I have always wanted to swim with fishes. There was no doubt scuba diving never crossed my mind. I was pretty insistent with mum. I called up to book my course and the cheapest transportation I can find.
Monday night of the 19th, I got on the train and headed off to Nha Trang to get my PADI Open Water certificate. I met Minh for the first time, our parents work together and he will be my partner for the next few days. We had a few friendly conversation and then fell fast asleep.
5.00 am we arrived at Nha Trang train station. It was pretty early but both of us woke up quickly and walked to Minh's uncle house. I carried my small rucksack and felt very excited.
We met the nice couple who would be taking us in for the time we are here. We ate breakfast and soon enough got on the bike to our dive centre - VINADIVE. Hung was our instructor and he was great! We had to sign some paperwork, watch the DVD and read over the book for the first 2 hours. After that, we headed to Ho Boi Quan Doi (the Military pool) not so far from the dive centre.
Here we got change into our wetsuit and prepare to get our hands on the scuba gear. They were cleaning the pool so the water were pretty low and quite dirty. Not that it stops us from swimming. We put on our snorkel and fins, and started swimming. Hung was pretty happy with us because we were good swimmers and I could keep a steady speed.
We got out and this time to learn how to set up our BCD. Several steps of checking required but they were pretty easy to grasp. We learn quickly and took our gear down the pool. The lesson of the day was to equalization, breathing with the cylinder, how to find the breather, cleaning our goggles, etc. After that, free swim to get use to our instrument until we got sick of breathing from the cylinder.
We finished our day at lunch and we took our books to a cafe to study. Later, we watched a movie and then headed back to rest.
I could not wait to start our second day of the course because today we are heading out to the sea!
7.30 am, the bus picked us up and several others along the way to head to Nha Trang's port. There were two from Hanoi, the rest were foreigners. We got on our boat and sat at the back. Hung told us to set up our BCD. We revised exactly what we did yesterday and finished with a good tick! Now just waiting to actually get off and dive.
(Hence our first photo of the day here)
We soon had to get into our wetsuit which will keep us warm underwater. I was very excited!
A picture of me and my BCD!
We finally got to Hon Mun and we were getting down around 10m deep, did some exercise from our lesson yesterday and basically just play! The corals were beautiful and I was so happy seeing so many fishes and my god touch a star fish for the first time. We did two dives at two location but when I got up I was so so happy that I jumped off to swim again until the boat really had to leave. I was able to carry my 14kg BCD up the boat which was a shock to many (haha I'm quite strong!) The crew were great fun and lovely! Many laughter on the boat. We enjoyed a nicely cooked lunch from one of the cook onboard before we finished for the day. I couldn't imagine how much I would love the underwater world. I knew I love swimming and all but this was on another plane! I was so happy I couldn't sleep that night.
The third day started off pretty much the same as the second. We are diving deeper today, around 15m. We knew the drill of how the day was gonna go. Hung checked the Review in my book and explained some works to me like planning my dive which of course, I'm never good at!
The boat took us out to Pagoda island this time. We got down and dive. Today, we dive with Hung. We just have a tour around, no lesson which was great. The water was clearer too. We saw more fishes and corals. I have a much bigger appreciation for corals now more than ever.
Here is a picture of Minh and I before I jumped down for another swim (because we have to wait until everyone finished their dives. One of the crew asked if I wanted to jump off from the top of the boat. Hell yea! of course and I jumped three times which made the whole boat laugh because I was a very stubborn girl. I did the "yo-most" way and the head down as well! Fantastic fun!
Once we got back on the boat, I realised the best part of the trip was over. I no longer swim with fishes neither dive down to see corals. Although I was still high on the flow adrenaline.
We got to the port and back to the office where we learn how to write in our new dive log book and finally complete our training. We are now officially one of PADI Open Water divers. We said goodbye to Hung and thank him for an amazing 3 days dive of my life.
Before we got on the plane back home to Saigon, Dung and his wife made us a lovely barbe on the top of their house. The weather was lovely and we had a lovely fresh air from the vegetable garden they were growing. They had been wonderful at taking care of us. I am quite sure I have gotten fatter after the 3 days trip!
This was without a doubt the best decision I have ever made. Scuba diving was amazingly awesome. I have finally found my sport. I can't wait to get down into the water again!
