This is a corrected, rewritten post of my trip to Nha Trang and Whales island.
Without a doubt, my summer holiday has been exceptionally exciting and
adventurous this year. A lot of this reassured me that my decision to study
Geography.
Why?
Well, I have always been dreaming up on some kind of "perfect
adventure" trip for a long time. I thought the school trip to Morocco was
going to be it. When I failed that, I thought may be the partnership in Tamil
Nadu might make up for my disappointment until I had to turn it down because I
couldn't afford to pay for it. And so, as I hear stories and photographs of my
friends having an amazing time there, I finally realised - Now I can sit
here, in my room, doing nothing and wishing I was there or actually go out and
make my own "perfect adventure" to happen for me.
I absolutely did just that! The first thing I thought of was diving. I
wanted to go back after last summer spending the most incredible time under the
sea and getting an Openwater certificate in Nha Trang. That night, I searched
and rang up Rainbow Diver in Nha Trang immediatly to organise my first summer
trip. It took me quite a few days trying to organise the trip with Minh (who
went with me last year) and My Linh Hime - my best friend. Minh and I wanted to
top up our knowledge with the Advanced Open Water course and My Linh is a total
newbie to diving.
Why it was quite an effort organising the trip? A few things to
consider:
Firstly, I wanted to see a new place and Phu Quoc island (South tip of
Vietnam) at this time of the year is no good for diving.
Secondly, I would prefer not traveling with my family or in a large
group. It is not because I don't like people or the fact that I do have some
social anxiety issues, it is more to the fact that, selfishly enough, I hate
waiting for people! We ended up having just enough – 3 people.
Thirdly, My Linh’s mum was quite concern about letting her daughter out
on her own and also diving, is dangerous.
I stumbled across and saw the availability of Whales Island resort, a
small beautiful island part of Van Phong bay, two hours away by car from Nha
Trang and decided having looked at the pictures, I have had to go there. Note
here that both the cost of staying on this island for 2 nights and paying for
the course drained out 85% of my total budget. However, it was just enough to
get mum's approval with the rest being paid from my Tet’s saving.
Two days later, Minh and I embarked on our trip to Nha Trang via the
overnight train. I decided to get to Nha Trang one day early to squeeze in a
dive and spent time here. To save my budget (as I spent all of the money to pay
for the courses and Whales Island resort) I opted pay for the comfort train
seats with aircon rather than the usual bed that we took last time. I'm quite a
pig as mum would say, I had no problem sleeping and in fact I slept quite well
and straight through to the next morning while Minh had a little problem
adjusting to the smelly feet of some man behind him...
Morning came and we arrived at Nha Trang train station 6.00 am, wearing
our backpacks and headed for the beach, 20 minutes walk away.
We spent the morning here, taking pictures and looking around. I was
absorbing the surrounding. Nha Trang people enjoy a healthy lifestyle of early
morning swim and gathering at the beautiful beach that stretches across the
entire city for a jog or group exercise session. It was a nice change for me
coming from a busy and polluted city like Ho Chi Minh.
We finally found a nice little hotel for 300k per night on Tran Phu
street – the biggest and longest street stretching across Nha Trang here. The
receptionist was very friendly and helpful. She was quite surprised we wanted
to go diving and she did help us book a diving trip just for the day as we have
little to do until we get to Whales island. We tried a new place this time as
this was a daily diving trip as the whole purpose coming to Nha Trang a day
early was so I could squeeze in another dive before the Advanced course. The
bus came to take us to the port and we got on our boat. I met Thuyet who was
the head of his divers team and was also a tour guide whom, of course, was
excellent at talking and entertaining people. He is good at his job and later
became our good friend here in Nha Trang.
However he wasn't our dive guide. Our guide was a new guy called Kha. He
is very friendly too (and as I generally find, boat diving let me meet many
friendly awesome people. Kha checked on my diving knowledge. I checked my BCD
and diving equipment (a few stuff to remember there!) and using the buddy
system, also checking if Minh is alright.
When Kha took us down, neither Minh or me could sink because apparently
we have forgotten how to do so. Anyway, we did managed to get down and let me
tell you, being submerged in the water once again and seeing corals beauty was
such a delight! Kha also taught me some Advanced Bouyancy which was supposed to
be taught in our Advanced course. He also told me I am good with my breathing
because I always have 100 left in my tank after an hour long of diving :D We
climbed up after finishing and I jumped off again to swim while waiting for
other customers to have their Try dive.
The amazement of this dive sites are that corals grew not over 10 metres
from the water surface. That meant I could dived down, hold my breath without
diving equipment and still be submerged in the magnificent scenery.
Thuyet as I later found out as we talk on the way back to land, studied
Geography too and he told me a lot of things about geography of Vietnam, more specifically
Nha Trang and generally his experiences of studying geography in a Vietnamese
Univeristy and how he changed his job from being a teacher to become a
tourguide. Talking with someone as passionate about places and travelling as I
am just felt so at home.
He became our friend and guide for the rest of the time we spent in Nha
Trang. That afternoon, we drove motorbikes up to Hon Chong (Husband rock) where I climbed up and down the rock
to take pictures, then got stuck and had to climb a tree to get down the rock.
He took us to eat and showed us cool places around Nha Trang city like the café
that would present what the local called the 7 Effeil of Nha Trang.
We picked up My Linh who arrived late at the hotel and took her out for
coffee. All four of us sat for quite a while at the coffee shop. Thuyet left to
go home and sleep for his job tomorrow morning.
The three of us went to the nightmarket to eat and then sat at the beach
past midnight talking about all sort of stuff.
Undoubtedly, tourism is the breadwinner of Nha Trang city. Most
tourists, strangely enough, are Russians and then Chinese (not disregarding
Taiwanese or HongKong citizens). There are all sorts of activities for tourists
here like the nightclub on the beach, several new high quality five stars hotel
are popping up too.
Day 2 ------------------------------------
We woke up (rather I woke up first then woke the others up) quite early
on Saturday morning, 6.00 am, because I wanted to show My Linh - Nha Trang in
the morning. After a long walk on the street seeking for some coffee and
breakfast Bánh mì and Xôi (sticky rice) for me. We went back to pack and pay
for the hotel, woke Minh up and thanked the nice receptionist for helping us.
Then went to Rainbow Diver bar to try to negotiate for a lower price and
shorter time spent for our diving courses in Whales Island.
9 am, we got on the bus. It took us 2 hours to get to Van Phong bay
and 20 minutes boat transfer.
As soon as we arrived at the little port here, I
was so overwhelmed by the tranquility and beauty of the place that none of us
said anything but stood their in amazement. We stepped on to the island under
the boiling hot sun yet it was perfect to show us exactly how CLEAR the water
here is. We unpack our bags in a little hut we would call room for the next few
nights.
This island owned by a French man has been developed into Eco-tourism
and getaway resort. Everything is made and set up to incorporate the natural
environment into the guest stay here.
My Linh met with Jeremy - a french guy who would be her instructor
for the course. She started her OpenWater confined dive in the afternoon while
Minh and I enjoyed a rather great swim in the island beach area. The water is
so clear and clean, fishes and corals were all around, sparking in the sun ray.
I swam 2 laps of the entire place whilst attempted some short “freedive”.
Then I decided I want to trek to the top of the island to catch sunset.
4.30pm We embarked on a long 2 hours walk of the entire island as My Linh
continue her lesson. Personally I love the trek! It was fantastic as we climbed
up the hill, breathing in fresh air, we were rewarded with the most incredible
sight of that Van Phong bay has to offer - the sunset.
We continued on with our walk, ended up at the back of the island where
they named it Mango bay. On this side of the island, we saw rubbish ended up
here and more surprisingly scattered of lobster old shells on the beach.
Apparently, lobsters come to this part a lot to shed off their old coats for a
brand new shell.
It took us a while to get back to the WI bar. As it was getting darker
and darker, we thought we would be lost in this forest. Funny, I never thought
this would be my first time having to use the torch that I always bring with me
to find our way back.
I have also learnt the real value of water staying on this island. Fresh
drinking water has to be transported from land thus the cost of a bottle is
double of that on land. Although, I started to really doubt the “environmental
friendly” – the motto of this island – plastic bottles? It then also struck me
that it is funny how we all want to modernize and live in a more tech-heavy
skyscrapers away from nature world yet people seek to paying more "return to nature" i.e. to stay in
the most basic hut shelters, isolate from technology… Shouldn't we just stay the same the whole time?
Anyway, in the end, despite trying our best to save the cost of water
which by the way is 25k vnd a bottle... we had to succumb to it or die in
thirst! We ate dinner and spent the first night in the silence, beautiful
darkness of this getaway haven. The island is beautiful afterdark as it is the
only place light you can see all around. We slept on the beach for a while and
enjoyed the starry sky!
I saw fishes, literally jumping off the water like they were the
performers of the sea, entertaining us under the moonlight
Day 3 ------------------
The next day, I took My Linh up to the top spot to wait for the sunrise.
We walked up there around 5.00 am and sat waiting till 6 am. I doubt she wanted
to wake up that early to do crazy things like this with me.
The wait was a little long but it is something I did not want to miss.
Van Phong bay as I was told, is the first spot in Vietnam that welcome the
sunrays. Standing there, on the highest tip of the island, I engulfed myself in
the beautiful sun, popping up slowly amongst the white sand dunes opposite us.
The greenery of the forests covering up the island is simply astonishing.
I met my instructor – Eugene after breakfast. Minh and I will be doing
our Advanced Openwater today and My Linh will continue with her first sea dive.
We got on the boat, meet other divers and all set sail to the sea - to reach
smaller islands still part of Van Phong bay. On the boat there is a Vietnamese
man who has been diving for 12 years consecutively and is a employed diver for
the company. Throughout our diving here, he helped us a lot through our
learning and showed me loads of cool unexpected marine creatures under the sea disguising
themselves as rocks and corals.
Even as we returned our from our first boat dive in Van Phong bay, I was
still so psych about all the stuff I have seen and learnt, I had to get back in
the water!
Over the next day and a half, I mastered my diving buoyancy and all other skills
including direction and compass such. We also did our first Night dive and
Wreck dive so that was fantastic - all part of the Advance course!
The next boat diving day, I met Hue - a lady who works at Rainbow Bar.
She joined the boat for the day taking some customers along who are also only
doing a day dive.
I swear I spent more than half of my day under the water today because
whilst waiting to get back to the island, I also took a fun dive with the
Vietnamese guide. He showed me so many unexpected and incredible marine
creatures that I just could not believe it. How often do you see a flying fish
or a stone fish?
Before I left this beautiful island in the afternoon to head back to Nha
Trang, I managed to explore all possible routes around the island. It is
lovely! I figured I just needed to make my own adventures to make life
interesting :) (like I did during the Biology trip) We said our thanks and had
our pictures taken as we have now successfully completely our learning.
The bus took us back to Nha Trang, we came back to the same hotel we
came on the first night. 3 ppl in a room for 350k - not too bad eh! Thuyet –
our Nha Trang friend, took us out for dinner and we enjoyed a relaxing night by
the beach with sugarcane juice just like the young generation of Nha Trang
citizens.
My Linh and I went for another diving trip the next day. I was excited
for it because Thuyet promised to guide us around and he knew a lot about
identifying sea creatures. We did only one dive because My Linh felt tired
after two quite intensive days on Whales island. We sang and we swam and I “free”
dived for a bit to amuse myself, as the corals are at quite shallow depth
thanks to the warm currents.
We came back to land and met up with Minh who had spent the morning with
his camera taking photographs. It was pouring rain and the little alley way was
flooded in water. We had returned our room in the morning but the hotel kindly
let us shower and wait for rain to calm down.
Tonight, we headed back home to Ho Chi Minh city...
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