My Lil’ Saigon

A mere two weeks since I went to Nha Trang I have built up the time to sit down and write a half-assed opinionated piece. I traveled to Nha Trang with Ly and her mother (for 2 days) and then spent the last 2 days by myself. I did my very first snorkeling in the ocean, after loving water all my life it seems like I’m finally starting to enjoy the water sports I have always wanted to do. I wanted to get my scuba certification but I never made the time for it while I was there. I spent some time outside the actual city of Nha Trang and it was quite interesting.

Starting with the time spent with Ly and her Mother.

Our first day in Nha Trang was started off by a hearty bowl of Phở, although it was a bit small for me. This place seems to be pretty nice and it was recommended by our guide for the day. We rented two motorbikes and headed off to Doc Lét (Though I think I spelled that wrong), which is about an hour north of the city. At this beach there are many people, almost exclusively Vietnamese. It is a place with lots of huts and shade trees, with vendors in stalls selling fresh seafood for seemingly outrageously low prices. We got a half kilo of squid, some sort of snail (after my trip I learned that they are in serious population decline) and about a dozen crabs. The meal was quite cheap, around 200k VND and fed 4 people, as we fed our tour guide too.

A fishermen’s hamlet near the tourist beach.

1 is the loneliest number there every was….

After the beach we went to see Ba Hô Waterfall, though it was too late to walk all the way up to it. The place was virtually deserted and is currently building new tourist buildings. We then raced to beat the dark, because there was one site we had to see before nightfall. This site was a temple built by a minority race from the Nha Trang area. It was built a very long time ago, but I didn’t have time to read any of the historical signs. I’ll just let you look at the pretty pictures.

Pictures of the Temple.

View of Nha Trang from the Temple

Moving on to the next morning and Snorkeling!

Here Ly is pondering how her bed at home would feel at 7am in the morning, instead of a wood bench on a boat.

We took a tour endorsed by our hotel. The tour included a boat ride and snorkeling at 2 spots in the marine protected area (MPA), as well as a lunch. We left at 7am and didn’t return until 12. The cost was reasonable, at $15USD per person. The tour boat was quite nice and well kept, it exceeded my expectations, though I was only going snorkeling, I couldn’t tell you any thing about the quality of the diver instructors or the equipment. The boat ride was calm and beautiful, as the hills of Nha Trang are breathtaking in the early morning hours.

As we approached the site, I began to wonder how Ly’s mother would react to this new experience. I knew she hadn’t done anything like this before, though I know she would appreciate the fish she could see.

At my surprise, Ly’s mother jumped into the water enthusiastically, and I wasn’t sure of her swimming ability, but she swam off quickly. Meanwhle, in the water near the boat, Ly fought with her equipment. After a short battle, with a little swallowed water, Ly came out victorious and we swam off together to view the fish. About 15 minutes into the swim one of the boat attendants brought a float out to Ly’s mother to help her from getting too tired. She was swimming fine, but when she got into the boat again, she went and took a long nap, and didn’t get back in the water, but Ly didnt’ either, for that matter. I was in the water as long as I could handle the sore on my foot from the fins, as well as the hot sun on my back at the top of the water. Next time I think I’ll have to just go diving so I don’t get a sun burn.

I wish I had an underwater camera, and I can’t wait to start diving so I can take some pictures of the pretty things I saw. I must say I dont’ know why I’ve never snorkeled before. I must be lazy or something.

This was also the first time I used fins to swim. Besides rubbing a open wound on my foot, it was delightful to be able to accelerate in the water with some power. I saw quite a few reef fish but I thought they would be in greater quantities since we were in the MPA (Hon Mun). What I saw only seems to make my work with W.A.R. more important. These reef fish are caught for aquarium trade, caught for food, or have their habitat destroyed by careless fishing methods. They are beautiful and a very important commodity for tourist locations such as Nha Trang. (See below for some pictures from the Institute of Oceanography)

Some Pictures of Nha Trang Bay.

Some Reef Fish (or other) from Institute of Oceanography-Nha Trang

To Be Continued…..

I’m not actually posting anything about Nha Trang (haha! Suckers!)

I just wanted to note that my Flickr photostream has been updated and I plan on integrating it into the site. To look at it now, check out my Pictures Page (see link above).

For now I’ll continue to teach 5 year olds in the morning and 3 year olds in the afternooon. Today 40% of them were crying. I’m not lying.

Edit: Fine, here is a link for those of you who didn’t take the time to go into my pictures link.

Progress continues, I have now spent 2 hours on my blog this week!

In my last hours here in Nha Trang I have decided to stay out of the sun, away from the beach full of lovely ladies and make a dedicated post to my loyal reader(s).

 I’ve been in Nha Trang for 4 days and I must say that I rather enjoy the laid back atmosphere. I’m from a small town and I don’t really care for the hordes of traffic that Saigon has.  I’ll write a proper travel review of Nha Trang later on, but for now I’ll just gloss over a few things.

I’m a nerd. I went to the Oceanographic Institute Museum. It was pretty cool, though somewhat under developed. They had some pools with tropical fish and a large preserved collection of corals, fish, and other marine things. The only thing I could really think as I perused the collection was “These preserved specimens could use an update. Improve their quality and documentation.” Nerd! Also I was the only one to stop and actually look at the specimens. I applaude the effort of the Institute and I look forward to working with them in the future with W.A.R..

 I have a bunch of pictures and I’ll be back to my home computer tomorrow to catch up on 5 days worth of missed emails. Maybe, just maybe I’ll post again this week.

 Also I was propositioned by a gay man this morning on the beach. … yeah.