Koh Tang today is largely forgotten as the final battleground of the Vietnam War. Positioned within the Gulf of Thailand it is 35 miles from the port of Sihanoukville Cambodia. There aren’t any memorials here, as soon as I heard the distinctive sound of a AK47 ripping through a clip poking holes within the sky fired in anger over a poker gamer, typically these days you’ll still hear explosions, however they’re connected additional to poverty than to war, since desperate men risk their lives in an exceedingly continuing battle to make cash from a slowly decaying fishing ground that is systematically being depleted by the Vietnamese and Thailand fishing fleets, illegally fishing in Cambodian water for squid and shrimp mostly. Thankfully the dynamite blasts are down to a trickle because the Cambodians are discouraging this at the upper levels and it’s starting to be really enforced.

Underwater there are not any visible artifacts or proof that the battle ground was here. The USA MIA teams are nevertheless looking for a helicopter lost and never recovered throughout the Mayaguez incident, but many here speculate that it was found a while ago, and love the other submerged wrecks in this half of South East Asia was salvaged for the metals that they’re composed of. The long-lasting helicopter of the Vietnam War nicknamed “Heuys” I have been told are mostly aluminum, magnesium and titanium which would bring a pleasing reward to the salvager.

Koh Tang nowadays is one amongst the best scuba diving areas in cambodia tours with many Sihanoukville dive firms running overnight visits out to the current large uninhabited island group. Large fish like cobias and sail fish also giant faculties of jacks, snappers and fusiliers swim over the reef in large numbers as broken reef section are repaired by mother nature, with recent coral colonies of “apcora” (a typically known variety being stag horn coral) ever-increasing at a rapid pace, and the fish stocks displaced begin to recover. The diving is good, no crowds and several massive shallow sections, yet because the deep reefs escaped damage, thus there is large dive opportunities interspersed with the broken coral beds. The most recognized dive web site in Cambodia would be Virgin Reef that has never been utterly dived due to its massive size, is blessed with healthy fish stocks and a few amazing coral gardens stretching for tons of meters out from the island.

Fred Title has lived and worked in vacation vacation resorts his complete life, from Lake Geneva’s Playboy Club, as a rock jock for KSPN FM in Aspen Colorado, he became a PADI Pro Scuba Diver in Hawaii, diving on Maui, Kauai, Kona on the massive island, and Waikiki on Oahu. He now owns EcoSea Dive in Sihanoukville cambodia tours but he teaches SSI and PADI scuba diving courses and runs liveaboards within the gulf of Thailand and Asia journey tours.