What a great day! We got up early, showered, dressed and headed out by tuk tuk to the Grasshopper Tour Shop  …I was pretty excited as they’re a really good company and I’ve done tours with them in Bangkok and Phnom Penh.  It’s such a great way to see the real countryside, cycling through villages, kids shouting out ‘HELLO’, avoiding dogs, chickens and the odd cow ;-D

We visited Tha Prom, The Elephant Terrace and the Bayon (famous for the Lara Croft movie, Tomb Raider)  WOW!!! Breathtaking ..such amazing history andcraftmanship. Just hearing some of the history given by our tour guide, I was blown away.  Just the shear size, the manpower and the time they took to build, …incredible.  I love the way the jungle has claimed parts of the temples back.

A must if you ever go to Siam Reap 😀   Awesome day.  I hope we’ll not be too tired for our Zip line trip 😀

We caught the 11 pm night ferry from Koh Tao and arrived at Chumphon around 5am both a little groggy.  We didn’t have to wait too long before the mini bus arrived to take us to Chumphon airport for our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.   The flight was good, only just over an hour long and at the airport we had our very own limousine waiting  …sorry, that should Tuk Tuk which was even better.  So much fun and so Cambodian 😀  Maybe after a 20 minute ride we arrived at our apartment/hotel where we were glad to unpack, shower and just chill before we ventured out and booked a FULL day cycling, around 3 of the Angkor Temples   YIPEEEE!!!     

Then what’s even more exciting is we’re going to see Phare, The Cambodian Circus.  Unlike any other circus, it’s a non profit association.  Profits generated through ticket sales, merchandise, refreshments & private performances help to improve lives of children, young adults and families that have experienced domestic violence, drug abuse ..the list is endless   ..giving them access to quality free arts training, education and social support. 

After an eventful 24hrs or so, both quite exhausted, it’s off to bed for an early night as we have to be up early and at ‘Grasshopper Cycle Tours’ by 7am 😀

Hope everyone is well

September has been a very busy month, not only with lots of family & friends Birthdays but we’ve been dealing with Eco Interns, courses and a week full of Eco activities.  It’s all in aid of AWARE week, which is a celebration of the ocean.  It took place globally from the 15th – 23rd September Aimed at empowering more divers to look after the underwater world. So a week full of conservation activities, pushing conservation specialty courses at reduced prices, creating awareness for vulnerable shark & ray species and empowering local communities to take positive actions for the protection of fragile aquatic environments, tackling pollution by taking positive actions etc 
This is what we do anyway everyday but it was good to have other people help out   …check out the schedule which we put together..

As it was my 50th on the 15th, Simon took me to Koh Samui for a couple of days.  There was no way I wanted to do the island wide clean up, contending with bags of rubbish & collecting debris on my BIG birthday LOL

Simon is amazing, he booked a lovely place called the ‘Rocking Chair’  ..no pun intended  LOL

I had a thoroughly awesome day.  Simon had done an amazing job with all the decorations (Thanks for sending those over Kate & Roger) …I was taken back by all of my birthday cards and pressies 😀  It’s not so bad being 50 as lots of people love me :-DAfter breakfast by the pool, which Simon had prepared, I mulled through my cards and then decided to be dropped off in Chaweng for a foot massage and seeing it was my birthday, I went wild and got a pedicure and manicure.    It was so relaxing and as I was full of cold, it was just what the Dr had ordered.    That evening we went out for a couple of drinks, watched a movie at the cinema and then enjoyed a takeaway back at the apartment with a glass of wine or two.  I had a lovely day!
Back on the Koh Tao, it was full swing into the AWARE Week, seeing we missed the first couple of days. Courses, movies, quiz night, up-cycling days ..so much going on 😀

Simon and I left on the evening of the 22nd as we were off on a visa run to Cambodia.  We couldn’t wait to be honest as it had been a tiring and stressful week for both of us.  I was very excited as to what was in store 😀