March 26 to 28; Nha Trang

Friday we took the bus from Dalat to Nha Trang. We signed up for a tourist bus that doesn’t make multiple stops along the way and it even has Air Conditioning. The distance is about 200km. The nice lady who sold me the tickets said it would take 4 hours. The real time was 5 hours. The roads in Vietnam are in sad shape. Even at 40km cruising speed the bus was too bumpy to read or write. The driver was constantly braking for potholes and speed bumps. It appears every time they dig up a road they leave a speed bump behind. The road also went up and over a mountain pass. The average speed for the mountain section was about 25 since the road was too narrow for 2 large vehicles to pass. However I’m not complaining! The driver was good and we had a safe pleasant trip.

Since my snorkelling expedition in Phuket, my underwater camera slowly returned to full function. I just had to try it again, so I bought a roll of packing tape and taped the Battery and Xd-card compartments tightly shut. I signed up for a half day snorkelling trip on Saturday and off I went. I booked the trip through the hotel and without even taking my name he said no problem “show up in the lobby at 8:30”. I was known as 204 on Saturday since it’s our room number. We were underway by 9:15 and I knew I was in trouble when he starting collecting money for the Aquarium visit. I was on the full day island trip and I was stuck on that boat for the rest of the day. I didn’t visit the Aquarium since it looked so ugly – a concrete pirate ship. The whole area was decorated in high Kitsch with concrete penguins and whales and octopus scattered over the whole area. However, all the smokers were headed in the other direction and I joined them. After 10 min of climbing over rock and scrubs I came across a nice village. I took some pictures and returned to the boat. As I rounded the corner to the concrete pirate ship I decided my goal for the day would be to document the kitsch so I took some really nice pictures of the pirate ship.

Our next stop was for swimming and snorkelling, so I was expecting a rocky beach, but the boat tied up to a 20X20 meter floating dock. There were jetboats, parasailing, glassbottom boats and other excesses everywhere on this 400meter dock. There was nowhere for the swimmers to swim, but there were 2 snorkellers in the general direction of the rocks. When I asked the guy where to get into the water he showed me a corner where I could squeeze between the jetboats and the glassbottom boats. At least nobody ran over me while I was getting off the dock. It was a rough start but when I got near the shore I had a treat. The fish were not numerous, but the sea floor was a wonderland. I spent 45 min just taking pictures of the coral, plants, rocks, and other unknown sea forms. Again the camera screen went dead after 5 minutes, but the camera kept taking pictures. My biggest problem was trying to compose a picture. I can dive under water but in the salt water I keep popping up like a cork and I can’t stay under. So I took 67 pictures in 45 minutes and maybe 5 are good. The fish teased me, but they would not pose nicely. I guess I need more practise and better equipment.




But the day continued. The 30 boat guests comprised 28 twenty-somethings and 2 sixty-ish retirees. (me and a Chinese grandmother). 15 guest were Singaporeans and they were there to party. The bar had opened at 10 am and most guests (except me and the Chinese grandmother) were slightly inebriated by noon. After the incredible snorkelling came lunch and beer. After lunch came the house band and karaoke and beer. And after the Karaoke came the swim-up bar. The swim up bar was a hunk of Styrofoam thrown over the side of the boat and holding 5 bottles of home-made wine.The bartender floated in a bouy. The Singaporeans all jumped in and started drinking. I just took pictures. But when the Chinese Grandmother jumped in – I was worried she might come to harm so I joined her, just to be safe! God the wine was ugly.
After we finished the 5 bottles of wine, we motored to another beach so we could swim, snorkel and parasail. We tied up with 5 other party boats on the same circuit. I went snorkelling and the Singaporeans just drank and sang and danced. When we readied for the return trip we had a little trouble counting to 30 but the passengers from the other boat just threw our guests into the water until we had 30 again. On the way back I was impressed how well we all could sing YMCA and how well the Singaporeans can pole dance.