A food cart came through a couple of times throughout the journey with some random meats, greens and rice for $2 dollars. It was pretty tasty and didn't get us sick, success!
Our 6 hour train ride flew by and before we knew it we were in Nha Trang. We stayed at a lovely hostel called Mozjo where the staff went above and beyond to make our visit great. They would ask us where we were going before we would leave for the day making sure we had directions and reminding us to keep our belongings safe from thieves. Breakfast was included in the morning and the yogurt muesli option was a nice change.
We went for dinner at Ganesh, an indian restaurant near our hostel. Pricey but delicious. After dinner we found a little cafe, called Ice Coffee, which we returned to everyday during our stay in Nha Trang. (great wifi)
Day 84- We went to Nha Trang for one main purpose.. for me to get my PADI- open water diving certification. After reading many reviews, we booked with a company who will remain nameless. (They were not very good, email me if your planning a dive here) My course was set to start the next day. Prior to this trip I had done two discovery dives in Thailand and Bali, so my ability to perform the basic skills under water were pretty fresh but I was looking forward to getting the full meal deal. But first, Mike and I needed to have a little fun in the sun!
Mike and I have gone to some sort of theme park on almost every trip we've been on, so when we found out that Nha Trang had an amusement park, we were on the next gondola ride over. Turns out the gondola ride to Vinpearl (the amusement park) is the longest over water gondola in the world, not to mention super high up.
The theme park seemed very familiar, almost toooo familiar, then Mike started singing along to the music without even thinking... of course!!!! It was the music from splash mountain. Had we taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Disneyland?!! The more we looked the more similarities we saw between our beloved land of Disney and Vinpearl. They even had a castle! So I assume Vinpearl is Vietnamese for Disney right? Wrong. Haha but almost as good as the real thing.
The first ride we went on was the rollercoaster and I noticed something this park had over Disneyland... no line ups. We were the only people on the ride. In fact they started it up for us.
Hmmmmm I think they may get more riders if the seats had safety bars. I guess its the second row for us.
As funny as we thought it was that the first seat we sat at was broken, it was even funnier when the ride broke/stopped 5 seconds in. The ride operators needed to get it back to the start line to fix it so of course they ran the ride through with us on it! How else were they going to get it back? (insert wide eyed emoji here)
What made the day even better was that this amusement park had a water park! Different sizes of tubes wait at the bottom of each slide, the rider picks their poison and off you go.
"Hey doc... do I have any cavities?"
That's a long way down!
I tried to capture a picture of Mike blasting out of the ride... this was all I got.
I didn't feel good about going to see the next attraction but Mike insisted. SeaWorld? At least the dolphins are kept in the ocean.
When we thought our day couldn't get any better, we discovered an aquarium... an aquarium with a people mover also known as a conveyer belt. It was very cool.
On the way out, the gondola was lit up like the eiffel tower. Have you ever heard the saying "the best of both worlds"? Well, I think that saying translated into Vietnamese is "the best of ALL worlds".
All in all, it was a pretty fun way to spend a day on the road. We even got to enjoy some fried food before heading home.
Day 85- When I signed up for my diving course I was given an ipad to watch 5 videos that I would later find out, were my only real source of information other than diving itself. After diligently watching all videos, I went to the pool for my first lesson. My instructor was a California dude who carefully took me through the steps to set up my own gear. Next I would prove my fitness by swimming 400 meters and by treading water for 10 minutes. After I succeeded we moved on to the under water skill testing component. The mask skill was by far the worst. When you wear a mask underwater it blocks your nose so it tells your brain you need to breathe through your mouth, when the mask comes off, it feels like you should be able to breathe through your nose... and that my friends is why it is so hard to take off your mask underwater. The day went smoothly and my instructor told me he was quite impressed with my performance... not to toot my own horn or anything but I was FANTASTIC!
We chilled out for the rest of the day and went for pizza that night. We saw this poster at the pizza place and noticed an insane ressemblance to Mike's uncle Mark.
Day 86- An early start got us out the door by 7 am for day two of my certification. Mike is already certified so he came along and did some fun dives. After prepping my gear I was ready to prove my first 5 skills. Once again, the mask one was the worst but I got it done.
We saw some cool stuff under water but our favorite was the cuttlefish.
Mike swimming along.
Day 87- Day three of my certification began much like the last. I set up my gear and got the lowdown on what skills I would have to perform to finish my course. Once my skills were proven in the ocean, the rest of the time was spent exploring the ocean with Mike. Ok, time to dive right in!
Our dive spot. That house must be exciting during a storm!
We like to mess around on land, so why not mess around in the water.
One thing that probably took up way too much of my dive time was watching the bubbles from other divers regulators float to the surface. haha I like bubbles. They rise up slowly and pop, pop, pop!!
One of my favourite activities in life is to lay under a tree and watch the wind pull the tree branches from side to side. While under water, I witnessed a similar phenomena and I could have floated there all day watching the ebb and flow of life under the sea.
Look Ma, I did it!
After completing 5 dives in total, it was time to write the exam. I needed to get at least 75% to pass and luckily I only got 2 wrong. Good thing I paid attention to the videos and studied with other resources online. It was official! I am now a PADI certified open water diver. This allows me to explore our beautiful underwater world as deep as 18 meters. Can't wait for more dives to come.
Mike and I had just worked sooooo incredibly harrrrd, that we just haaaaaad to relax on a beach somewhere...see you there!
That amusement park looked so fun! And you're right, best part is no lines!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your PADI.