2 Months Gone

It dawned on Beau and I today that we have been traveling for exactly a month! I feels like so long ago we were preparing to set off on our journey.  It's been an amazing two months though and am excited to see what the future has in store for us.  I do think it'll be nice to take two weeks and relax in New Zealand without having to catch a sleeper bus! 

I do have a little Asia rant though, it has become apparent to me that my pet peeve is noisy eaters.  So often I find myself cringing because someone is eating like a cow.  Just chomping away with their mouths open, smacking their lips.  This isn't a trait of any particular social class, gender or age.  It also doesn't matter what they are eating, it could be soup or bread or something completely different.  Why has no one ever taught them to chew with their mouths closed!! It drives me nuts and it is gross to boot.  The main thing that sparked this little rant was on our bus from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh we had just gotten back on the bus after stopping for a pee brake and the Cambodian guy in the row next to me kept smacking is lips and making chewing noises.  He wasn't even eating anything!! I cringed every time.

Nov 18 - Sihanoukville

We had a fairly restless night due to our neighbours thinking they were motorbikes. They were making vrooming noises and security had to tell them to be quiet twice. We were taking it easy today after how busy our last 4 days have been. We stopped by EcoSea and picked up our temporary dive cards then we went to the beach. We spent the afternoon hanging out at a beach bar with $0.50 beers, wifi, and power. We updated our blog/website. We also talked a bunch with one of the guys working at the Bar. He was a very nice Khmer guy named Vida. We told him a bunch of stuff about Canada and explained some English words to him too. It was interesting talking to him. I had a dish called amok for lunch which is a delicious Cambodian coconut curry dish. We caught a bus to Siem Reap around 7 or 8 pm. We were on a sitting bus to Phnom Penh and then had to change buses for a sleeper bus to Siem Reap. The sleeper bus sucked; the seats were fixed and not reclined very much although they were wider than some, the bathroom was gross. It was dirty and you had to flush with a pail of water which took up the entire floor space so it would be very difficult to pee. Needless to say I hung on till we reached our destination.

Nov 19 – Siem Reap
We arrived in Siem Reap around 6 or 7 am. We had been promised a tuk tuk would be there to pick us up but there was not. We paid the $2 fair to take us into the city. Our tuk tuk driver took us to a hotel where we checked out their rooms. The rooms were nice but we wanted to do some comparison shopping. When we went to leave the guy dropped the price to $6 for a fan room so we took it. We then got to talking with our tuk tuk driver about trips to Angkor and we made a deal for 2 days for $25. We lazed away most of the day since we were so tired from our bus ride but it was nice to just read and nap. Late in the afternoon we explored some of the markets and then found a cheap restaurant to eat in. We called it a night pretty early since we were still kind of tired from the night before and we're getting picked up at 5am so we can see the sun rise over Angkor.

DIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Pictures posted*
We spent the last 4 days on a tropical island off the coast of Cambodia.  PARADISE!  We started with doing our SSI Open Water Course and ended up doing our SSI Advanced Course.  It was amazing.  We had a total of 9 dives over 4 days.  Our first day we did skills in the shallow part of the bay, our "pool" work, and then had our first open water dive.  The second day we had 3 dives to complete our open water.  We then decided to stay and do our Advanced.  Our third day had 2 dives and the fourth had 3 dives.  We saw some really cool fish, well everything seemed cool to us, such as angel fish, bat fish, octopus, an eel, squirrel fish, wrasse, harlequin sweetlips, filefish, among many others that I can't name.  I now love scuba diving and want to dive all over Asia!! I have posted some pictures below of the island and us in our gear!  Below are my journal entries for the past 4 days!

Approaching Koh Rong Saloem (point on the left)

The fishing village

Ready to get in the water on our first day

Pre-dive

Post-dive

Our Bungalow

Going diving on the last day

Yay Diving

Sunset on the boatride back to Sihanoukville

Us with our instructor Anneke

Nov 14 – Shallow sessions, 1 Open water dive

We were picked up at EcoSea at 7:30am and taken to their downtown office where we could drop our big bags and lock up our valuables. From there we headed down to the pier to catch our boat to the island, Koh Rong Saloem. Our instructor, Anneke, was on the boat with us and we spent the two hour ride setting up our scuba equipment and taking it apart again. Once we arrived at the island we got our equipment but first had to do a swim test. We had to swim 200m and then float for 10min, pretty easy. Afterwards we got suited up, wetsuits, snorkel, mask, fins, BCD (buoyancy compensator device), regulator and tank. We climbed, carefully, into the water from the jetty stairs. We swam to a shallow area where we could stand, we were going to be doing our “pool” exercises. We practiced clearing our masks, removing the regulator and other essential skills. We were in the water for about 2hrs and then we had a lunch break. I was quite chilled at this point so it was nice to get out of the water and warm up in the sun. After lunch we were back in the water for more shallow water training. A little later we swapped our tanks for fresh ones and had our first open water dive. This was just on the other side of the jetty on the house reef but it was much deeper than what we had been doing. We practiced some skills and then got to explore the reef. There were a ton of sea urchins, I never knew before that they could walk around. We saw a bunch of fish but I have no idea what they were. I really enjoyed diving. Dinner was delicious and we talked with the other divers and instructors till about 9 or 10pm and then it was bed time. We were quite tired from being in the water all day and had to be up for breakfast at 7am.

Nov 15 – 3 open water dives

We had to do three open water dives today to complete our SSI Open Water Certification. Beau was feeling tired when we woke up but I didn't really think anything of it at the time. Our 1^st dive was in a little bay just around the corner from the pier called Angel Fish Bay. We got to do our first boat dive. Another guy Greg joined us for the day to help out. He wants to become a dive master and instructor. We descended using the anchor line and went down to about 12m. We had to practice many of the skills from the first day. Honestly I don't remember too much about this dive as the others sort of took over my memory. Beau was having some trouble equalizing his ears so we took it slow. Back at the surface Beau's ears were still bothering him some. We went back to the jetty just to swap our tanks out and then headed out for another dive. Greg accompanied us again. This time we went to Corner Bar and did a free descent. We saw a chevron barracuda, bat fish, angel fish, parrot fish and many others. Again we had to practice skills at depth. We headed back to the island for lunch. Beau was looking pretty destroyed. We think he got too much sun yesterday in the bay and suffered from heat exhaustion and dehydration. We still had one more dive to do and the poor guys ears hadn't really cleared from this mornings dive. Our last dive only had two basic skills to do, only need to go to 5m and stay under for 20min. Beau was able to do it though and he and Greg went back up while Anneke and I stayed under to have a nice dive. We saw many batfish (they like to follow divers around), a big school of Jacks, another chevron barracuda and part of a blue spotted ray, it was hiding under the reef. At this point Beau and I decided to stay on the island and do our Advanced. Beau said he just needed to sleep and he'd be fine. Once back on the island Beau went right to bed and only got up to eat a little bit of food. Poor man was super warm to the touch and just exhausted. His ears hadn't really cleared yet either although Greg had given him some solution to help with it. It was a pretty quiet night on the island for all of us. We all went to bed pretty early although I did read for bit. Hopefully Beau feels better in the morning and is ready for our Advanced :S

Nov 16 – 2 Advanced dives

Beau was feeling much better today after sleeping all yesterday minus the times we were diving. We were only doing 2 dives today. Our first one was Peak Performance Buoyancy. It was just in EcoSea Bay so we went in off the jetty. We had to do different exercises that involved controlling your breathing to maintain buoyancy. We had to “buddha” float, float upside down, float vertically and touch our regulator to the ground without the rest of our body touching. They were very helpful exercises for improving buoyancy control. Our next dive wasn't till after lunch since Anneke had to do a refresher course. So we had some free time to explore. We went into the little village which didn't take long to see. Mostly we were supposed to be studying fish books because our dive after lunch was Fish ID. We headed out to Corner Bar and jumped in the water. The point of this dive was to try to identify fish and corals. Anneke had little water proof slates with different fish seen in South East Asia. I did pretty well with identifying them but Beau not so much lol. We saw all kinds of fish including a file fish which are fairly rare and another blue spotted ray, this time we saw the whole thing. We had some free time before dinner so we cleaned up and relaxed in some hammocks. After dinner two of the guys went for a night dive. When they came back they were so excited about everything they saw so now Beau's really interested in night diving. It was another early night on the island but after being up at 7am and diving all day its okay to go to bed at 8 or 9 pm.

Nov 17 – 3 advanced dives

Today was our last day on the island, booo. We had 3 dives scheduled, deep dive, multilevel computer, and navigation. Our first dive was our deep dive. We had to go deeper than 18m, the Open Water limit. The dive location was called Last Tree and we went down on the anchor line. There wasn't too much to see on this dive, the visibility was quite poor. The whole purpose of the dive was to do some skills at depth. Our max depth was 21.7m. While down there we had to do some exercises to see the effects of the nitrogen in our bloodstream; your think a little slower while down there. Luckily Beau didn't have too much trouble equalizing his ears. We came back up and hopped back on the boat. After picking up some other divers, we headed back to the island to change our tanks. Our second dive was Multilevel Computer. We got to use a dive computer and see how it all works. I was actually wearing it during our deep dive so Beau got to wear it for this dive. The computer tells you the depth, your max depth, how long you can stay at that depth, your nitrogen levels, the water temperature, the dive time and your ascension rate. We were diving at Corner Bar again and had to stay at several different depths. It was cool to use the computer. We also saw lots of fish. We had about 17 bat fish around us at one time. They follow you around when your diving silly things. We also saw a Harlequin Sweetlips, some angel fish, squirrel fish among others. It was a very nice dive. After lunch we had our we did Navigation. We started on land working with a compass and then went into the water off the jetty. We had to figure out how many kicks we did over 30m to find our kickcycle. Then we had to swim for 10 kickcyles and come back using visual points of reference, I wasn't very good at that. We had to do the same thing using a compass and then also swim in a square and a triangle. While diving we got to see a little octopus! Even saw it change colour! We got out of the water and cleaned our gear. We got ourselves cleaned up and got on the boat back to the mainland. We were sad to leave the island but I think if I stayed any longer I would never want to leave. The boat ride back was very relaxed and the ocean very calm. Once on the main land we got in the back of a truck and picked up our bags at the downtown EcoSea office. There we said good bye to Anneke. We were taken to the EcoSea beach office and had to fill out some paperwork and pay for our Advanced course. The computer was going very slow so we said we'd come back tomorrow for our temporary dive cards. We now had to go find a hotel. The one we stayed in before was apparently full so we headed to another. We were asked if we wanted a tuk tuk and said no but the guy would take us to the hotel we were going to anyways for free. We had to take a bit of a round about route so it might have been faster to walk. The hotel seemed fine and it was already 7pm and we needed to eat. We checked in and headed to the beach for dinner. We booked our night bus ticket to Siem Reap for tomorrow night. At dinner we had our first beer in 3 days and bbq. We went to bed early since we were pretty wiped from 4 days of diving.

The Killing Fields and Sihanoukville

We took a tuk tuk to the Killing Fields one day and then a bus to the beach.  We plan to get open water certified while in Cambodia. One of the biggest differences we've seen between Cambodia and Vietnam and China is the amount of beggars. We saw very few in China and Vietnam, although in Vietnam there was always some trying to sell you something and it was usually an adult.  Here in Cambodia we've seen numerous beggars, many of which are amputees, and there have been tons of kids trying to sell you books or bracelets. Makes you wonder whether it has anything to do with the first two countries being communist or just that Cambodia is so much poorer.

Sorry I haven't posted pictures this time, I haven't uploaded them from my camera and my computer is acting up.

Nov 11 – The Killing Fields

This morning we hired a tuk tuk to take us out to the Killing Fields, also known as The Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. We contemplated renting a motorcycle for the day but it wasn't too much more to hire a tuk tuk. The tuk tuk ride was much more comfortable than the motorcycle would have been as if had nicely cushioned seats and the roads were pretty rough. The entrance feel at Choeung Ek also included the audio tour which really added to the museum. This wasn't your typically museum as you walked around a park like area listening to the atrocities that occurred. Prisoners held in Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge's reign were taken taken here to be killed. Bullets were considered too expensive to use so the soliders used what ever means available. During the 3 years and 8ish months the Khmer Rouge held power they killed 2-3 million people out of a population of 8 million. Now there is a Memorial Stupa at the center of Choeung Ek that holds the skulls and large bones of all the people who have been unearth. There are still many bodies that have been allowed to lie in peace. This was another place I did not know much about but I am thankful for the audio tour. It was very informative about what had occurred during this time period. As awful as it was to hear about all these deaths I'm glad we visited one of the over 300 killing fields in Cambodia. This is another period of genocide in the worlds history that isn't taught in school but is important to learn about. It's amazing how far Cambodia has come after so many years of strife. After the Killing Fields we had our driver drop us off at the Central Market where we found some lunch. We needed to book a bus to Sihanookville so we headed back to the hotel. The bus prices were all the same and we were able to be picked up from the hotel. The rest of our afternoon was spent relaxing at a riverside bar with some beers. We found some cheap delicious food a couple of blocks down from our hotel. We retired to our room fairly early but didn't go to bed early enough, I read while Beau worked on the computer.

Nov 12 - Sihanoukville
We got on a bus this morning to Sihanoukville. We were picked up by a shuttle bus to take us to the station.  Along the way we picked up a bunch of passengers some of which had to sit on the floor.  Our bus ride took about 4 hours and was pretty sedate compared to most other bus rides we've had, no crazy passing or swerving around pot holes or if there was it made no impression on Beau and I! It started to rain when we reached Sihanoukville but fortunately when it started to pour we were safetly under cover in a tuk tuk which we shared with  2 Swedish guys.  We looked into a couple of hotels and got a private room for $7 without hot water or AC.  That seemed the norm of the budget places and we're cheap so who are we to complain.  After checking in and getting some lunch we started checking out scuba options.  We went to 3 different dive shops all of which offered similar PADI Open water options for about $300.  One place also offered SSI Open Water which was only $255, the courses are very similar and are both internationally accepted so we opted for this one.  We also liked this dive shop the best, EcoSea.  We signed up, put down a deposit and were given our books.  We headed down to the water to check out the beach and see about some dinner.  The beach was just lined with restaurants all selling the same things, $0.50 Draft beer and $3 BBQ.  For the BBQ you could get any three meats from beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, squid, and fish.  Beau and I both opted for the shrimp, squid, and fish and Beau got his with rice and I had garlic bread with mine.  We got quite a lot of sea food and it was all very tasty, cooked with loads of garlic.  We headed back to our hotel to start doing some reading for our Scuba course tomorrow, we did have to stop in to EcoSea because the book they had given me was in German.  As much as I want to learn a second language I don't care to do it while learning to dive.