Exploration & Research Trip to Koh Kong, Shark Island, Koh Sdach and Condor Reef

The Dive Shop Cambodia has just been exploring the far away islands together with Shallow Waters Conservation by running a trip to the most unknown divesites in Cambodia. Also we have been happy to host Kath Kelly and her team from Thailand conducting survey dives and taking water samples with the idea to found a large marine protected area in the Gulf of Thailand. Also Jelena, the PADI instructor from Koh Song Saa private island has been invidet to join the trip. After picking up the Shallow Waters staff as well as Kath and her team at Koh Sdach, we went straight to Koh Kong. This island close to the border to Thailand has been hardly dived so we took the plunge and went for some dives straight away. As expected, the visibility was not too great but we did find some sites rich of marine life.
We spent two days exploring Koh Kong before we went to dive one of the highlights of the trip: Shark Island, a very small island far off the coast which has been a premiere for The Dive Shop's staff as well. Diving at Shark Island was superior, visibility of around 25m made the survey dives easy and the fundives more than enjoyable. The highlights at Shark Island were the enormous amount of purple soft corals found at a pinnacle close to the island as well as the Bullshark which Jelena spotted close to the shore of Shark Island. Apart from the pelagics, the amount of different nudibranch species around the island were remarkable.
After dropping the scientists off at the Shallow Waters base at Koh Sdach, we could not resist to also visit Condor Reef, an offshore pinnacle west of Koh Rong. This site is famous for the excellent visibility, we have had up to 40m during our dives. Searching for a shipwreck which must be located close to Condor Reef did not end with gold and tresure but instead we have seen a turtle and we managed to find the cargo of the sunken ship, thousands of bags of concrete piling up almost like a reef.
The conclusion of the trip: We need to go again! The next trip to Shark island, Koh Sdach and Condor Reef is scheduled for the 20. of April, limited space is still available.

Molika's wedding

The whole Dive Shop team would like to say well done to Molika who has become married yesterday evening! It was a good fun wedding with plenty of tasty local food, beer and a great DJ not only planing Karaoke but also a few 'normal' songs for us few westerners!

Especially our Divemaster trainee nano enjoyed the company of sooo many beautiful ladies around him! :)

Congratulations again!

Shark Stanley

Shark Stanley and his friends
were playing on the reef
When down came a net that
swept them away.
But at last when they escaped,
they saw to their grief,
Their home had no sharks!
Leaving it barren and grey.

Now Stan and his buddies are
searching the ocean
From Canada to Cyprus and
Colombia to Cambodia
For friends to stand up and
cause a commotion
Because the world needs
sharks to help save the seas!

If you would like to help Stanley with this mission, you can print this picture of him, cut it out, and take a photo with him anywhere you wish. Then please send the photo along with your name and nationality to info@sharkdefenders.com . Stanley's supporters are compiling your photosfrom around the world to share on their blog and web pages, and sending them to governments voting at CITES to get their support! Help us to reach the goal of collecting at least 5000 photos from all 176 CITES countrys. You can download the Stanley graphic here:

Welcome back Eric

He has returned!!! The long wait is finally over 'Mr Diveshop' Eric is back. After spending the last 8 months diving around Indonesia Eric has comeback. Not only does Eric bring a whole lot of crazy back to The Diveshop but he also brings a very impressive resume. Eric is The Diveshop original, our first PADI Instructor. Since then Eric has become a PADI Tec Rec instructor, a SSI instructor and a very experienced Rebreather Diver. It's great to welcome you back into The Diveshop team.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Javi is back!

Welcome back Javier, our Spanish dive instructor who has been instructing in The Dive Shop two seasons ago. By now, Javier is DSAT Tec diving instructor! After leaving us in May 2011, he has been managing the dive center Buceo Balea back home in Spain at the Atlantic coast. Galicia is known for historical shipwrecks as well as cold water temperatures. Now Javi is happy to dive in 29 degrees C watertemperature again!

Welcome back mate!

Inspirational Sunsets

Simply breathtaking moments were captured thanks to zed-photographie.fr on our beautiful private bay, Robinsons Bungalows. These photographs were taken over a series of days with dramatic results. Take a look at our selection of the best..

''Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky...''

There's a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they're absolutely free. Don't miss so many of them and join us at Robinsons Bungalows on Koh Rong Samloem. Make it a News Years resolution, see you there!