July 15th, 2005
Nha Trang – Hoi An – Hue
Back again,
Spent an excellent week travelling the central coast of Vietnam with Ton and family. An overnight, 6-berth, sleeper deposited us in Nha Trang at 5:00 (Olga was thrilled). Quick wash and brush-up then off to Rainbow Divers for some more underwater antics. Their large boat left for Madonna Rock (two large mounds off the mainland) at 7:30.
Not the quantity of fish that we saw in Malaysia but still an amazing variety. Swimming through natural tunnels in the rocks and pausing inside you became surrounded by shoals of small tropical fish, quite amazing. Also saw an octopus, a first for all of us and very rare to spot.
Minor emergency when our guide’s tank burst an o-ring and he was losing all his air. However all the good PADI training paid off and we made a calm assissted ascent (i.e he took air from the spare regulator on my tank). Unfortunately this left us 20 minutes away from the boat. An easy swim underwater with the current but back on the surface… well it worked off some more chicken fried rice.
Renate didn’t feel comfortable with trying out scuba so she, Ton, Tanh and Thy Anne went snorkelling instead. Since the water is 28C it’s like being in a tropical fish tank (just a bit bigger). Cakes and fruit on the boat then back to land for 2pm.
Olga and I stayed for another mornings diving whilst the others headed to Paradise. More fishy fun then we followed on. Paradise is situated a few km north of Nha Trang and run by Vladimir the Yugoslavian. A beautiful small beach resort, you know – bamboo huts, white sand, palm trees, that sort of thing.
Could have spent weeks if not months but next day off to Hoi An…
love Simon