"Snorkeling" and around Nha Trang

Nha Trang is supposed to have good diving and snorkeling.  I'm guessing where they take boat tours isn't the best as the snorkeling was crap.  We spent a day wandering Nha Trang and have since arrived in Da Lat.  I had a paniced moment last night when I noticed my laptop although plugged in was not charging.  Fortunately we easily found a computer repair store in Da Lat (I was shocked at how easy it was) the guy replaced the cord on my power adapter and $5 later I was good to go! I felt so much better that it was fixed to easily.

Oct 28 – Boat Trip

We signed up to go on a snorkeling boat trip tour today. We were to be picked up at 8:30ish so we hit up the Pho restaurant down the street for breakfast. We were picked up and taken down to the pier. At the pier there was many boats waiting to take people out to the islands. Luckily our boat wasn't packed full of people, probably about 20 people compared to the 40 odd on other boats. Our first stop was Hon Mieu with Tri Nguyen Aquarium. The aquarium is used to breed species and study them. We saw some sea turtles, eels and lots of other fish. Afterwards we boated along to Hon Mot where we got to go snorkeling. Unfortunately the equipment provided sucked and we didn't see all that much fishwise. A bit of a disappointment. The current was quiet strong so it was easy to float away, the swim back to the boat was quite a work out. From this island we continued on to Hon Mun where we stopped for lunch. Lunch was also disappointing, we expected a sea food lunch but I don't think there was anything sea foody involved. There was some live music from the crew which also involved people on the boat singing. After that nonsense we all got in the water again and hungout at the floating bar, they were giving out free vodka fruit juice so we all got involved. The floating bar was a lot of fun. From this island we continued on to Hon Tam where we went ashore to chill on the beach. The sun had kind of gone in and the tide was high so there wasn't much beach to speak of. We played some cards with a nice Dutch couple we taught them asshole. We got back on the boat and were taken back to the harbour and the hotel. We made plans to meet up with the Dutch couple after dinner. Beau and I were craving burgers. We've been trying to eat Vietnamese as much as possible but we both were dying for a burger. We got a tasty, albeit thin, burger and some cheap beers for dinner. We met up with the Dutch couple, got some jars of alcohol and played some more asshole. It ended up being a good day and night even though the tour wasn't quite as expected.

The Aquarium

Me snorkeling

Our boat with Funky Monkey Tours

Oct 29 – Around Nha Trang

We were going to book our bus ticket to Da Lat for today but the bus was apparently full so we must wait till tomorrow. That did mean we got to sleep in! We weren't sure what to do with our day, Beau was talking about going to some waterfall but I preferred to check out Nha Trang city. It was probably a good thing we didn't rent another motorcycle because it rained on and off till late afternoon. We were undercover eating breakfast when the first down pour occurred. It was torrential. The rain stopped so we set off to pick up more sunscreen and shampoo. Don't worry Mom I'm wearing sunscreen everyday and making Beau too. After making our purchases we started walking along the beach.  It started raining lightly but we figured it would pour on us sooner or later. We back tracked to an ice cream parlour and no sooner had we sat down the heavens opened. We had some nice ice cream, I think it was technically gelato, and played some cards while waiting for the rain to stop. We set off down the beach again without any trouble this time. It was a cloudy day with a lot of wind so not idea for swimming. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll down the beach. We had to detour back to the hotel because Beau had some bites on his foot and his sandals were irritating them, so we went back for Afterbite which turned into a nap. After having a little snooze the weather had cleared to reveal some sun and blue skies. We continued our wander down the beach and then came back up through the city. We found our way to the restaurant area and after checking out several menus we settled on one. It had good prices on food and beer. I had fish in a clay pot, it was sooooo good. Beau had a burger again which was also good, much meater than the night before but apparently not as tasty. I think I had the longer stick on this one. We ate pretty early since we hadn't had lunch so we wandered some more. We found another restaurant with inexpensive beer (I think we all know what our priority is, but it's cheaper than anything else) and settled down for a couple. The bar across the street had a costume party going on. I keep forgetting it's almost Halloween, Beau wants to dress up though. We had some onion rings to go with our beers, I was majorly craving them. We went back to the hotel but not before picking up some bus snacks for tomorrow. Our bus picks us up at 7am and doesn't arrive till 2pm. Tomorrows going to be a bit of a wasted day :(

View from Nha Trang beach

View from Nha Trang beach

A little sand crab, actually one of the larger ones we saw