A boat trip to some islands off Cambodia

Well the day started off all right. Nice and sunny. French toast and pineapple for breakfast. Got picked up at 8:30am for our boat trip out to some islands to do some snorkelling. But oh how quickly things can change when you are in a country like Cambodia.

Got to the beach where the boat was supposed to be...you will notice I use the word "supposed"..that is because there was no boat. We waited 30 minutes in the hot sun only to be told that the engine on our boat was not working so they were getting another boat. There were about 20 of us waiting...so we were expecting a boat of substantial size. Again we were wrong. When the boat finally did arrive it was an oversized canoe with a hand blender for a motor.

We all climb aboard and begin the journey...there is no cover on the boat so we can feel our skin begin to sizzle. About 45 minutes off shore, the hand mixer coughs, sputters and then dies. Oh goody...how long do you think it would take us to drift to the shores of Southern Thailand...will our water last the trip?

Fifteen or so minutes later another hand mixer canoe comes up and we throw him a rope and he tows us to the first island where we throw anchor and snorkel. The mask and snorkels are Wal_Mart specials I am sure. My niece and nephew probably have better equipment. You can barely see anything at all. A couple of fish swim around the coral reef which is quite minimal seeing as they still do dynamite fishing here.

We bob around for a bit while we wait for another boat to come and tow us to the next location. The next island is marginally better and another man has jumped ashore and is taking the engine apart....perhaps we will have our own power soon. Nope...he was just for show. We ended up having 3 different boats tow us to 3 different islands where the swimming was ok, the snorkelling was pathetic and the sun was roasting.

We have learnt our lesson...we are not made for group travel.