mike"s return to asia

Welcome to Pattaya..24 hrs of beer bars,girls and beer bars and girl and ladyboys. But,this place has a nice beach,all your watersports,go karting,moon buggying,horse riding,golf courses,diving and great food,either local or western.
This was finally my chance to get my padi open water diver certificate,and looked forward to a challenge.To do this i gave up on 4 nights of drinking and girls,but hey!.
I choose Astronauts Dive Centre.it seemed to be the biggest and was western run.pricewise was on par with the other dive companies at 16 000 baht for the 4 day course.one other compnay offerd 2 free extra dives at the end of my training and that was a good deal.First day was classroom,qnd after studying the padi manual for the last 2 days i was not too bad on my thereoy test. 2nd day in a pool in a quiet classy resort where i did my pool training .3rd and 4th days were open water and after that thats was me qualified.In my opinion i think i could have been better,some skills i think i could have done with more ease and maybe the dive centres should emphasise more on repeated underwater skills over the space of another day.Having passed i can know buddy up to go diving anywhere to a depth of 18metres,but i would definately do a refresher course and want buddied with an expierenced diver,since it shall be a while before i dive next.

Took the morning bus from kep to phnom penn and whilst it was passing the airport i decided to jump off and catch a plane up to seim reap.I stayed at my usual guest house the new mandalay inn and the owners and staff had to take a double look when they saw me again.
In the space of one year i noticed big changes around the market/pub area ,lots more bars and resturaunts and also towards the wat where a new shopping centre has sprung up with a sweensens ice creram parlour and adjoining pizza parlour.Towards the temples there seems to be a large development of townhouses built and for sale.The new museum is finally open,with plenty vacant spaces for retail shops inside.
Apart from that it is still quite a relaxed town,plenty dust on the roads and the thousands of moto driver and tuk tuk drivers.
I revisited the temples for a one day tour,went to a few places that enable poor and disabled to get back into work,with profits helping their families.
After 4 days i decided to leave and took the bus to poipet for the border crossing into thailand. A 156 km journey that took 8 hrs,a 1 and half hr queue to leave Cambodia,then a 4 hr bus journey to Pattaya. This was definately one of my wrong choices doing the bus crossing,overpacked and uncomfotable bus,2 stops on the way,the raod is a dirt track heading through many towns and major ongoing roadworks which have been for about 7 years,due to an unnamed airline not wanting a highway from thailand to Seim Reap.
lessoned learned if you can afford it FLY.

From Kampot to the once busy resort of Kep takes only about 30mins.However on the way we visisted some caves,ducked from some bats,saw the salt fields,saw the pepper plantations of the world famous Kampot pepper and got ourself muddy in the rice fields.
Kep is a bit of a ghost town too,not a lot to do,although there is an island then thats you done.Onwards to Phnom penn to gat my flight to seim reap

Pretty quiet place,not so hectic and lovely views on riverside.Non exsistent nightlife for those coming from sihinaoukville,maybe ideal place and required for rest though.
Bokor Hill is closed to through traffic up to the hill station due to serious road works.after much asking about we decided on only way up is a trek through the forest,which was seriously hard going in flip flops,the scorching heat and the torrential downpours.Going up is slippery,un safe,and hard,going down the same.after about 2 and 1/2 hrs we managed to hitch lift in truck to top,a donation of $4 to driver means he shall stop if he sees you the next day coming downhill.from drop off at top,a walk of 2 km to reach the ghost town of bokor..next day on heading down we scrambled a lift on a smaller truck,a few times getting stuck in the mud,and once nearly flipping over when the road sank under the front left wheel,rear end in the sky.So for a tourist safety point maybe they keep bokor hill shut until road is open and safe.
On the good side its n amazing place to see,the view over towards vietnam is amazing and your at a height of 1035 metres above sea level.Nighttime is eerie when the mist comes and taking a walk is good scary fun amongst the ruins.

Well the sun came out to play for a change,and the beaches here are nice,plenty places to lounge,drink and eat.its quite a popular place for the Cambodians at weekends,and a pretty easy resort to get around in. No shortage of bars and restuaraunts,and a few casinos.I never went to the island due to feeling ill still,hoever i heard the day trip is worthwhile.