Dive Right In

Day 83- We have officially been travelling for 3 months and it has flown by. To start our next adventure we took a train from Saigon to Nha Trang. There are a few options for transportation but we wanted to give the train another shot. The train offers 3 different modes of travel to enjoy your journey; soft chair, hard sleeper and soft sleeper. The most popular option for travellers is the soft sleeper. It is only a few dollars more than the hard sleeper and sitting in a seat for 9h did not sound appealing. The ticket cost us $33 each, which gave us a soft bed, wall plug ins, a pillow and a blanket. We also had 3G wifi on our phones, which we purchased for $15 in Saigon, making the trip fly by. Again, I loved watching all of the landscapes and villages as we flew by on the train. 

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!

 

A Yacht of Love

Day 44- After another series of taxi and boat transfers we arrived on Gili Trawangan. This was our second visit to the island and it still had the cool vibes we'd enjoyed so much on our honeymoon. We checked into a hostel on the north west side of the island called Gili Klapa. The layout of the hostel is like nothing we've ever experienced and we literally had around 50 roomates in the dorm. The dorm room took over the entire second floor and only curtains seperated the rooms into sections of four. We also had a few mice join us on our second night and they made the cutest squeaks at night. Our first day there we did our research and found a great blog (which I can no longer seem to find) that recommended affordable restaurants on the island.  We had some business to take care of while on the island so we spent the next few days making arrangements and plans for the arrival of our buddies, Kassie and Chudi. 

                              

Day 45/46/47/48- We also took this opportunity to recover from Rinjani, chill out and live as cheaply as possible. We tried every restaurant from the blog and every single one was an ace! I wish I could share the blog but as I cannot find it I will at least share the names of the restaurants for others.

Green Beans: They make an amazing bangers and mash! 

The Roast House: Delicious roast chicken with fries and gravy! Super affordable. Large portions

Kayu Cafe: Great breakfast and lunch menu, the red quinoa salad is very tasty.

Regina Pizzeria: Best pizza on the island by far. Run by an italian chef, the pizza's are hearty and great for sharing. 

Le Petit Gili: Open 24 hours, they serve delicious burgers and fries.

Thank You Bar and Resto: If their wifi password (cheapest food) doesn't give it away, the menu will. They really do have the cheapest food and great wifi.

The Night Market: Came here twice for dinner and ate at the first booth on the right side near the entrance from the main strip. Tried the tuna and beef skewers! Soooooo good! Also went to the nutella cake cart next to this table 4 times. Yes, 4 times and had their nutella banana peanut pancake. My favorite!!

             

In between all of our food research and excursions, we spent a lot of time hanging around the pool and beach.

One night while on our way to dinner we heard the tinniest little meow. When we looked at our feet a hangard little kitten walked over to us looking for help. We picked it up off the main road then heard more meows. We found 4 new kittens sitting in a pile of garbage on the side of the road. The mother was no where to be found and it looked as though they were hungry and two of them were hurt. We made it our duty to find a safe place for them. We found a cat shelter on the island run by a woman who owns a hotel. She agreed to take them and find them a home. We were so relieved to be able to help, we couldn't live with ourselves if we had to just leave them there.

Day 49- Wooohooo Kassie and Chudi finally arrived. It was a crazy feeling to actually have them with us after talking about this trip with them for so long. 

They checked into our hostel for one night before moving on to bigger and better accomodations, for the rest of their stay. You can't come to Bali and not stay at a villa at least once in your life!  We had booked a boat trip for the next day, so we enjoyed our first night with our buddies and introduced them to the chaos of the Gili T night market.

They LOVED the nutella pancakes as much as I did so we made sure to eat as many of them as we could!

We finished the night off with a movie on the beach preparing ourselves for a busy next day.

Day 50- We took a fast boat from Gili Trawangan to Lombok where we had a car waiting to drive us  for 2 hours over to Gili Gede, the Southern Gili islands. These islands are much more secluded than the Northern gilis. Other than knowing we were going on a "boat" trip, Chudi and Kassie knew very little about what we had planned for the day .... or did they?  We got in a small boat, which drove us over to our beautiful 55 foot private Yacht named Basilea. We immediately settled in at the bow of the boat with drinks in hand and music blasting out of the speakers. 

Our captain took us to a snorkelling spot where Mike compared the colors and brilliance of the coral to that of the Great Barrier Reef. It was spectacular.

It was time for lunch, which Mike and I also kept secret. We had prepared a little spread of deli meats and cheeses (very VERY hard to find on an island by the way) and we got to pretend for a couple of hours that we were not just budget travellers sleeping with mice but that we were world explorers showered in extravagance... we made sure to leave the boxed wine out of the photos! haha

The wind picked up and the sails were lifted to bring us to a deserted island. Once the deserted island was in sight, we all took some photos jumping into the ocean. For those who know Chudi...he is not the best swimmer, not to say that he can't swim but he can be fearful sometimes around large bodies of water. So he took photos of us for the first two jumps. 

When we climbed back on the boat Chudi decided he wanted to jump with Kassie but he was putting off an energy that suggested he was scared to do it. This time Mike and I stood by to take the photo. After they jumped in, Chudi seemed to be "struggling" and asked Kassie to hold something while he brought himself up the ladder. It was obvious that she was concerned for his well being. As Chudi got himself up the final step of the ladder, he positioned himself on one knee. Then Mike and I were blessed to witness Mike's friend and sidekick of 15 years, who has also become one of the most important men in my life, who I have also known since junior high, propose to my beautiful friend and former swim suit slanger of 12 years. It was by far one of the most magical moments I have ever been a part of and it meant so much to Mike and I to be able to participate in such a life changing event. 

                                   

Oh and I know my jewellery store friends have all stopped paying attention to anything I've written past the part of Chudi asking Kassie to "hold something" as he got himself out of the giant vast blue ocean that he had just jumped into...... yes, you've assumed correctly, Chudi had the ring in his pocket while he jumped!!!! It's funny because before he jumped in, he gave me the signal that it was about to happen and I turned to Mike and said "he better not have the ring in his pocket!" All is good in the diamond world folks, the Hearts On Fire box is a bit tattered but it did it's job to protect her ring until it made it safely to her finger, where it belongs.

The journey home didn't seem as long on the way back and we made it back at a decent hour. We went to Pizzeria Regina for some of the islands best pizza as well as some celebratory drinks. It was nice to finally have the cat out of the bag and be able to talk about Chudi and Kassie's future as husband and wife. Also, although we made it look like the whole day was planned by Mike and I, that was just another ploy to throw Kassie off the scent. The yacht, the food, the drinks and the location can all be credited to Chudi's genius and smooth romantic ways. They don't call him Smooth C for nothin. 

Day 51- We had a lazy day enjoying the luxury of Kassie and Chudi's villa. The boys bought snacks and drinks and we chilled pool side. The afternoon was spent playing games and listening to Chudi's playlist. 

Before dinner we split up and Kassie and I went to get our nails painted. Mike and I have a saying, when you're in Asia you never know what you're going to get. This seems to hold true to many of our endevors and it was no different when getting our nails done. The price listed said that a manicure and pedicure were around $8 Canadian. Then we chose our nail polish and when it was all over, we paid approximately $22 bucks each. Turns out the original price doesn't inlcude nail polish but it didnt't matter, Kassie's nails needed to match her beautiful new ring. 

                               

After dinner we went to the beer pong spot on the main strip. Mike and Chudi have demonstrated their beer pong skills before in Asia and became champs in Loas. We are still surprised that people aren't stopping them in the streets to get their autographs, even when they continuously find reasons to dunk ping pong balls everywhere we go. Their celebrity aside, they were off their game and we lost our four person challenge against a group of dutch travellers. Hopefully no one saw this defeat, we wouldn't want it to sour the names of the great beer pong champs of Asia. 

                             

Day 52- We took our bikes to the north end of Gili to do some snorkelling. As you can see below, Chudi is a great bike rider and Kassie is really good at multi-tasking, especially while taking pictures as she rides. Oh wait... no she's not. She managed to hit the one large rock in the road. I heard her scream and turned around to see her flip over the handle bars of her bike. Poor little Kassie cut herself open and bruised herself badly. We had to go home to bandage her up before we could return to our original plan of snorkelling.

                           

 

                            

                            

We made it to the beach after our second attempt and rented some snorkel gear. Kassie gracefully got herself into the water to explore the underwater world. The coral was not as brilliant as the southern gilis but the fish were plentiful and colorful. 

Kassie really wanted to see some turtles but we were not lucky enough to find any in the ocean. So, we made sure to stop by the Turtle Conservation center and show her all of the baby sea turtles being cared for, preparing them to be released into the wild.

                                

We took a little too much time getting ourselves from point A to point B and we realized that we were running out of time to catch the sunset at sunset beach, which Gili Trawangan is famous for. We hustled our way through the busy street on our bikes to the southern part of the island. We made it there at the last possible second and ran to the beach to capture some sunset photos. 

After, we sat by the ocean for or last delicious meal on Gili Trawangan. 

Now off to Thailand for some sun, sand, neon paint and outdoor activities.