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Published: August 3rd 2009
Nha Trang
Our boat.Saturday, April 11th 2009
For today we had booked a tour with one of the travel agencies that would take us to several islands, snorkeling and to an aquarium. We hadn’t really wanted to go with a big tourist group, but didn’t have much choice, since the individual tours were too expensive.
We (a group of about 30 people) got on a boat and drove to the aquarium, which was just 20 minutes away. I think it would have been better to not go and pay the overpriced entrance fee, since it was just awful the way they held the sea animals. Especially vietnamese and other asian tourists were constantly taking pictures (with a flash) in front of the fish tanks and knocked on the glass. Outside there was a little bigger pond like thing with some sea turtles. But also here, the vietnamese visitors did not respect the animals, instead they would feed the turtles and grab their legs, pose for pictures while twisting them in a hurtful way. It was just shameful and upsetting to us and we wished that we wouldn’t have gone.
After that we went to go snorkeling. Once again we were disappointed, since in
Nha Trang
View from where we had lunch. the brochure it had said that we would do that for two hours instead of one like the guide told us. I had never tried it, but was eager to learn. At first it was kind of hard to breathe through my nose, but then I got more calm and enjoyed it A LOT. For describing what I saw and felt I don’t think that I have the right words for it. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! I'm a big fan of the movie ‘Finding Nemo’ and couldn’t believe that I was actually seeing such fish that were shown in the movie. The equipment was pretty bad, but since this was my first time snorkeling I didn't mind much.
We drove on for a while and then stopped for lunch, that was alright. Afterwards the crew from the boat played some music, which somehow only the vietnamese tourists thought was fun and all of us ‘westeners’ spent that time up on the deck sunbathing. It was strange, since when you go on a trip on the water you do get tan. But all the vietn. women that were on the boat, were dressed like it was winter, trying to protect themselves
Nha Trang
Yay, I went snorkeling!! from the sun. It seemed like the cultural differences were huge and difficult to overcome that day on the boat.
After lunch we jumped into the water again to have some mulberry wine from a floating bar. I kept on getting stung by jellyfish, so I didn’t stay in the water for long.
The last stop was also a big disappointment. The booklet had advertised time on a beach to relax. Uhm, the “beach” turned out to be a stone filled strip of land before you climbed down concrete steps to get into the water.
I know it sounds like I’m complaining big time here, but the whole day was just a big disappointment and they hardly followed what they had advertised! So, we were irritated of having wasted our money and time and were glad to finally get of the boat and be on our own again. My advise is to really think about whether its worth going on such a touristy tour or not. Let me tell you what we decided to do for the next few days and I think that’s a MUCH better idea than a tour like that 😊
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