South China Sea

Sihanoukville is a province in southwest of Cambodia.

Few months before our cruise I booked a tour in Sihanoukville for four of us. The tour was advertised as good snorkeling and sightseeing. I was looking forward to this combination of activities.

The ship was cleared around 1:30pm and our tour guide told me to meet him at gate 1. We were not allowed to walk in the port, so we asked how to get to get 1 and were directed to the shuttle. All good so far.
We took a shuttle and after driving for awhile thru the city (which was strange) we arrived at so called gate 1. The tour guide was not there. I called him and he told me he will be in 5 minutes.

Shortly he arrived. We settled in the van and were told the first stop is snorkeling.
On the way we did not see anything interesting, also it was raining.

Luckily, the rain stopped by the time we had to board big and very old boat. After 30 min of rough ride we arrived to the place designated for snorkeling. No snorkeling equipment as was promised. No problem, we had our own. Mui and I jumped of the boat…..very murky water, corals are very close to the surface. Did not feel safe to snorkel. Ten minutes later we were back on the boat and going toward the land.
About 50 yards from the land our old boat got stuck on the sand. Oops!

Fifteen minutes later with the help of few men we were free.
Back in the van we asked to drive us back to the ship. Well, we were dropped at the same gate 1.

Local guard told us that the shuttle does not come to that location. We decided to wait since the shuttle delivered us to this location in the morning. After 15 minutes of waiting, we had to walk a long distance to find our shuttle.
This country is not ready for tourism yet.Read more