Leaving Otres Beach for the Day

Our boat du jour

After 3 days of relaxing, eating, drinking sunbathing, swimming and more relaxing, we knew we had to leave our hotel to see what the rest of Sihanoukville had to offer. So, we bought tickets from a beach hawker to do an island hop with some included snorkeling.

We were picked up at our hotel at 8:30 am via tuk-tuk and our driver took us to Otres 1 (about a 7 minute drive).  Once there, we were herded onto a shoddy looking boat with about 15 other people.  Shoddy or not, this boat was to take us snorkeling so Allan and I were thrilled.

On route to Koh Tas

This island hop was to take us to three different spots: Koh Tas (snorkeling only), Koh Russei (aka Bamboo Island) and Koh Ta Kiev (snorkeling only).

It's a snorkeling Christina!

Here fishy, fishy

The first spot took about an hour to get to.  Once there, we were given some snorkel gear and "told to avoid the sea urchins and to jump in".  So, jump in we did.  This spot, though beautiful, didn't have a lot of activity but the snorkeling was still fun.  We stayed here for about 45 minutes.  After we all boarded the boat, we headed over to Koh Russei (Bamboo Island) for the adventure portion of the trip.

After our jungle trek, we fall on the sand of a gorgeous hidden beach

We docked at Bamboo Island, the place we were to have lunch, and were told that we were going to walk through the jungle to do some swimming on the other side.  Walked through the jungle we did and ran into a King Cobra crossing the path.  I was screaming much to loud to get a picture (along with a few other travelers) and our guide then said that "we should never be wearing sunglasses in the jungle".  We learned out lesson for the trip back.

Beachfront property: Our lunch spot

Showing off the tan

Allan looking cool as ever

Anyway, we arrived at the other side and fell upon a beautiful beach.  Lone bungalows lined the beachfront, along with many other adventurers, and we all stayed here for a swim and some Angkor Beer.  Once happily sated with liquids, we made the scary jungle trek back to get some grub.

Our lunch was delicious: BBQ chicken, rice, coleslaw and baguettes.  After lunch, we relaxed for a bit on the beach, then boarded the boat again for our last stop: Koh Ta Kiev.

Looking oh so sexy in my snorkeling gear

It's the purple sea monster

This was again a snorkel-only spot and the same advice was given as the other spot, but this spot also included a "beware of reef sharks too".  On that note, we all flung ourselves over the edge of the boat to snorkel away.  After about 35 minutes, we all boarded the boat to go back to the main land.

Back at the bungalow in time for the setting sun

All in all, for a $15 adventure it was one of the best things we've ever done.  However, we're both thinking that maybe we should learn how to scuba dive to spice up our adventures....ha