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Published: April 17th 2008
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Sailing Club
Ben - mid discussion - after a 'bucket' or two... Arriving into Nha Trang in the early hours by night bus gave us a great view of the sunrise and the bus made it's bumpy way up along Vietnam's East coast. The sand looked fine and the sea refreshing.
We jumped straight off the bus and into one of the town's many many guest houses and were soon sunning ourselves on the beach. Although it had barely dropped below 35 degrees since Singapore, we had only had limited beach time, so we (and when I say we, I mean 'I') had the typical golfer's suntan of golden arms, a semi-permanent V-neck and tanned legs, but as white a torso and feet as you've ever seen. It was definitely time to ditch the Factor 30 and get the oil out.
Without going crazy, we did all develop some colour in the next couple of days, largely because it was so difficult to pull ourselves away from the beach. On the first morning, when we headed down for some sun and a quick dip, we were the only people, let alone tourists, within 500m either side. It was almost too quiet, but it occurred to us that people spend thousands and
Laurel & Hardy
Ben & Liam in flattering attire.... thousands of pounds to go to evermore distant locations for such tranquility and we had stumbled across it just 300m from our US$12-a-night hotel! This travelling life can be pretty tough!
Re-energised by a few days on the beach, we headed out for a few beers in one of the Lonely Planet's recommended bars. A few more followed and by the small hours we found ourselves in another of the LP's highlights - the Sailing Club. It was the 'Full Moon Party' and, although it cannot compare with the alleged mania of Koh Pha-Ngan, a DJ set on the reveller-full beach made for a fun night.
Nursing minor headaches the next day, we took the 40m high cable-car trip over the sea to a nearby island, with it's own Water and Amusement Parks - Vinpearl. Arriving was extremely eery, as there were at most 20 people on the whole island (plus approx. 60 staff!), including our group of us 3 boys, 3 girls from England, Canada and Australia, as well as 2 blokes from Oz. We had our turn on every ride without ever queueing, enjoying slides, chutes, rings (inc. a 6-way tube ride down a pretty cool
All ok!
Liam - all kitted up - signals his well-being prior to the 2nd dive! slide!) and any other water park ride you can imagine.
Another lazy few beach days passed - the temperature not dropping below about 32C - and so by the 5th day we told ourselves that we couldn't stay here forever (most of the world still waited to be seen!) and so me (Ben) and Liam booked ourselves onto a "Discover Scuba Diving" course for the next morning. A very restrained evening of just a single beer each and early night (although I must admit I've slept better) left us relatively awake and alert enough for the perils of the open ocean. We met the dive team and other divers at about 7am, and took the team bus to the nearby harbour and our boat. A 45-minute run out to a nearby coral and we were good to go.
We had a quick briefing from the instructors, but were reassured to learn that by not doing the official PADI Qualification Course they would not even let go of us under the water - all we had to do was breath (easier said than done with water all around you!) and look. After donning our gear and leaping excitedly into
The Dive Master
Ben geared up for Dive No. 2! the (reasonably warm) water, we were taken around on the surface for a minute or two to get used to the regulator, then we began to descend.
It was an incredible feeling to sink through the water so quickly and before we knew it we were at a depth of about 5m or so, having to equalise our ears to the surrounding water pressure, and slowly being shown around this 'new world'! I'll admit to being a little tense the night before, but it's amazing how quickly your breathing steadies and you start enjoying just floating around at neutral bouyancy around some of Asia's best coral. We saw fish too numerous to mention - there must have been a hundred species or more - and the coral (itself a living organism) was equally colourful and impressive. We re-surfaced after about 30 or 40mins and sooned devoured 2 of the baguettes provided, confident at last that any sustenance would not later come back to haunt us by blocking our life-giving regulators! The second dive felt much more natural and we both felt we were able to take in much more of what was going on around us. With Australia the
View of Nha Trang
From onboard our Dive Boat only other Scuba country left on our itinerary we decided there would be little point in enrolling for another 3 days to get our basic PADI licences, but it is probably something to be done some time in the future.
Having done all Nha Trang had to offer, we caught the night bus that evening (although not before a quick Jet-Ski and Parasailing session - what a day!!!) and slept all the way to Hoi An.
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