Koh Rong... So Right!

So, "where would be the best place to spend your 30th birthday?", Olly asked me... Well, my list of requirements were not long:

• A beautiful beach
• A hammock
• Good company (but no OTT drunk 'Brits Abroad'), and
• Rum (of course)

With this list in mind we found ourselves on a little gem of an island called Koh Rong. I'm not going to write too much more about it, the pictures say enough...

Koh Rong was pretty much perfect – a virtually undevelopedisland 2 hours from the mainland and away from the sleaze of Sihenoukeville (akaSin-Ville).

Hut 15 - Home for seven days

Development of the island for tourism only started a year and a half ago... so miles of white beaches, turquoise seas and thick jungle remain virtually untouched. Not for long through... there are plans for golfcourses, spas and resorts – and even an airport. So get there quick!

What more could you ask for? Handsome man, beautiful beach and a hammock!

We stayed at Monkey Island. A collection of coco huts (with the required hammocks) on the main beach run by a friendly Brit called Paddy and his band of traveling and Khymer workers. It is one of maybe five guesthouses on the island and the perfect place for birthday – plenty of rum, fire throwing displays and cool people to hang out with. On my birthday they put a table out on the beach surrounded with lanterns in the shape of aheart and even got me a cake shipped over from Phnom Phen! You can’t ask for more than that!

Before I drunk that free bucket of Sex on the Beach!

We spent seven nights chilling, exploring the jungle, chilling some more, playing volleyball on the beach (‘monkey rules’ style), chilling, diving, chilling and snorkeling. We also took a fishing boat trip onmy birthday with a German couple, Kris and Marika. I caught about 20 fish –Olly was still on ZERO when we got back to shore (despite an extra two hours at sea after the boats engine broke). He put it down to my birthday luck, I think it was more to do with his bad fishing skills :o).

Tee lost in world of flame

My birthday cake!

We also had some pretty amazing fish barbeques, including curried spider crab. I wish I had a photograph, but we were too busy eating it.The crabs where the size of dinner plates with sausages for legs. Delicious!

Oh, and I have to mention the phosphorescence! I've never seen anything like it. At night you go swimming in the sea and a million stars of glowing plankton light up around you. Amazing!

The only negative – and I guess there has to be one – werethe sand flies. My legs look like I’ve been attacked with a BB gun and itchlike hell. I would post a photograph, but they look too disgusting!

It was a great birthday. The only thing that could have madeit even better would have been having friends and family from home to celebrate with me. But still... I suppose that gives me an excuse for another celebration when I get home!

We're back in Phnom Phen, the capital of Cambodia now. We get our visas for Vietnam tomorrow. And it's raining - a lot!

Still, back to photos of that beach :o)...

Jo x