Earth Wind Water Fire

Day 88- We took a quick 1 hour taxi to our semi secret hide-away, Jungle Beach. Friends told us about this secluded beach and I read about it in many backpacker blogs prior to coming. Upon arrival, we were welcomed with a cold glass of fresh lemon water. One of the staff walked us around to each hut, letting us scope out our options before we chose our home for the next 4 days and 3 nights. We chose a hut overlooking the beach that was stocked with 5 beds to choose from. I assume when large groups come in they easily fill each hut but Mike and I were lucky enough to have it to ourselves. Two different types of huts were available for our choosing; a hut with a shared bathroom for $35 dollars per person, or a hut with an ensuite bathroom for $40 dollars per person. Folks, this place is paradise and you are pretty much alone on the beach, as well as in the whole surrounding area. No restaurants or other options for food are available. Therefore, included in the prices above are three meals a day, a mid-day snack, bottomless water and bottomless fresh lemon water. We dropped our bags in our room and I ran upstairs to check out our view. It was my first look at the beach and I got a feeling in that moment that this would be a visit that would not only leave a stamp in my passport but a stamp on my heart. And I was right. 

A picture from the outside of our lovely abode.

                           

And the inside.

                           

We slept upstairs so we could enjoy the view of the beach first thing every morning. 

Nothing like showering with mother nature.

And then, there was nothing but time to enjoy this stunning location.

Here is a look at our place from the beach.

There are so many things that I want to share about Jungle Beach that contributed to our experience. The affect of having communal meals was one which suprised me as being very impactful. Lunch and dinner were served at the same time everyday and anyone staying at the hotel ate together, family style. Over the next 4 days, we got to know each person and we learnt a little about their stories and what brought them there. Each person was on their own journey and I believe that Jungle Beach was as impactful to them as it was for me.

All meals were delicious and different and we were happy to get together twice a day to talk about our daily activities or about other interesting worldly topics. We got to enjoy an assortment of local Vietnamese food and try things I wouldn't normally opt for.

                         

While at dinner our first night, the owner Sylvio told us that we must go for a night swim. When we asked why, he said "because its magical" and we replied "magical how?" and he responded, "it's just magical, you have to do it".  We agreed that we would go the following night. One of our new friends, James, decided he wouldn't wait until tomorrow and not only 5 minutes later he returned and with raw passion in his voice he said "you guys need to come out, it's F%$&KING magical". No one could argue with that review and none of us even bothered to ask why, we all ran to our rooms to change. We got onto the beach in the dark of night with the glow of the moon shining down on us, as 6 of us walked slowly into the ocean, warm and mysterious, waiting to see what magic was to come. With each suttle movement, light began to appear at my fingertips, then as my body accelerated, I was covered in gold! It was as if Tinkerbell had powdered my body in pixie dust and being that a "happy thought" was inevitable, we were all feeling the magical effects of flight underwater. At one point or another we all shouted with joy at how amazing the experience was, each lacking the embarrassment associated with showing our inner child. Our new friend described this phenomena perfectly, it was as if we were Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, commanding the seas. Mike mentioned that his little sister knows all of the actions to the fantasia soundtrack and I quickly corrected him by mentioning his sister is 26... not so little anymore. I felt totally and utterly alive and rejuvenated. Most of us had never seen anything like it before. James mentioned that it was even better before the moon had risen so we all made a pact that we would return the next night to experience the magic once again. 

Day 89- Our day was spent enjoying the tranquility of the beach, reading books and me writing my blog. One of the recommended waterfall hikes was not possible due to the season and lack of rain but we didn't mind, we just chilled on our quiet beach.

After dinner, we all kept our promise and meet at the beach to experience the magic once again. James was right... I didn't believe it could get any better but it had. Other than feeling the wetness on our skin it would have been hard to tell the difference between the sky and ocean. Stars surrounded us at every angle and for a few moments, we were all lost in space. We attemped to get a photo and video of the bioluminescence but we were unsuccessful. Once again James put it perfectly, saying, sometimes a thousand words is better than a picture. This one would just have to be a memory in our minds.

After we were all recharged once again, we congregated on the beach with a few bottles of local rum and a bonfire. It is crazy how 7 completely different individuals from different cultures and walks of life, can come together and all find something in common. No not rum. Ok Maybe a little.  But as we sat around the fire, listening to the Beatles and Bob Marley, we spoke of travel. We all had unique stories to share and each one sparked the interest of a possible new destination for another. It was a beautiful thing. 

 A crab joined our discussions and for some reason kept walking toward the fire, so before we saved him and brought him back to the ocean, we named him Sergeant Pepper, after the Beatles song playing at the time.

Day 90- When I doubted our experience could get any better we were caught in the middle of an incredible storm!! Mike and I were swimming in the ocean and we could see dark clouds moving towards us. Thunder shook the sky and lighting cracked through the clouds, hitting the mountainside in our valley. Suddenly, the sound of rain was overwhelming but we were not getting wet. I looked around to figure out this mystery and noticed approximately 15 meters away, the ocean water was being thrashed about by heavy rain fall... but Mike and I were still standing in dry air? As I screamed at Mike to look beside us, the rain slowly crept our way, Mike said it felt like he could have run away from it. Before we knew it, we were right in the middle of the storm. I continued to scream and shout with excitement and it wasn't long until one of our fellow guestmates came screaming down the beach and joined us in the ocean. 

I loved the way the rain drops looked as they hit the ocean. They came down with such force that they were like tiny meteors hitting the water, creating a reverse rain drop to jump in the air. 

We realized that we could be at some risk in the water with lighting around us, (duh) so we stepped out for a bit while waiting for the lightning to pass. I still couldn't keep myself from shouting as I ran with my arms up, back into the stormy water. 

And Mike... well... he was practically weightless. 

After dinner we returned to the dark ocean one last time to see the magic. It was no less captivating but this time we had a lightning show to compliment our underwater spectacle.

Day 91-We were catching the night bus out of Jungle Beach to Hoi An this night so we were lucky enough to enjoy another full day in paradise. We chilled at the beach and soaked up the sun until we could see another storm coming our way. 

As quickly as it appeared in the sky, it wrapped itself around us and we witnessed the storm travelling across the ocean... and it was awesome. The rain cut the sky in half until blue was no longer visible from one side. 

Right before the storm hit, I spent some time with some of my new favorite insect buddies, the butterfly. There was something on the trees that they must have been eating because there were dozens flying around. 

Some people question how I could leave my family and friends for a year. To sleep on the ground with bugs, risk eating something that could make me ill, constantly get ripped off and taken advantage of, while rarely knowing what situation we'll face next. The moments we lived at Jungle Beach are the reasons for all of my dreams. I will quote James Thurber who wrote the book that inspired one of my favorite movies, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; "To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life" and that is what drives me everyday, to experience new things. 

Mike, myself and James shared a taxi to the highway where we hopped on a sleeper bus to take us to Hoi An. The ride would take 11 hours to get from Jungle Beach to Hoi An and we expected the night bus to have some sort of sleeping arrangements for the long journey. The bus had an interesting set up and they manage to pack a ton of travellers into a very small space. Three rows of beds fit on the bus length wise and the beds were the perfect size for anyone under the height of 5 feet. Although, I managed to sleep quite well, Mike and James didn't find it as comfortable, not to mention the driver was driving erratically, almost flinging me out of my bed at one point. But we made it to Hoi An around 7:30 am, so I guess that is all that matters.

Thanks for the good times Jungle Beach. 

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!