Yesterday was pretty much the most relaxed and stress free I have been in my entire life! I had 12 hours of deep blissful sleep and woke up slowly to the sound of waves on the beach. The day was totally my own and I just did what ever I felt like when ever I felt like it. I took a long walk down the beach, which was more or less empty except for the tracks the nesting turtles made the night before. I guess I walked about 3 miles or so just with my feet in the ocean and the sun on my shoulders. It clouded over for a little while so I read my book sat on the top of the steps to the sand. It got hot really quickly and I did the ... read more

Good morning from a still quite dark outside Fort Lauderdale! I'd originally planned to write this blog last night but sleep got the better of me and I ended up with an iPad to the face So I thought it would be best to leave the blogging until today. I'm feeling a little more human than I was when I got here last night! Yesterday felt like an exceptionally long day, even though I've had much longer journeys (the epic train journey of doom in Vietnam for example). I flew with American Airlines, who I was quite sure I hadn't flown with before. I maintained that illusion until I got on what pretty much amounted to a sopwith camel (google it!) and it all came flooding back to me. The aircraft had a 2, 3, 2 ... read more

Was an absolute treat this morning to wake up when we woke up and gently stroll the breakfast. (By stroll I mean walk a little bit to the cable car then wait 10 minutes for it to arrive then get lost looking for the restaurant) it was pouring with rain but we weren't that bothered to be honest. Breakfast was amazing and Eireann got both of our monies worth - that girl loves breakfasts!! We returned to the room and finally got a chance to wash our clothes and luckily the sky was brightening so We'd have a chance to dry them too. We changed into our swimming stuff and walked about 50yards to the beach, picked a couple of deck chairs an just relaxed! I went into the sea and had a good swim. The ... read more

The wonderful little hotel organised a taxi to pick us up at 7am so that we could be at the border by around 9am - a good hour before the tour buses started to pull up in their droves! They even offered to open the kitchen up 30 minutes early so we could have a proper breakfast before our long journey. We sat down at 6:30 on the dot and we were greatest by staff in pyjamas scurrying off to get ready. Then we waited and lovely camp man brought us menus, took our order and then brought mine out 40 minutes later. Eireann (who turns into a gremlin if not fed promptly) waited another 10 minutes before being presented with a plate of chicken noodles. We had no time to correct the mistake as our ... read more

Another very early Cambodian start we boarded a bus for the north. We bought our tickets yesterday from the hotel and were preallocated seats 10a and 10b.... Turns out that 10a and 10b are on the very back row and it was like being on a boat on rough seas. The road between siem reap and Phnom Penh was only partially paved and our driver had only one speed... Super speed!! We had two stops which totalled about an hour in time and still made the journey in about an hour less than we should have! Cambodia is very different to Vietnam. It's so very flat and very agricultural. The majority of the countryside we drove through (at great speed) was rice paddies. The houses are all up on stilts although I'm not sure why as ... read more