Flores was one of the most beautiful place I’ve visited in terms of the fauna or wildlife I encountered during the visit. Not only it’s is famous for the protected Komodo Dragon national park but in the water as well.
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Flores
Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan Flores – Irawan -
Kampot Cambodia
Kampot is a cute old river town about two hour drive from Sihanoukville where we spent first week in our Cambodia trip. It has a very strong European touch in some of the buildings around the town and along the river from French colonial era. Some of them have been restored and redecorated into restaurants and accommodation without changing their basic French market shapes. The actual centre of the town is the funny fruit ball and giant durian statue round about.
There are basically two types of touristy ‘crowd’ in Kampot, ones in the town where all the old buildings have been transformed to accommodation and restaurants and those that are actually on the Kampot river banks.
Kampot Old Buildings 
Kampot River Accommodation by the river -
Beach life in Sihanoukville Cambodia
Sihanoukville is located about 185km South West of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It’s a beach town, one of the whitest sandy peninsulas I’ve ever been to that spreads into the warm Gulf of Thailand. This cute little town is also known as Kampong Saom and is relatively new as it was built in 1955 different from any other place in Cambodia, there is no old colonial building in town. And it’s probably the least crowded traffic in South East Asia I’ve been to. We started our trip from Phnom Phenh by taking bus for about 3 hours and spend our first three nights in Otres Beach then took a boat from Sihanoukville to Koh Rong.
Serendipity Beach Lobster Seller 
Aro, our funky tuktuk driver in Sihanoukville Otres Beach
It was bit disappointing at first when we arrived to this beach as we were expecting nice and quiet accommodation we’ve booked and paid at the Secret Garden. The staff that managed the booking kinda stuffed it up so we didn’t get any room despite our confirmed booking. However, Ken was very apologetic and kind enough to find us another place to stay and treat us very well with welcome drinks and lunch. He rang his mate at Mushroom Points by the beach and booked us cute little Smurfy mushroom-like bungalow by the beach. It was not a kind of accommodation we were expected to be but we were determined to enjoy whatever happen to our holiday as always and didn’t make it difficult.
Mushroom point happened to be one of our favorite accommodations simply because the bar/restaurant set up and lazy beds by the beautiful white sandy beach that was maintained very well and they have friendly staff. The basic room became insignificant when we enjoyed such friendliness and sandy set up like it is its own luxury as we didn’t even have a time to spend time in the room, mostly just sitting by the shady beach and talking to friendly staff at the bar with our own music selections.
This beach is the first time I learned that there are many young Europeans working while holidaying as a basic staff in third world country like Cambodia. I didn’t even want to know about local government policy on their working visa and I can understand such thing in Australia because they get paid very well but in Cambodia, they are working for accommodation and lifestyle.
The Otres beach itself is such a beautiful long white sandy beach that has such a little number of accommodations and restaurants considering how beautiful the beach is although there are some rather aggressive and persistent vendors, masseuses and tour agents offering their services while we just wanting to relax enjoying the beach. And I rate the beach cleanliness as 6 out of ten when I took a walk to the empty beach side, where there are no hotels and restaurant but couldn’t take my eyes on the rubbish that were so obvious.
Otres Beach Sihanoukville Sunset – Irawan 
Lazy beds at Mushroom Points Otres Beach Sihanoukville 
Sna, the man of Otres Beach Sunset 
Sna, the man of the Otres Beach Sihanoukville Koh Rong
We got our ticket from Otres Beach to Koh Rong from the agent offering us a return ticket for US$ 20 for two, and they picked us up in time as they promised. The boat ride was 2 hours and it was a bit windy and rainy. Min, the ticket seller, suggested that we don’t have to worry about booking accommodation as it is a low season so we will get any place to sleep easily. There are heaps of guest houses just right around the harbour along the beach. Its not the cleanest little backpacker village I’ve seen but pretty cute setup. There are some locals and expats offering rooms and guest houses from US $5/night as we hop off the boat and enter the village.
Unfortunately, it was not the best beach weather when we got there to enjoy the whitest beach sand in the region but still very pleasant to spent the holiday in. Night swimming with fluoro glowing plankton is pretty popular on this island.
We stayed at the Tree House Bungalows located at the end of the beach, which is quite secluded and peaceful. There are unique bungalows that look like treehouse by the beach and the guest has to actually climb two storeys to go to the room. We just picked the ordinary bungalow for US $ 30/night. It has its on a secluded and private beach with some lazy beds at the front of the lodge/restaurant and a beautifully maintained garden with some lights that shine beautifully at night.
Electricity and water are not constantly on. The electricity will be started at 5.30pm until 10.30pm and in the morning until 10.30am. The staff recommend to leave your precious belonging to the save box at the lodge.
Koh Rong Beach in the morning 
Koh Rong Island, Tree House Bungalows -
Split Level (Over-Under) Water Photography
Not only because I myself enjoy scuba diving and snorkeling, I like to explore any photography styles related to what I enjoy doing. Split Level Underwater photography is one of them. It’s also known as ‘over-under’ or ‘split-shots’ an amazing technique to take an underwater photo but include what’s above the water as well. So its a half way split between water and the air.
They often are taken with wide angle or fisheye lenses with big dome port to capture both sides. To be able to capture both side clearly it’s better to use small aperture for the clear focus and best shot in a shallow and calm water. This technique could be tricky as the air and water has different index of refraction. To understand the science deeper, here’s the tutorial on how to do it by Jonathan Bird.
Here are some amazing samples of Split Level or Over-Under photography, David Doubilet is one of the most outsanding underwater photographers with this technique:
David Doubilet | Southern Stingrays Grand Caymand Island 
David Doubilet 
David Doubilet 
Tim Grollimund 
Meanwhile in the Philippines 
Octopus, Italy | Pasquale Vassallo 
Lionsman Jelly by Native Marine 
Kona Village Resort, Big Island, United States 
Mahout Elephant Underwater – Best photos National Geographic August 2010 – Cesare Naldi 
Baby green sea turtle French Polynesia – by David Doubilet 
Photo by Kelly Broaken 
Bunaken, Sulawesi, Indonesia – photographer unknown 
Shawn Jackson And here are some of the big buggers to shoot it with :
David Doubilet on assignment Grand Cayman Island 
Dome Port 
Ikelite dive housing 
Big 8 inch Dome Port Ikelite And I have to share this interview of David Doubilet going through one by one of his best shots at the The World We Explore- David Doubilet Zeitgeist Americas 2012. And yes, he mentioned Raja Ampat of West Papua is like a dream place and I wish I will be able to go there someday: