Ok… If we want to see the island, I guess we better had. What do you mean it’s not working today? Oh your friend has a boat? I see. Goodbye sir.

We are now in Vietnam!! And have sidestepped 4 scams in 5 days and have only been ripped off once! These are good odds for a country riddled with tourist scams. See you in a few days Roger and Pat!! Don’t worry we should* be hardened to them by then so you’ll be in safe hands**.

We’ve done our first round of diving and saw a real live shark***! For our first dives we took our first ‘live aboard’ to a remote island off the coast of Sihanoukville – Koh Rong. Here there is the main island and a clutch of smaller ones, all fairly uninhabited save for a few fishing communities hither and thither. Just before sunset on the first day we anchored off an uninhabited beach and Vicki and I plus some new friends (Herve included) swam over for a stroll along the untouched sands. We swam back in time for an amazing sunset over clear ocean and prepared for our first night dive!! Night diving is incredible and is hard to describe. So I won’t. But thanks to Mick, our awesome Dive Master and Guide for the weekend, cheers dude!

From Sihanoukville to Kampot we took our second ’share taxi’. These are normal cars which the driver fills before departing. There are traditionally 5 seats in a car therefore 5 people. No. This second excursion was the best as we had 8. 2 in the drivers seat (either the teenager or the older gent was driving), 2 in the seat next to them and 4 in the back. Not to mention the weight of at least 1 more in the boot. After a days’ diving on Phu Quoc a while later, a boat trip around and home stay in Vinh Long, we are in Ho Chi Minh city with the thousands of motorbikes.

I should be able to put more photos up, possibly tonight. But now we are tired and need showers and food.

* This should read ‘won’t’
** This is doubtful
***It was not a shark. It was a Cobi, a bloody big one though and they do look like sharks, honest.

posted: Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 11:23
under: travels.
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