Cambodia

We arrived to Phnom Penh after short visit of Malaysia in March 2016. Surprisingly in not so hot weather, we could walk and visit  Wat Phnom,  Royal Palace and Library from outside,  Mekong River Boulevard and night market in just 2 hours.

 We took Mekhong Express Limousine bus to  Siem Reap next day,  quite bumpy ride, but not so thrilling bumpy like the  night Vitrak Buntham Bus with semi-flat bed seats.

Siam Reap was hot and dry. We got a eco motorcycle with  Max 30 km/h which is quite good enough when each road lane had all sorts of vehicles counter flowing . This was specially exciting on crossroads.

Anna was pregnant,  so we cut our visit only to 5 temples-  Angkor Wat first day,  and  Kravan, Ta Prohm ,  Preah Khan and Bayon the day after. Just riding a bike over a wooden bridge, through  Angkor Thom,  it's spectacular entry gates and with its temples on both sides of the road on a vast open space  were just worth it so much despite the heat.

In Sihanoukville  we stayed in Legacy Bungalow near the Otres beach.  The nearest good snorkeling spot, as recommended by locals,  is the northwestern tip of Kaoh Chandon island just  4 km od  1 hour kayaking from the Otres Beach.  Visibility was low,  and it is still far from  Ream National Park,  so with so many fishing boats around we could not see too many big fish,  just some Parrot fishes .  It was beautiful for large boulders covered with hard corals and schools of small fish.

Next day we visited M'Pai Bei Fishing Village on a speedboat from Serendipity Beach Pier in Sihanoukville. It was great ride going there but coming back with huge waves it was a tough journey for  Anna,  but they had plastic bags on board :) After arriving to the Pier 23 across  Eco Dive Bungalows in M'Pai Bei we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the beach.  We decided to walk alongside it, instead of taking boat shuttle to the village. We had great local cheap lunch and arranged a boat for snorkeling around Koh Koun directly in a restaurant. Visibility underwater during snorkeling was only 10 meters,  the highlights were few schools of midsized fishes and  later on the  M'Pai Bei cove 2 shrimps in soft corals.