After the bustle of Phnom Phen, we headed down the coast by local bus to Cambodia's top up and coming beachside resort, Sihanoukville! The local bus trip was again one of those life and death moments being hurled about whilst the driver beeped his horn every 10 seconds at everything and anything that moved......at one point he must have been telling the TARMAC he was there as there was nothing in site for miles....horns are all the rage over here!! The scenery on route was again quite remote, just small shacks of farming villages and pretty flat, dry land but as we got nearer the south the tropical lushness of the national parks started to develop...

 

On arriving to the mayhem of the local town we were bombarded by the usual moto's, and after our tuk tuk experience we were pretty dubious about going on one but what the hell eh! The usual scam happened, we say take us to 'this hotel' and we miracously end up at another 'half the price, cheap for you!' hotel, to which we got off and walked whilst our moto drivers hounded us alongside!! We made it down to Serendipity beach which was pretty busy with tourists but it still had the laid back charm of bungalow huts, white sand and turquoise water so didn't dissapoint..

 

Accomodation wasn't as cheap and pretty full so we ended up treating ourselves and found a sweet place called Tranquility which ended up being run by a UK family from the North, Huddersfield of all places!! They had sold up 8 weeks before, bought the place in Cambodia as a retirement present (BIG hint hint mum/Ian!!) and what a life eh, right on the beach! Their son was with them and in just 6 weeks is now engaged to a Vietnamese girl and getting married in a week....not sure if the mum was best pleased!

 

That evening we walked the full length of the 2km white beach and found the most wicked and chilled beach cafe playing jazz music! It was definately a moment to remember, away from the tourists, watching the sun set with a beer to Louis Armstrong (are we showing our age or what!).. definately a place we will come back to for sure!



During the rest of our final time in Cambodia, we got a long boat out to Bamboo island which was a pretty deserted isle with just bungalow huts, where we swam, slept and sun bathed! It was beautiful..




The next day back on the mainland, we hired a motorbike so we could go out to Ream National Park.....the 14km journey as described in the Lonely planet was at least 50km round trip so bums were pretty sore to say the least on the 125cc moped! At the National Park we had a guide with us and trekked through the forest to the largest waterfall...needless to say at this time of year it had a puddle in it!! It was beautiful still and the national park was set within a beautiful remote bay area so we had our first experience of a beach in Asia with absolutely noone on it....perfect!  



Our day was going well until we got back on the bike and yes...another flat tyre! Memories of Thailand started to come back..... Fortunately our guide took us to his friend(!!) who fixed it for us thank god as noone in the small village spoke any english so that would have been tough and not sure if Ads had his childhood puncture repair kit on him at the time!

 

We then headed back and about 1km out of town(thankfully it wasn't in the middle of nowhere!) the bike swerved and yes we had a back flat again..... we pushed the bike the distance, with the cambodians all pointing in the direction of a garage (well hut with aguy in it) thankfully and a boy of about 10 fixed the flat.......it wasgreat to watch the old method of chalk, water in a bowl and local mini fire to seal! Back on the bike and 5 minutes later, same again and the back was flat again! 



Thankfully another hut and a lad of 16 this time fixed two punctures which made it puncture number 4.......20 minutes through town and yes another flat, NUMBER 5! This one we were thankful off as just as we stopped the bike, two motorbikes crashed in front of us!!! I don't think accidents and us go hand in hand somehow....... again both looked pretty bad but STILL got back on their bikes and slowly road off, crazy or what! At our next garage we needed a new innertube so all in all it had cost us more than it cost us to hire the bike in punctures/tubes!!! Plus we had missed the sunset at the Jazz Bar (although I expect a slobbering dog would have greeted us again!) so the day ended quite wearily but was still FAB as our last in Cambodia......