and now there is a lot of “took tooks” these guys are just as bad as the “touk touks” drivers in Bangkok and if you can avoid using one you will be that much happier on your travels.

In Cambodia cheap flights are now more common and there are more flights both within Cambodia as well as flight to the neighboring countries of Thailand and Vietnam and Singapore which serves as a regional hub for the discount flights.

As always in Cambodia remember to be vigilant when you travel if it seems wrong often times it is trust your intuition and do the smart thing.

Author Fred Tittle has lived and worked in holiday vacation resorts his entire life, from Lake Geneva’s Playboy Club, as a rock jock for KSPN FM in Aspen Colorado, he became a PADI Pro Scuba Diver in Hawaii, diving on Maui, Kauai, Kona on the big island, and Waikiki on Oahu. He now owns EcoSea Dive in Sihanoukville Cambodia where he teaches SSI and PADI scuba diving courses and runs liveaboards in the gulf of Thailand and Asia adventure tours, http://www.ecosea.com

Fred’s new project http://www.CheapCharliesHotels.com where he reviews cheap hotels , budget guesthouses, discount accommodations and cheap international flights, but is really an excuse to go scuba diving on vacation more, China is up next.

Sailing in Cambodia and Thailand - Deserted Beaches and Aquamarine Seas

Travelling by road from Bangkok via the ferry from Laem Ngop to Dan Kao on Koh Chang, the second largest island in Thailand, we arrived at Thida’s base at Salak Phet where she was moored by the side of a seafood restaurant. Thida is a 44 feet yacht built in Pattaya, Thailand in 1986 which was to carry us on our journey through the sparkling waters of the Gulf of Thailand for the next 6 days. As the captain and assistants stowed our luggage and made final preparations for the voyage, we tucked into the as usual delicious Thai lunch, our appetites sharpened by the Cambodia travel car journey but also whetted by the excitement and thrill of the impending cruise.

Captain Ralf eventually joined us for a beer bearing the same name as the island – Chang. A glance at the Cambodia travel chart quickly reveals the origin of the name as the island is shaped like an elephant’s head, “chang” being the Thai word for elephant.

We were drinking elephant beer on Elephant Island. We discussed options for the impending cruise and, decisions made; we cast off at 8pm just as the full moon was rising over the mountain and picked our way across calm, silvery seas through the small islands that make up the Koh Chang archipelago. 4 hours of atmospheric, moonlit cruising under power later, we dropped the anchor and chain into black, shimmering waters of a very sheltered bay on the south western tip of Koh Kut The plan was to head for Koh Tang which was as far from home port that we would travel and then

slowly work our way back to Koh Chang. This was the reason for the 4 hour trip to our anchorage and why we needed an early start in the morning.

Dawn broke around 6am and very soon afterwards the rattle of chain as the winch hauled up the anchor signalled our departure from our very scenic anchorage. We set a course of 155 degrees across the Gulf of Thailand to Koh Tang under steady throb of the Volvo Penta engine. The wind direction was south east prohibiting the use of sail as we had an estimated 14 hour journey at 6 knots to reach Koh Tang. The early morning cloud that was to be an almost daily feature gradually dissipated leaving behind a hot blue sky. Wind and wave height increased gradually slowing our speed and lengthening our journey until we decided that Koh Tang was becoming just a little beyond our comfortable reach for that day opting instead to raise sail and head East for Koh Rong. With jib and mainsail aloft, Thida steadied in the beam seas providing a more comfortable journey as we sped across the now Cambodian water at 6-7 knots. We reached a large bay in the north of Koh Rong, well protected from the swell and south easterly wind just as the sun was setting. The bay offered a selection of palm fringed sandy beaches and our carefully selected anchorage was shared by a solitary fishing boat, the occupants of which had retired to a makeshift shelter on the beach.

The next day the travel was to round the point and motored a few miles down the eastern side of the island

and took the dinghy ashore to visit a fishing village. The village epitomised how the fisher folk of Cambodia had lived remote from the mainland for hundreds of years scratching a living from the sea. Our curiosity with the village was equally matched by the villagers themselves who seemed happy at seeing such strange visitors.

grin again. We moved on with a good wind to reach the port of Kampong Som or Sihanhoukville to give its most recent name. The port was established in the 1950’s and is also Cambodia’s major coastal resort with several beautiful beaches of its own once frequented by the pre Pol Pot middle class of Phnom Penh. The captain had radioed his agent as we approached who was waiting with the necessary official papers. There then followed a troupe of officials representing various agencies, customs, health, immigration etc. each of whom received their “gratuity” for ensuring the smooth processing of the necessary official documentation. In actual fact we were registered as entering and leaving Cambodia on the same day which effectively meant that we did not have to stop in Sihanoukville again on our departure from Cambodia. Official business over, we spent some time exploring Sihanoukville before returning to Thida now lying serenely anchored off one of the beaches. That evening, we ate excellent seafood and soup cooked by ourselves on a table top BBQ at one of beachside restaurant for U.S. $3 each accompanied by the local Anchor (the “ch’ is pronounced as in “cheers” which differentiates it from the rival Ankor beer).

Determined to eventually reach Koh Tang on our Cambodia travel tour, we set course again and arrived in the early afternoon to anchor in a bright, aquamarine bay with a selection of fishing boats. After a much needed, refreshing dip into warm, clear and deep salty sea, we spent late afternoon amassing a pile of driftwood and bamboo on the beach in preparation for our beach BBQ. Ralf took the dinghy and visited the fishing boats returning very shortly afterwards brandishing a king mackerel which was cleaned and cut up into thick juicy steaks in readiness for the BBQ. All food preparations complete we lit a fire on the beach, relaxed with a beer and waited until we could rake the coals out of the fire to barbeque the fish. The fishing boats had all left for the nights fishing and we could see their bright lights attracting the squid on the horizon looking like a city in the distance. Otherwise, we were alone cast away on our own private desert island. We were late to our bunks that evening as we savoured the unforgettable moment as long as possible each of at times gazing with that faraway look into the orange embers of the beach fire thinking our own private thoughts.

We were now half way through our Cambodia travel tour and it was time to backtrack towards Koh Chang. We again stopped at Koh Rong but this time on the western side of the island in a bay featuring intense, aquamarine water and fringed with blinding white sand as fine as talcum powder that squeaked when you walked on it. It was just so beautiful – Paradise found and a reminder of the magnificence that Mother Nature has bestowed upon this world all by herself for us to enjoy. The beach was about 6 kilometres in length and deserted but for an unoccupied hut at one end and a small fishing village at the other end. We spent the afternoon periodically enveloped in the aquamarine liquid and exploring the beach before reluctantly raising the anchor at dusk to motor for 3 hours to Koh Samit for what proved to be a rather eventful overnight stop.

until around 5am when a tremendous crash brought us hurriedly on deck again just in time to see a fishing boat reversing off the stern and speeding away at full throttle. Initial thoughts of giving chase were soon sensibly discounted given our location, as we inspected the damage which appeared to be all above the waterline. Under the eerie glow of the aft, white navigation light that appeared to have acted as a magnet for the fishing boat as it seemed he had headed straight for it. Our inspection revealed that the bathing platform was smashed the ladder having completely disappeared, the aft safety railing had been partially wrenched from the deck, one of the davits was gruesomely twisted at an angle pointing away from the boat and there was a deep V in stern where the fibreglass and teak had been splintered. It could have been worse as it appeared that the fishing boat had almost mounted our stern at an angle with the help of the bathing platform, rather than a full blooded smack by his prow. We had been sleeping inches from where he hit but thankfully no-one was injured and he had also missed the dinghy with outboard engine attached. We assume that the captain of the fishing boat was drunk, which would appear to be a regular
occurrence judging by all the empty liquor bottles we saw in the fishing village in Koh Rong and it was the only explanation we could think of for smashing into a yacht anchored under full navigation lights. Sleep was abandoned as we waited for dawn to recheck the damage which proved to be no worse than we already thought so we motored off in light drizzle across a dead flat sea. The drizzle was gone by 9am and the sun came out to cheer our passage to the north eastern coast of Koh Kut, an island to the south east of Koh Chang, and another delightful bay where we stopped and swam and explored as before. We were now back in Thai waters and moved to a deep water bay to moor against a rickety landing stage by a restaurant of sorts in a fishing village. Dinner consisted of some of the freshest crabs and prawns, deliciously cooked Thai style with chilli and other spices, that we had ever tasted. We anchored in this deep bay undaunted by the previous night’s events and had a thankfully peaceful night waking to warm sunshine on the last day of our adventure.
It was not so far from Thida’s base and so we had time to stop for snorkelling and swimming at Koh Rang a popular day trip for these activities before briefly visiting beautiful Koh Wai. We arrived back at Salat Phet and had lots of time to reflect on our voyage during the 6 hour road and ferry journey back to Bangkok. Memories of this trip will always linger – shimmering, silver, azure and aquamarine seas, powdery, white beaches, crystal clear waters and friendly Cambodians not to mention something that went "bump" in the night!

Visit my website for access to photographs of the trip.

Author Kevin Hellon has a website offering accounts of other interesting places to visit at http://kevinhellon.googlepages.com/home
 

Indochinese countries promote overland travel tours.

In 1989, following the end of the Cold War and civil wars in Indochina, then Thai Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan advocated transforming Indochina ''from a battlefield into a marketplace.''

The slogan, once dismissed as a mere pipe dream, has gradually become a reality as governments in the region work to improve infrastructure and facilitate the movement of goods and people.
Earlier this year, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam jointly organized a 33-vehicle caravan to tour those three countries by land -- the highlight of the journey being a visit to Cambodia's famed temples of Angkor, a World
 Heritage Site.

It took about four hours to traverse the 150-kilometer stretch of torturous road between the Cambodian town of Poipet, on the Thai border, and Cambodia's travel major tourist hub of Siem Reap, also in the northwest of the country.

As the dry season had begun in the region, farmers could be seen harvesting rice from golden paddy fields. Children carried farming tools to go work in the fields while others fished in ponds.

Most of the shabby houses along the dusty road were covered by reddish dirt and built on cement stilts, presumably to keep them dry during floods.

The western part of Cambodia was formerly under control of the now-defunct Khmer Rouge, held responsible for the deaths of more than 1.7 million Cambodians during their harsh rule in the late 1970s. It was only in the last decade that guerrillas gave up their arms and the area was opened up to outsiders.

According to Cambodian Tourism Minister Lay Prohas, construction work on the road from Poipet is scheduled to be completed within two years.

''Although it's a dirt road, you can do 60-80 kilometers an hour. It's quite comfortable,'' he claimed. ''But soon, within one to two years, traveling between Thailand and Cambodia from Poipet to Siem Reap will take only two hours.''

Cambodia has secured a soft loan from Thailand to improve the road at a cost of some 1.7 billion baht (about $42.5 million). ''We're politically committed to this project,'' Lay Prohas said.

The Cambodian government plans to build more roads for Cambodia travel tours linking Siem Reap to towns on or near the border with Thailand, including between Siem Reap and O'Smach, and between Siem Reap and Anlong Veng, he said.

Siem Reap is a fast-growing Cambodia travel town that welcomed about 500,000 tourists in 2004, a year when Cambodia as a whole received 1 million tourists. The tourism minister estimated 35 percent growth last year and projected that by the year 2010, Cambodia will have 4 million tourists, about half of them traveling to Siem Reap.

"On their Cambodia travel statistics, 50 percent of tourists choose Siem Reap. Therefore, the government is actively improving our infrastructure,'' he said.

Sompong Sanguanbun, Thailand's consul general in southern Vietnam's economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City, said the Mekong region has huge potential for economic growth and Indochinese countries are keen to accelerate free-market reforms.

''In the next five years, we expect to see more intraregional land transportation and travel within this region,'' Sompong said.

As part of the Indochina's so-called East-West Corridor, tour operators have recently begun overland tours from Thailand's northeastern Mukdahan Province to Savannakhet in southern Laos and across to the central Vietnamese coastal town of Hue.

To travel from Thai border town of Aranyaprathet into Cambodia, travelers have to switch to Cambodian buses on the other side of border in Poipet as the two countries have not resolved traffic impediments. Thailand uses the left-side-of-the-road driving rule while vehicles in Cambodia and Vietnam drive on the right side.

''It's not convenient for passengers and we hope to be able to check through in the near future,'' said Ho Vandy, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents.

Currently, 45-seat air-conditioned coaches operate two roundtrips daily between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City. It costs $10 for a one-way ticket. The service is set to be expanded to Siem Reap.

To facilitate smooth traveling in the region, authorities admit they need to improve not only transport routes but also visa and immigration procedures by harmonizing border formalities for travelers and vehicles.

Sompong said Mekong Basin countries participating in the Greater Mekong Subregion scheme, or GMS, are drafting a regional agreement on harmonizing international driving licenses and license plates. The six GMS members are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, along with China's Yunnan Province,
''I hope that through the GMS and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) collaboration, we'll be able to solve all the problems,'' he said. ''If we successfully tackle the problems, it'll be easier for the people to make use of the (Poipet to Siem Reap) road.''

ASEAN leaders agreed in 2003 to grant visa exemptions for ASEAN citizens but until now that vision has not been materialized. Cambodia, for example, has not agreed to give up its visa requirement for Thai and Vietnamese visitors.

Under a basic bilateral agreement between Thailand and Vietnam expected to be signed in the near future, Vietnamese cars will be allowed to enter the northeastern part of Thailand through Route 9 of the East-West Corridor, which passes through the Lao Bao border gate between Vietnam and Laos, through Savannakhet and then to Mukdahan.

Likewise, Vietnam will allow right-hand-drive cars from Thailand to enter the central part of Vietnam, according to Sompong. The Thai consul also pointed out, however, that Vietnam still has no agencies to issue international driving licenses.