If there is a saying that would speak the loudest for Cambodian diving, it would be More Fish & Fewer Divers. If you look at a map of South East Asia, Cambodia is surrounded by excellent scuba diving. You have Vietnam known for its Nudibranch and soft corals, and Thailand known for diving in two different bodies of water, the Adman Sea, famous for its leopard sharks and lionfish, and the Gulf of Thailand with its warm water where whale sharks can be seen, as well as a large assortment of reef fish like wrasses, parrots and angelfish.
In Cambodia, you have 2 PADI Dive Centers and a few smaller dive shops with instructors from SSI, CMAS, and NAUI. Go to Koh Tao in Thailand, and you have on just one small island 35 dive shops. Koh Chiang has over 20 dive shops and is less than 100 miles away as the crow flies from Sihanoukville, where all the diving takes place in Cambodia. The only difference between Koh Chiang in Thailand and Cambodia is a political border; fish, as you can guess, don't need visas and can cross the border anytime that they want without going through passport control. Know everything about Qatar Airways Cancellation Policy before booking a flight to Cambodia.
Cambodia's reefs are relatively shallow and close to islands. A few notable exceptions are Condor Reef, 6 hours out from Sihanoukville, and Sponge Factory, between Koh Rung Samleom and Koh Rung. There used to be wrecked, but they have been salvaged for the scrap metal. The US Army is still seeking "MIA's" believed to be on a helicopter off the Northwest side of Koh Tang, that is still missing, but local fisherman and dive operators figure that it to have been salvaged for the costly metals in a helicopter, namely aluminum, titanium and magnesium. Recently an ancient Chinese junk wreck was found, but it is under the control of the government, and you need special permission to dive into it.
The islands in the Koh Rung Group are where the majority of the day diving takes place in Cambodia and can be reached in under 2 hours. Most dive operators leave around 8 am and get back around 4 pm after doing 2 or 3 dives. You can find vast schools of snappers and fusiliers at these islands, and schools of orbital batfish often follow the divers around the dive sites. As the sites are not so deep, many dives will last over 1 hour for the divers that are better with air consumption. Check the complete guide about Qatar Flight Cancellation before booking a flight to Cambodia.
The Koh Tang Group is located about 4 to 5 hours out, and the dives tend to be more profound depending on the tide. The visibility is almost always double what you will find at the day dive sites, with 40-meter visibility a possibility every time you go there, with the average being 20 - 25 meters. Even when there is a lot of rainfall, diving is good at Koh Tang, where you can see large pelage's like sailfish, tuna's & cobias that get to be 2 meters long. Dolphins and white-bellied sea eagles are seen here as well.
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