Phumĭ Ta Ŏng

New-to-us port #48.

After spending the morning at sea to get from Bangkok, Thailand to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, we were all set for a combo tour that Sonia and Boris had organized. The plan was to do a bit of snorkeling and then see the sights.

Well, as it turns out, the tour did not work out as planned.

We met up with our guide OK as instructed at Gate 1. But not before the “required gate shuttle,” which was not posted in the daily “Currents,” took us to the city first for some reason. Retracing our route, we and a minibus load of other passengers who also thought we were being taken to Gate 1, were finally dropped off at the designated point.

Upon asking the guide for a synopsis of the day, he explained that we’d be going snorkeling and fishing, and then he’d take us to the market and to a 5⭐️ hotel/casino. Huh? What happened to the temples and pagodas and monuments mentioned in the tour description.. He said we’d pass by the monuments, but no temples or pagodas. When he clarified that the 5 ⭐️ hotel stop was just so we could see it, we told him to forget the market and hotel.

To get to the snorkel boat, we pretty much drove through the city from one end to the other. The streets seemed to be lined with hotels and casinos … some completed … some being constructed … some abandoned. We passed a statue of lions, which would have made an interesting photo op … except that it was raining. We decided to stop on the way back to take photos. Hah! By then, it was raining cats and dogs — or should that be lions and dogs. No photo op.

The snorkel boat turned out to be a little rickety, but it was seaworthy. We had to walk across two other boats to get to ours … which we managed to do without getting tangled in the ropes on deck. And then we were off. How we got away is still a mystery. There must have been a slightly deeper channel amidst the area where people were walking in ankle- to knee-deep water.

The water was a bit rough with sea spray getting into the open boat as it cleaved through the waves. But we were promised it would be calm where we were going. At least we had blue skies ahead … unlike the city, which by this time was shrouded by rain bands.

When we arrived at the snorkel site, Mui and Sonia lost no time donning their snorkel gear and getting in the water. Boris stayed on the boat as getting in and out of the water via the rusty stairs would have been a challenge for him. I don’t snorkel, so I pulled out my book and settled in for some quiet time. Hah!

Sonia and Mui were back in about 15 minutes. Turns out that there was some coral and fish, but the water was murky — probably from the rain that had passed through — and the water was so shallow that the coral presented a danger of bodily harm. Time to go back to the city.

What started out as an adventure turned even more so when we neared the mainland again. Our boat got stuck on a sandbar! Pushing off of it presented a challenge because the wind was strong and kept moving us back on to the bar. We knew the water wasn’t deep and that we could walk ashore if necessary. Just as we had resigned ourselves to doing just that, a couple of guys waded into the water and started rocking the boat while the engines worked at top RPMs. Minutes later we were in a slightly deeper channel, heading to the pier.

By this time, we were all ready to call it a day. So we told the guide to return us to Gate 1 so we could catch the shuttle back to the ship.

Turns out our adventure was far from over. At Gate 1, the port guy kept telling us the shuttles didn’t come there. What!!!! It had dropped us off there just three hours earlier. He said something about paying one of the tuktuks nearby to take us somewhere else. We stood our ground. Then, we saw friends Kadi and Brad running down the street and pointing somewhere else. We decided to follow them.

Around the corner a ways down was Gate 2 … with the shuttle waiting there. When we asked the driver why he wasn’t at the same place where we were dropped off earlier, he insisted they never go there. I guess we and the minibus load of passengers who were with us this morning all dreamed up the whole thing. We have since advised Destinations of the confusion and left it in their hands to resolve.

A frustrating day. And sad because we had been looking forward to our first visit to Cambodia.Read more