Everything Happens For A Reason Relieved to have left the nightmare of Ko Pha-Ngan behind us, we quickly settled into what we had come south for... lazing on the beach during the day, drinks and chillout time at night... After settling in to our resort, Ark Bar and feasting on massive burgers for lunch in the Ark Bar restaurant with sand between our toes, we decided to walk off the burgers and headed up Chaweng Beach to see what was on offer in Ko Samui... It was roasting hot so we didnt walk too far before heading inland to Beach Road and looping back to the resort. My initial thoughts on Samui were 'wow'! Its very much what I imagine Phuket would have been 20 years ago. Quaint little smelly streets, plenty of touristy shopping ... read more

Our day with Tong started bright and early…. And another amazing day of Tong’s hospitality did not disappoint… Tong picked us up at 6.30sm sharp and had a driver with her since she had been up all night watching the World Cup Final! How she still had the energy to amuse us all day is beyond me! Lol We had the best VIP van with a massive tv/dvd player, esky in the back with beers and cold drinks, rotating/reclinable seats and ice cold air conditioning. Making Merit For My Next Life First stop was to make merit with the monks nearby. Thai’s believe that by feeding the monks each morning, it gives you ‘merit’ for your next life. Making merit involves buying food sets from the local vendor and giving to the Monks as they wander ... read more

So now that all the serious stuff has been blogged about, its time to get back to Reety's adventures! The mayhem that is me! For all those that like to read these on the companies time, be assured there will be no tears (unless of laughter), I wont mention any names Lynn... This blog skips back a little to leaving Battambang on the bus... we were originally going to book a private taxi through the hotel but we were quoted $45USD so decided the local $4.25USD bus was a better option! We jumped on and got the back seat. Ah bliss.... 5 seats between the 3 of us... until some random dude just came up, stared at me sitting near the window.. I got the hint he wanted that seat.. so grumpily I moved over and ... read more

Arriving in Battambang at lunch time dirty, hungover and sweaty we headed straight for our rooms for showers. We booked a hotel called Khemera 1 that had been recommended by Tara from Cambodian Childrens Trust (CCT). For $15 per room a night we had a huge room in a large hotel with a swimming pool, airconditioning, satellite tv and the rest of the modern cons you would expect in a good hotel.... Bargain!! Once we were showered and feeling semi human we caught a tuktuk to the city centre. Battambang is the 2nd largest city in Cambodia.. and I love it! Great place... not as touristy as the rest of SE Asia, but Tara assures me that it is catching up! We had lunch at a place called "White Rose" which comes recommended by everyone... we ... read more

Would you even be surprised that Day 1 consisted of Cocktails, Cocktails and more cocktails!!! Well we have hit the ground running well and truly… leaving on a 7 pm flight from Adelaide we landed in Melbourne and headed straight for the bar… a few champagnes later we were off… we were surprisingly the 2nd last people in a very small queue which we thought was strange as it was only about 11pm and our flight wasn’t due to take off until almost 1am… but when we got to the counter the lady told us that our flight was already boarding! We did the usual immigration thing and then started heading to our gate… wow we certainly aint in Kansas anymore Dorothy! The airport was huge and we only realised we were completely heading the wrong ... read more