Christmas and Boxing Day Diving (Dec. 25, 26, 2014)

These two days were filled with adventure, beauty and fun. I left to meet everyone at Scuba Nation Dive Center for 7 am on Christmas Day. There were 6 of us all together, plus the three dive masters and the two crew. 

Divers and dive master

Divers and one dive master

We were driven out to the pier, which was about 15 minutes away, by van. We boarded the boat and off we went, to our first dive site, which was about a 2 hour boat ride. The water was beautiful and the landscape breathtaking. They got all of us to go up to the top level for a ‘briefing’ about what was going to go on. While they were telling us about the trip and our first dive, others were below setting up our Christmas breakfast, complete with a little Christmas tree and presents. It was so cute and really touched my heart. The breakfast was great too, nothing super special, but just plain good. My favourite part of the meal was the jar of peanut butter they had, along with jam and fresh buns. Yes, I even ate the buns, as I so wanted to have the peanut butter. It was delicious and a fantastic Christmas breakfast on the ocean. Here are some of the pics.

6 divers and one dive master

Us on the boat before leaving the
pier.

View as boat left the pier

Christmas morning

Christmas morning

My Christmas gifts

Presents 

Private resort on island........
$3000 US per night!

Me on Christmas morning

View from the boat as we left

After breakfast and present opening, we got ready to do our first dive. What an incredible thing to do on Christmas morning with a lovely blue ocean and water temperature at 28 degrees with a nice sun. The dive site was called Sponge Garden at Koh Rong Samloem, Cambodia and it was an ok dive, but visibility wasn’t great, only about 3 meters or so. The water had a lot of particles stirred up and it was difficult to see anything very far away. I did see some lovely corals though, which I hadn’t seen many of in Thailand. That was cool. Also, my new mask that I bought, was leaking a lot from one side, and ended up being too big for me. Luckily, I had another one along with my diving gear, from the dive shop, and used it after the second dive, which made a world of difference. After the trip, they swapped my mask for a smaller one that fits perfectly so all worked out.

Once finished our first dive, which lasted about 50 minutes, we got back onto the boat to go to our second dive site which was called Nudy Branchs Heaven. It too was near the island of Koh Rong Samloem. We stayed down for 59 minutes on this dive, so that was great. The boat guy that assisted the captain had cooked our lunch which was ready and waiting for us to have before the second dive. It was a yummy Khmer rice dish with lots of carrots, veggies, peppers and other things in it, nicely spiced. As well he had done some pan fried chicken fillets with a nice spice as well. There were egg omelettes and sweet chill sauce with Cambodian fruit for dessert. Amazing! 

Khmer rice dish

Egg omelettes and chicken

My yummy lunch bowl

Again, the water was mirky with limited visibility, but there were some amazing fish to see and it was just wonderful to be under water, listening to my breath, and gliding through the sea. I kept thinking that this was Christmas day and how incredible it was that I was under water, enjoying all the beautiful marine life.

Sites along the way

Beautiful beach along island

After the second dive, the captain took a break, and he and the boat boy helper started fishing off the back of the boat. They used only fishing line with a hook and weight on the end. They would throw it into the sea, then feel it over their fingers, and pull the line in when they felt a fish. They kept reeling fish after fish after fish into the boat using this method. Apparently, you can feel the fish bite a lot better without a rod. It was incredible to watch and you could tell that both of them loved the water, sea and boat more than anything.

Happy Captain

Bucket of fish at the beginning

Captain fishing

Bucket of fish growing every cast

My third dive, the night dive, was the best. I used the smaller mask, had no problems with the water coming in, and the visibility was much better at this site. I love diving at night as everything looks different and the dark water is exciting and lovely. We went down and immediately saw the beautiful plankton that is iridescent and lights up everything when you move in the water. I saw two blow fish, many other small, sleeping fish, and lots of pretty coral. It was the best dive of the day, by far. I came up feeling energized and so happy to have shared this with the sea. The dive site was called Two Tone on the other side of the island, Koh Rong Samloem. There are many places to dive near and around this island. It was actually closer to another small island, but I didn’t get the name of that one. We stayed down for the night dive for about 45 minutes which was an incredible dive. The last two dives were only about 7 meters deep, but this one was about 12 meters.

Once I showered and got dressed, we sat down to our Christmas dinner. It was so sweet, the extra thought and effort that the dive company put into our meal. We had pate, crackers, olives, pickles, wine, both red and white, bread, pasta with homemade fish in a tomato sauce, as well as real blue, camembert and some other kind of cheese, for dessert. It was really lovely and we all enjoyed it.

Christmas sunset

Christmas dinner group

Pate

Fish pasta

Table for supper

Christmas wine being opened with
no bottle opener.....lol.

Dessert cheeses

Soon after that, we were all ready to crash, so we went up to the top level of the boat to find the tarps put down, and mattresses on cots or risers, with blankets, and sheets for each of us. It was lovely to sleep on the rocking boat with the wind blowing over me, and the smell of the sea, rocking me to sleep. I think everyone fell asleep in 5 minutes.

Beds for sleeping

I got a double sized mattress

Waking up in the morning

 The next day, Boxing Day, we awoke, and had breakfast which was buns, omelettes with onions and peppers, some sausages and fruit. Then we drove for a while in the boat to our first dive site of the day. It was a gorgeous day, very clear with bright sunshine and looked amazing for diving. We arrived at Victoria’s Secret Garden site and were in the water by 8:30. The visibility was much better than yesterday and we could see for about 8-10 meters in front of us. The water wasn’t mirky and the conditions perfect. On this dive we went down to 12 meters for about 56 minutes and saw some real specimens that we hadn’t before. There was school of Kobie fish which I think belong to the eel family that are cream in colour, round, skinny and long. These ones were about 6 feet long and surprised me a little to see them just hanging out by the rocks. I haven’t seen fish this large before so out of the blue, to see them there, was pretty cool. As well, I kept feeling that there was a string or something from my equipment, brushing on my bare legs. I looked down and saw a Needle Fish or Raymora, which is long, black and white, and cleans larger fish by sticking onto them and nibbling off the excess skin or whatever. It also surprised me but kept up to us for over half an hour, only attaching itself to me……lol. It was a very neat experience and I couldn’t help feel that in some way I was special and that it wasn’t scared of me, but instead wanted to show me the love. I am so very lucky with the things that happen to me.

View from the boat

Different view

Happy me

We finished with that dive, then got back onto the boat. The captain wasn’t ready to go to our next site yet, so we stayed in this little calm, clear water bay, next to the island. I thought the water looked so inviting that I put on my mask, snorkel and fins and went snorkelling for a while before we had to leave. It was a great idea and I saw so many huge schools of wrasse, parrot fish and many many others. It was so gorgeous and they were as clear to see as ever because the water was like glass. I saw incredible things along the reef of the island and stayed in the water for about an hour before we had to pull up anchor to leave.

Blue clear water on Boxing Day

Snorkeling was great here

Kitchen on boat

Our last dive site was called Koh Kon West and was amazing as well. It was such a great day for diving today. We stayed down for 50 minutes at 12 meters and saw great things, again. This time I saw a huge blue spotted Sting Ray, a large spotted Grouper and a Sea Star, which I have never seen before. I wasn’t even sure what it was until after we got back onto the boat and I looked in the large fish book. Then I found it and knew what the name of it was.

We chugged back to land for about 4 hours, got back into the van and were taken back to the Scuba Nation office for final goodbyes. What a fantastic Christmas, even if I wasn’t with family. I really enjoyed what I did, and will never forget my tropical, marine Christmas.

Hope you enjoyed it too!