Chapter forty eight - Otres Beach

Day 171: Otres Beach, Cambodia 19/03/12

After deciding last night to move onto Otres Beach - a much quieter, nice looking beach resort just down the coast from Sihanoukville - we pack our stuff and go to book a bus ticket back to Phnom Penh, calling at G'day Mate Australian themed bar and restaurant, for a welcome full English. Walk back to Mick & Craig's and pay the bill. Gemma visits a nearby thrift store with some clothes we no longer want. A full dollar richer, we hail a tuk-tuk and ride to Otres Beach. A quick hunt around for somewhere to stay reveals a real mixed bag of standards. Funnily enough, one of us gets to enter all the really dark, dingy looking places, whilst the other gets to check out the nice, fresh, clean digs. No prizes for guessing who got what...In one rickety lean to I nearly go through the balsa wood floor and stairs as my chiselled frame coupled with the two backpacks approaches maximum weight for the structure.

We find a nice place easily enough and then head for the beach. Quite easily sink a few halves on the beach, get mauled by a puppy and then hunt for an open restaurant, despite it being only eight in the evening. Find somewhere, have some good food, we dance back down the street (I hide when the traffic approaches, leaving Gemma to get crunk on her own), and then get our heads down.

Day 172: Otres Beach, Cambodia 20/03/12

Wake up, head for a beach shack breakfast and then have a fairly uneventful day at the beach. A few games of Uno on the sun loungers and Otres Beach is a million miles from the bawdiness of Sihanoukville just down the coast. We realise we will miss the beach when we leave it, before working out it will be about a week before we next see one. Thailand here we come...

There are lots of children working the beach today, collecting empty cans and bottles, which is sad but the sight of them playing together as the sun set over Koh Rong was one to remember. Some amazing colours to be seen as the boat from our desert island retreat made an appearance. We have dinner at the same beach shack as breakfast and I knock the mojito Gemma orders me across the room without even having a sip of it! D'oh!