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Now THIS is the life!

Some mornings I wake up wondering what the hell we're doing so far away from home, spending all our savings, and dedicating way too much time seeking out decent hostels or bumping around on awful buses.

But then we find ourselves on a beach like this and remember exactly why we're here. The past week has been spent chilling out in Sihanoukville in the south of Cambodia, eating fresh seafood, drinking iced coffees and cold beers, lazing around in awesome swinging satellite chairs and playing in the sea:

It wasn't all fun and games, as I did manage to get a jellyfish sting one afternoon. Nothing too serious, just a minor sting from when I must've brushed past a tentacle, but it bloody hurt - half an hour later it felt like i was still being stung, and I had a bunch of raised bumps trailing across my upper arm in a kind of 'S' shape. Our hotel gave me some vinegar to dab on it, which helped a bit but it was still quite sore. So yes (and I know this is what you've been wondering since I mentioned the sting) - I put some wee on it. It actually helped a lot, and started feeling better almost instantly. And then, as my arm was now smelling of vinegar and wee, i had a very thorough shower.

We also got our Vietnam visas whilst in Sihanoukville - it was from the town's Vietnam Consulate, which sounds way more impressive than it was, considering it just looked like a big blue house. We filled out a badly photocopied form, handed over $45 each, and received the visas within about 5 minutes. All this left us feeling slightly suspicious as to their authenticity, but thankfully we managed to successfully cross the border into Vietnam a couple of days later. Although not after being asked by border officials to hand over $1 each for a health form - what a scam!

We were only on mainland Vietnam for about 30 minutes, before boarding a ferry bound for the beautiful island of Phu Quoc. It isn't too overrun with tourists yet, with just a few resorts and guesthouses along the beach. So not only is it absolutely stunning, it's also fairly peaceful. We only stayed for a couple of days, as we were keen to get back to the mainland and see the rest of Vietnam, but it was a verrrrryy chilled out few days.

The first couple of days were spent on Long Beach, near our guesthouse.


There are a few places along the beach offering massages and hair removal, but this place in particular caught our eye. What (or who) is Bear Trinming? And dare you order a Foot Love session??


On our last day, we hired a motorbike and travelled 30km to Bai Sao beach in the south of the island. Now, I'm not exaggerating when i say that this is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. Goa doesn't even compare! Bai Sao was like something out of a magazine - soft white sand, clear blue sea, fishing boats and fluffy clouds. Just look at this and tell me you're not jealous!

The roads on the island are pretty bad, and on the way back to our guesthouse we managed to get a puncture and had to be escorted by a traffic cop to a nearby garage. Well, I say garage, but it was really just someone's front yard with a motorised air pump, puncture repair kit and a basket of tools. Oh, and a bunch of cockerels in various cages - a side business, I guess. The repair cost around 50cents - that's less than the price of the ham and cheese toastie we had on the way home (I miss cheese so much!).

After a two hour ferry journey - on which they showed Tom & Jerry and some Vietnamese comedy show - we're now back on the mainland. We weren't quite ready to leave paradise, but luckily the Vietnamese coastline promises more beach fun soon.