but all the fellow road users seemed sensible. We visited some other beaches and waterfalls. Found somewhere else to eat where they served something else apart from fish. As it turned out we still had fish anyway.

That night James suffered his first bout of sickness. The poor guy was up all night being very ill. The next day James spent the day in bed and I went to explore the island on the moped, occasionally going back to take supplies to James. This was New Year's Eve. We were going to go to a beach party but James wasn't up for it. So at midnight we sat on the pier with some beer.

The last day on the island was spent on the beach. James had managed to eat the first thing for a while, we packed and got an early night for the long trip to Cambodia the next day.

We has organised another mini bus to pick us up. It didn't turn up on time so from our past experience we were nervous that it wouldn't. Luckily it did after half hour waiting.

It took 4 hours to get off the island. They had fully booked the minibus with no space for bags. Everyone on the bus was western and had a big backpack with them. Luckily we got some decent seats. A couple of Dutch guys weren't so lucky and had bags piled on top of them. It took another 3 hours to the border.

The border crossing wasn't anything like our pervious crossings. We got dropped off at a restaurant (I use the term restaurant loosely) gave a women some money and our passports. She returned them within 10mins with a Cambodian visa. We got on another minibus and went to the border. Going through the Thai exit was fine. There was a huge queue for the Cambodian side. Our guide (more like a fixer) said if we pay £3 each we'd avoid the queues. Everyone in our group agreed to pay. The fixer gathered all the passports and went off. He returned half hour later with them all stamped. No one checked the passport picture again or our faces. Very weird. Across the other side we were placed on a bus and waited for a couple of hours until it was full, I killed the time by talking to a crazy Australian guy. After another few hours we arrived in Siem Reap.

We got a real tuktuk (a motorbike pulling a trailer) and went to the hotel. There was some confusion at the hotel since the kid on reception couldn't speak English but our tuktuk driver helped us out a lot.