After spending 6 days in Cambodia you cannot ignore the fact that there is alot of poverty and hardship in this country and it really is a wakeup for some people and brings home the reality of alot of people myself included who complain about life at home. There is so much we take for granted at home food, shelter, and condtions in which we live, I cannot fully explain what seeing all this meant but it is a world away from seeing people living badly on television. The kids that wander the street and sell items ( Lonley Planet books [View Full Entry]

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Well not exactly but I have no doubt about the last two as they are available everywhere especially the last one mainly as a ingredient in food to make it "Happy" so traveller beware not to order the shakes, pizzas and brownies "Extra Happy" After finding a hotel just off Sisowath Quay which overlooks the Tonle Sap river we spent the night relaxing from the bus journey down from Siem Reap. Phnom Penh in all seriousness is a city which holds more than the above, Our first place to visit was the Tuol Svay Prey High School or S-21 as some [View Full Entry]

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Just outside of Siem Reap you have the largest religious buildings in the world set over a massive 27km, There are numerous temples running into the dozens but the we decided to concentrate on seeing just four one which featured in the Tomb Raider film. Well words can't really do the place justice not having been to the Pyramids in Egypt I can only guess and say for this scale of temple it must be well on par with them easily the scale is huge and the detail in the reliefs are amazing. I will let my pictures do the talking [View Full Entry]

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Well after passing my IE it was time for another small trip and I had to do a visa run as well. I had some company on this jolly little adventure in the form of Chicago and Gaz from the dive shop. So we decided to head to Siem Reap and then we will be off to Phonm Pehn. Leaving Pattaya by car we headed up to Aranya Prathet which is the border town in Thailand to cross into Cambodia and the border town of Poipet and from there it was on to Siem Reap. Entering the border area was easy [View Full Entry]

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Not a lot has happened since New Year I hae mainly been studying and getting on the boats everyday to get as much experience as I can dealing with divers, helping on course's and generally brushing up all my knowledge in the water and out. My Mum and Dad popped out here for a few days from 23rd until the 30th Jan this was great to see them as I had not seen any family since last year in K.L They took the time to see Pattaya during the day actually seeing more than I have seen in my 5 months [View Full Entry]

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What do you mean thats a 1" After two weeks of hell in the Captains Corner sub zero tempreture pool we were all given the title of Divemasters. Gaz, Fus, Ben, Jim, Dean, Phil, Mike and myself all passed our snorkel challenge!!! The course consisted of lots of theory and exams but the skills and care of customers and students was focused on greatly. The experience of the course was mostly theory but dependent on what you had done previously made it easier or harder but now we can all actively participate in all the courses Divemaster's can supervise and conduct [View Full Entry]

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Being aboard at Xmas is a strange feeling in so many ways...its not cold for a start, there is no presents to worry about buying, no one is rushing around like idiots and Xmas trees look very strange in go-go bars. Apart from missing all the build up I am going to miss Xmas day with all friends and family but luckily I have been very busy of late so December has flown by, I have been on my Divemaster course since the 17th December this ends on the 30th December then I will be a qualified professional in the diving [View Full Entry]

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Mr Bond The second day there was a planned trip which squeezed as much into a day as possible and as value for money it was pretty good as a whole day doing one activity sometimes is boring so our day was as follows. We were picked up early and the weather was not very nice and our first stop was a elephant trekking sanctuary this was a new experience for me and a really nice one I have to admit as it was not the same as seeing the Elephants paraded around the streets of Pattaya. You are sat in [View Full Entry]

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After Monday night we were feeling pretty bad and the 4 Kings game had been inflicted on some lads we met from Somerset (Banger and Steve) Rodders had to go to the airport on Tuesday afternoon and we were all contemplating what to do next. We joked lets go on a little holiday so before I knew it Wingnut, Malky and myself had decided to go to the airport with Rodders and go to Krabi for a few days. After getting a standby flight to Krabi we caught a Taxi to Ao Nang where we found a nice hotel and booked [View Full Entry]

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After the ERDI course it was time only a few days after for a Rodders to go home on the 22nd so it was decided that we should head to Bangkok for a few days as some had not been yet and it was a excuse for a little bit of a party. We headed to Bangkok by bus 6 of us in total anticipating a weekend of fun in Bangers....!!! After arriving in Bangkok we caught a Taxi to the Khao san Road and I finally got to see what it was all about. It was great loads of travelling [View Full Entry]

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