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Published: April 2nd 2013
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Rough ride
Rained and was windy but cleared up when we got to the dive site Siem Reap was an amazing experience like many other places I have been to up till now , god so many things to take in and observe , so many wonders of the world to have seen in such a short time , things that for a lot of people each one is an experience of a lifetime and this is all happening in one go to me , a constant barrage of wonders. I met a Russian archaeologist in Burma once ( another story how I met him ) and he told me then that one becomes complacent to such sights and wonders if you dont take a break and go back to reality for a bit then continue with travelling . I scoffed at this at the time but as the travelling went on I realised he was absoulty correct, I remember sailing past the Sydney opera house after arriving in Australia a few months later and I was not impressed at all , I just yawned and carried on drinkng my coffee! now if I had flown directley from home to there I would of course have been very excited , but anyway I was of course not
Diving gear
Enough air for the day going to go back home because of this !
From Siem Reap I got a bus to a place called Sihanoukville, had never heard of it before but the Hotel in SR assured me I could dive there. Again I opted for the no frills bus and this was a again a great experience , amazingly one of the other white travellers was a girl I travelled to Phnom pehn from Saigon with , Miss New Zealand ! quite a coincidence that and we had a laugh on the 12 or 13 hour journey. A lot of online advice forums say that the roads are dangerous and recommend flying and yes you do see the aftermaths of the accidents on the roadsides but its really not that dangerous , an accident can happen on any road anywhere.
The bus arrived at the so called bus station and Miss NZ was going to the seaside as well so we shared a tuc tuc , now I thought I was a bad planner but at least I had a hotel sorted , she never but she reconed there was a hostel for 1 $ a night ! She was very
Back to port
Long day on the ocean youing , 20 or so but she was in complete control of the tuc tuc driver who insisted on taking her to his " friends " hostel for a " good price " she kept saying " no thats alright Mr chong chong ( cant remember his name of course ) just drop me off with Mr Isle of Wight " he looked confused at her composure, she had been travelling a long time and was full of confidence. I bumped into her a couple of days later and she did indeed find her 1$ a night hostel that was a " bit grubby " , god rather her then me , but I guess the young kids are a lot more gun-ho then us middle aged old farts !
I found a dive school and arranged my dives with a Lebonese guy who looked dodgy but was a wealth of knowledge . Soon I was on a big old 1940´s wooden ship off for a 2 hour trip to a dive sight to do something I had never done or even heard off before ,it was " drift diving".
The weather was terrible on the way there
Luxury
Tea and biscuits aplenty all day but amazingly once we reached the area it turned out gogeous
Drift diving is when you dive until you hit the deep current and then you get whisked off at an incredible speed with the currents, it is like flying underwater and very exciting but also difficult to direct yourself and to avoid hitting the rocks and mini cliffs underwater , the only drawback bing the visibility was crap but well worth the thrill !Now I was an " advanced " diver which sounds great but in reality I was far from advanced , normally you do about 200 dives then go for the advanced , I did mine after 8 dives and together with the wreck diving in the Philippines I had not hit the 20 mark yet and my inexperience showed , fortunalty I explained this to the rest of the divers and the crew and they were ,despite me lip reading a few " oh fucking hell " ´s very cool about it and helped me even after I had fogotten how much lead I needed to sink , but after floating on the surface waiting to sink they just threw me some wieghts , rather
Paradise
Lovely spot to dive ,not far from that Island but 30m deep embarassing but hey ho ! In the end it was the most gobbiest of the lot that made a twat of himself as he kept crashing into everyone during the drifting ! So I was saved and was not the team idiot after all !
A few days of diving were great and Sihanoukville was a polluted dump not ready for tourism yet but I am sure that will change over the years .
I bussed back to PP to meet up with the beggers and to make plans for my next trip , I was trying desperatly to get to Burma but it was proving very hard due to visa restrictions etc etc . I was thinking of giving up but would try a few more ways to get there , now that the red tape was put under my nose it just made me more determined to go there .
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