Phumĭ Kaôh Tônsay

Today was our shortest bus journey to anywhere on our entire adventure, a travel time of 25 minutes without delay. 5 minutes in and we ran a flat tire... 30 minutes and some experimental jacking of the bus later we were on our way again.

Our very close destination was the port of Kep, where we strolled through it's fish market before boarding a fishing boat out to the paradise island of Koh Tunsay (Rabbit Island). The bow of our boat hissed into the shallow sandy beach and we jumped off the wooden hull into the jade water, walking through sentinel palms to our wooden beachside bungalow, thatched with palm leaves.

We sunbathed under pineapple trees, swam in warm surf and dined on fresh shrimp, squid and crab. It was everything that Sihanoukville wasn't; clean, quiet and beautiful. Electricity by a generator for just a few hours after dark and no wifi added to the feeling of being happily secluded.

In other news... After months of visiting laundromats across the U.S., New Zealand and Australia, in South East Asia our clothes have been cleaned by local women. In Siem Reap they were even returned ironed and in plastic packaging, all for the same price of a self-service laundromat!

Also we have been picking up strange slang terms for things from locals and other backpackers. The most used by Alex and Keo is 'I'm going to shoot the rabbit', which translates to 'excuse me I'm just popping to the loo'. This has led to the unknowing innocently asking Keo if we might be eating rabbit for dinner.

Other slang includes, 'watch out, landmine', which means 'be careful not to step in that dog/cow/elephant shit' and 'whoa, blowout!', used for when the thong of your flip flop is ripped from its sole by the mud that you are trying to navigate safe passage through (this has happened to Alex on 3 occasions so far).Read more