Sihanoukville is a very touristy beach town and at first glance looks very similar to Chaweng on Ko Samui except this had even more sunbeds! The sea was clear, calm and the sand was beige. Hawkers, beggars and cute children who should be at school, all wanted our money and after narrowly avoiding most, we succumbed to a manicure/pedicure at sunset by a Vietnamese lady. We ate on the beach that night and watched a group of young children set off fireworks into the sea whenever a tourist donated a dollar. Very dangerous!
The next day we sorted out our arrangements to Koh Rong Samloem and after much deliberation we signed up to a PADI Open Water diving course. The first day of the course was spent in Sihanoukville watching the diving DVD's followed by the final exam. We both passed with flying colours and could now start the fun part- Diving! We met the dive crew early the next morning and headed to their own beach, called Sunset Beach on Koh Rong Samloem. The boat took a very slow 3 hours to get there but once we arrived we were gobsmacked at the scenery. The island was covered in jungle, clear turquoise water and only a few rustic bungalows. For 2 nights this would be home and we would have to cope with no phone signal/wifi, no fan, a shared bathroom in the jungle home to colourful giant geckos and electricity for only 4 hours a day. The confined water dive started at the shore with our instructor Aaron and we spent 3 hours learning the different skills we would need in deeper water. These included: mask removal, mask clearance, how to put together our equipment and sharing air, to name a few. That night we endured jungle rats at 2am after they discovered the cling wrapped banana cake hanging from the shutter. We launched it as far as we could into the jungle and attempted to sleep whilst more curious rats scuttled around in search of more banana cake! The next two days we did 4 dives to sites around the island between 6 metres and 15 metres. Some involved doing the skills again but deeper than before, and in others we did a few extra skills like navigation with a compass, buoyancy control and cramp removal. We saw schools of jack fish, a stingray, groupers, large corals, nudibranches and many more underwater creatures that I cannot name. The island had been a beautiful place and very different from the usual PADI experience, but it had been a once in a life time place to visit. In a few years this place will be riddled with cheap guesthouses and drunken flashpackers so thankfully we caught it at its best, in its natural state. We left at sunset, ecstatic and proud that we can now dive anywhere in the world! We got back to sihanoukville and spent the next few days catching up on sleep and visiting the closer 'Bamboo Island' for a snorkelling trip. However nothing could compare to Koh Rong Samloem.
We left Sihanoukville, our last stop in Cambodia and made our way to the border of Thailand through the Cardamom Mountains and finally to Trat where we met Oli's parents! Koh Kood here we come!
Stats-
Giants geckos seen: 4
Rat bashing: 8 times (never a direct hit!)
Certified Open water Divers: 2
Total time spent diving each: 247 minutes
Hours spent on the bus next to Oleg the crazy Russian: 8