Day 34 of The Big Adventure, according to Sarah. 

We had set an alarm, because otherwise we’d sleep all day. So we woke up at 9 and had our cereals in bed whilst watching How To Train Your Dragon – cable tv is grrreat. 

We faffed around for a bit (Lauren loves a good faff) and then we went downstairs to see if they’d arrange a tuktuk for us. 

We’d done some research about other beaches in Sihanoukville and found that apparently Otres Beach was pretty nice – so that’s where we headed. The tuktuk drive was a little bumpy and took a good 20minutes to get there (it was quite far). When we arrived there were bamboo huts everywhere and rows of sunloungers. 

  
We made ourselves comfy on some front row loungers (why not?) and got ready for some serious tanning. 

   A few mandatory hawkers came up asking us if we wanted manicures/pedicures/threading but we were getting pretty tough (verging on rude) and they went away soon enough. 

Lauren went for a swim in the sea (perfect temperature and no jellyfish!) and when she came out she was ambushed by a group of Chinese tourists all begging to have a photo with her. They posed with their peace signs and said lots of thank you’s and motioned to Laurens body and gave a 👌🏼👌🏼 sign. She had clearly made quite an impression.

  
She lay back down and we continued our sunbathing. 

Now Lauren isn’t really one for lying still and since she’d finished her book, she got bored pretty quickly. So she told me she was going to explore what was further down the beach (which turned out to be more of the same really – resorts and sunloungers). 

I decided to take shade under one of the bamboo huts and read my book in a hammock. Whilst drinking a fresh baby coconut. 

   
 This really was bliss.

Lauren came back after an hour or two (I was starting to get worried) and we had some fries and fruit shakes to keep us going.

The wifi at this resort was pretty good and Lauren managed a quick Skype with Clark. 

The tuktuk man had said he’d come back to collect us at 4 so we carried on sunbathing until it was time to go. 

We wandered back to the car park and sure enough, there he was waiting for us. 

We got in and watched the empty wasteland go past us as we ‘sped’ home. 

We went straight up to our room and had our showers. 

When I came out of mine I found Lauren lying on the floor on her towel. ‘What on earth are you doing?’ 

‘Exercise’

She continued with her workout while I dried my hair. Bravo her. 

Then we made our favourite cheese and marmite sandwhiches and sat and watched another film on tv (while we’re young – a questionable film with Ben Stiller). 

  
Perhaps not the most cultural part of our trip, but we were both aware we had a big month ahead of us; with Parker and Freya arriving and heading to Vietnam.  

We had a few Oreos for dessert and decided that tomorrow we’d change to a different hostel that was closer to the pier where the boats to the islands left from. We’d seen that the islands just off the coast from here were highly recommended but when we’d looked at accommodation actually on the islands, it all seemed very overpriced for what you actually got. So we thought we’d just stay on the mainland and do day trips across hence the need for the pier. 

We found a hostel a 10 minute walk away that was apparently 3 stars so we booked ourselves into that one. Then we settled in for our last night at Small Hotel.