Happy birthday to me!! 24 today..getting old and I don't like it :( I was woken up this morning to a coffee made by Nath and I just relaxed in bed and woke myself up! At 8am we skyped mum and dad which was lovely! Whilst we were Skyping there was a knock on the door and mum heard it and said answer it- which was a bit strange! I answered the door and the woman manager was there, she first acted like she just wanted to make sure we were up and then she said come on, and all the staff came in the room and sang happy birthday to me! They gave me a bottle of prosecco, which they said was from my mum and dad, some flowers, a card and one of the staff had made me a handmade birthday cake. Mum and dad were still on Skype an could hear everything. The lady who made the cake, also showed them the cake. It was all so brilliant!! Couldn't believe it and didn't expect it all!! I was so shocked!! I just stood there in my pjs thanking them!
We spoke to mum and dad on Skype for an hour and toasted to my birthday with them. They also had a bottle of prosecco too which was lovely! Couldn't believe everything that they had done and they had contacted the hotel to make sure I had a lovely birthday! Still doing this for me at the other side of the world!! It was just so nice beyond words and made my birthday so special!! We tried the cake too and it was so yummy and soft! It was a sponge cake that was decorated with what looked like icing, but it was so soft and creamy, we didn't know what it was but it was gorgeous!
After Skype (after drinking a lot of the bottle) we headed down for our first buffet breakfast! Just what we needed!! It had bacon, sausages, toast, ham, cheese, pastries, noodles, rice, an egg cooking station where you could ask for what you wanted- it was fab!! We filled up as much as we could, which didn't take long at all as we weren't used to this!! All the staff were lovely again, as usual and they all knew it was my birthday.
We had our massage booked for 10.30 so headed down to this after. When we got there, there were two women who asked us to sit down and take off our shoes. They brought a big bowl of water out and washed our feet, which I found so strange somebody washing my own feet! They then showed us to a room and told us to get undressed. We didn't have a clue what we were suppose to do, so we just stood there looking gormless. When she came back in she checked what massage we wanted, oil or body- we wanted body- and she then asked us to move to a different room and put these pj looking clothes on. I think they thought we wanted oil at first!
We got changed and had to lay down on a comfy mat on the floor with a pillow. The massage lasted an hour and they massaged, bent, twisted, clicked parts of my body I didn't even know did that! It was brilliant! If me and Nath caught each other's eyes though we just started laughing so we couldn't look at each other! When it had finished, Nath told me what his was like, and it was a bit different to mine! She seemed to be a bit rougher with him and even stuck her foot pretty much in his groin to stretch and pull his leg! Haha!! It was funny but did feel relaxed afterwards! Nath thought it was the weirdest thing he had ever done!
We spent the rest of the day at the swimming pool, relaxing, having some beer and we had some lunch by the pool. The pool was freezing but once you were in it was nice. It had waterfall like features in, which were nice. We kept getting in to cool ourselves and then relaxing in the sun. The sun went behind the hotel about 4 o'clock and everything was in the shade then so we left the pool for the day, went and got some drink from the shop and got ready back at the room. When we got back to the room, the staff had been in again and the whole bed was decorated with red rose petals that said Rachel Ryan in a love heart and then Happy Birthday underneath! They just kept shocking us all throughout the day- they were just so lovely!
We went down for dinner at half 7 and were showed to our table at the front overlooking the pool and the stage where the dancers would be. The dinner was amazing! We didn't know what to expect as we hadn't had Khmer food yet but it was all so nice. We had a starter, a homemade soup, a curry, some vodka sorbet and a Khmer dessert. We were so surprised at how lovely all the food was- we ate every last bit! Whilst we were eating dinner and having some drinks, there was a traditional Khmer dancing show on which was great. At the end, the hotel gave us flowers to go and present to one of the women as a sign of respect.
At the end of the show we asked for the bill for our drinks as the food was free with our voucher. The waiter told us we did not have to pay for anything and the drinks were a gift from the hotel. We tried to protest but it didn't work- so we left a tip that would cover the drinks! We couldn't believe it after everything they had already done!
We headed out for the rest of the night until about half 3 in the morning. We walked up to pub street and found a nightclub, that you wouldn't know was there during the day- everything looked completely different on a night it was strange! We stayed in the club for the rest of the night and had a lot of drinks, played some pool and had a boogie! We were asked on two separate occasions to move tables so that the locals could sit down, which I think was pretty common here! We had such a good night anyway and had a dance with some Khmer people who were lovely. The club was a great end to a great birthday!! Didn't expect to have a birthday like this- the best I have had!!