Nha Trang, Vietnam
Just spent 4 days in the beach town of Nha Trang, Southern Vietnam. As of this writing, I am now a PADI certified open water scuba diver. Not to toot my own horn, but it was kind of difficult. I wasn't expecting it to be like a recreational boot camp, but that's kind of how it turned out. Perhaps it was because I opted for the 3 day as opposed to 4 day course; Or maybe it was my instructor who seemed to be suffering from a hormonal imbalance of testosterone (he also was French (Canadian) which didn't help much); Or maybe it was because I was the only girl on the course?
We spent the first day (me and two nice Spanish guys, the testosterone Canadian and a humorless dork from Australia) blowing bubbles in a pool. It was exhausting and by the end of the day, I was ready to strangle my instructor. He was impatient, rude, arrogant and had the interpersonal skills of an alligator. The Spaniards said it was because he was French so I tried to blow it off (which as you know I am not good at doing). Day two we hit the Ocean and it was nice to smell the sea rather than chlorine from the sailing club pool. The instructor was even more short tempered, humorless and rude the second day, so finally I just dished it back to him. His tone immediately changed..interesting that!!!. I told him he was rude, had no patience for being a teacher and had way too much testosterone. It seemed to strike a nerve. Suddenly his arrogance shrinked to a pathetic puppy like submissiveness. He then wanted to know what he did to offend me. I told him I just wanted to finish the course, and if he wanted to talk about it afterwards like adults then I'd be happy to (in the end I didn't waste my energy and just let him figure it out).
We did two dives in two beautiful coral forests, tropical fish the size of my head (that I've seen in people's fish tanks, but are usually the size of my thumb), moray eels, flowing kelp, baracudas, valleys of coral and plant life...truly magnificent. It is hard to describe the sensation of breathing and being underwater. It is I suppose like being in outer space. Totally surreal. I kept uncontrollably floating to the top like an overinflated blimp. My ears would sting from the pressuree and the Canadian instructor (who was great underwater because he couldn't speak with his mouth on a regulator) would try and grab me so I wouldn't go up too fast (if you do, you can get decompression sickness ie. "the bends")
It was kind of comical really. The instructor would be showing us a fish and suddenly I would uncontrollably float away even though I was desprerately trying to deflate my air jacket (called a BCD) and attempting to empty my lungs as much as possible. Sometimes he wouldn't notice, and would happily entertain himself with the fish as I would helplessly float to the top like a helpless blimp baby. Most times though, he and the dorky Australian assistant would grab me (I felt like the girl who turns into a blueberry in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"). Luckily I didn't damage any coral or wildlife with my lack of bouyancy control. I'll try and practice it before I hit the reefs in Australia, the last thing the great barrier reef needs is me bouncing around the coral like a pong ball.
I do like scuba diving...it is a different world. I also enjoy the discipline in it. There are strict rules for safety and emergency procedures. It's nice to have a skill that requires a good level of responsibility in regards to physics and an alternative physical state. It is an interesting form of meditation. I would highly recommend it as a very cool life experience to anyone. I would suggest however, that if you get certified and you are a woman, get a female instructor. Scuba diving tends to attract somewhat of a meathead macho crowd for some reason (the guy who runs the diving place I went to looks like Chuck Norris). That said, there were also some cool Vietnamese divers. One guy named Nhang was probably 40 years old and had probably done more dives than all the instructors put together (20,000 dives to date). He used to dive for the government, searching for gold from sunken ships and doing oil excavation. Evidently they didn't have compressed air and he woul just have an air hose that would go to the top from 40 feet below (man, good think that hose never kinked!!!!) He knows the underwater landscape of Nha Trang better than anyone, every cave, local moray eel den, scorpion fish hang out, etc. so on the third day when he advised the crew not to go out because of wind and rains...they listened(hence my 3 day course turned into a 4 day course). I was quite happy to have a break after the first two days of diver boot camp.
I like Nha Trang. It's a laid back town with nice folks. The sidewalks are filled with food stalls (small tables and chairs making a makeshift restaurant), barber shops (two chairs and a mirror on the sidewalk with a barber), fish stalls selling lobsters and crabs (and sometimes roasted bugs like crickets and scorpions), and of course the ubiquitous tourist stalls (seling t-shirts postcards).
There are a lot of artists it seems in Nha Trang as well. Long Thanh is an amazing photographer whose work is in many of the cafes etc. Take a look at his stuff at:
http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/artist_profile.997.1.html
I really love his work. There is also a guy who sits at the sailing club and hand paints t-shirts for the tourists named Kim Quan. I didn't want to ask, but he was in a wheel chair, and his legs were deformed. He was around my age, and I assumed it was probably from Agent Orange as the deformity looked much like the deformities at the war remnant's museum video that was shown about the chemical. I have seen many folks with this (short stunted limbs twisted like pretzels).
Many people here are extraordinarily friendly. Everyone asks where I am from and when I tell them, they want to know if I voted for Kerry. When I tell them I am from San Francisco they usually say "ah, many Vietnamese in California" . No one has shown any hostility towards me for being an American, though I believe there is a healthy level of suspicion. I suppose if I told them I voted for Bush they would simply change the subject quickly. The Vietnamese seem like very polite people (though I've been told by travellers that this is not the case in parts of the North).
Vietnam got hit with a Typhoon last week and 30 people died. I was in Cambodia and Saigon at the time, but another one is coming (900 people died in the Phillipines from the first storm, and a "Super typhoon" is hitting today). It's a totally different reality people live in here. Their small shacks are no match for logging enduced mudslides and 180 km/hr winds. With the super typhoon coming so near Vietnam, I decided to cut my trip a bit short here and head inland to Laos. I'm a bit concerned about mudslides if I were to travel any further north. So I'm going back to Saigon tonight, then Ventienne and I'll catch a boat to Lao Pobang. After that I'm hoping to catch a two day slow boat down the Mekong River back to Ventienne.
In retrospect, I don't feel like I have really seen Vietnam (skimmed it perhaps), and I would like to see the north someday, perhaps head up into China which is what most travellers do. I am meeting so many people who have been travelling around the world for a year or two, other people working here in Vietnam, teaching English, Scuba Diving, studying etc. It is a lush and beautiful country. It's hard to believe it was bombed into a moonscape up until 1975. It's interesting how I don't run into very many Americans while travelling (I've met about 4 since I hit Cambodia and Vietnam). It's also interesting how CNN international, which is everywhere on Vietnamese TV sets NEVER mentions Vietnam in weather reports or ANYTHING. All if indochina is completely ignored. Funny that.
I've been on my own while in Nha Trang doing the Scuba course which has been nice as the experience was a bit daunting and it was great to just go to my hotel and relax at the end of the day. I'm sure heading up to Ventienne I'll meet more people, it isn't hard to do, all you do is sit at a cafe, turn to the person next to you and ask them where they are from. The answer is usually Australia Germany or France.
We spent the first day (me and two nice Spanish guys, the testosterone Canadian and a humorless dork from Australia) blowing bubbles in a pool. It was exhausting and by the end of the day, I was ready to strangle my instructor. He was impatient, rude, arrogant and had the interpersonal skills of an alligator. The Spaniards said it was because he was French so I tried to blow it off (which as you know I am not good at doing). Day two we hit the Ocean and it was nice to smell the sea rather than chlorine from the sailing club pool. The instructor was even more short tempered, humorless and rude the second day, so finally I just dished it back to him. His tone immediately changed..interesting that!!!. I told him he was rude, had no patience for being a teacher and had way too much testosterone. It seemed to strike a nerve. Suddenly his arrogance shrinked to a pathetic puppy like submissiveness. He then wanted to know what he did to offend me. I told him I just wanted to finish the course, and if he wanted to talk about it afterwards like adults then I'd be happy to (in the end I didn't waste my energy and just let him figure it out).
We did two dives in two beautiful coral forests, tropical fish the size of my head (that I've seen in people's fish tanks, but are usually the size of my thumb), moray eels, flowing kelp, baracudas, valleys of coral and plant life...truly magnificent. It is hard to describe the sensation of breathing and being underwater. It is I suppose like being in outer space. Totally surreal. I kept uncontrollably floating to the top like an overinflated blimp. My ears would sting from the pressuree and the Canadian instructor (who was great underwater because he couldn't speak with his mouth on a regulator) would try and grab me so I wouldn't go up too fast (if you do, you can get decompression sickness ie. "the bends")
It was kind of comical really. The instructor would be showing us a fish and suddenly I would uncontrollably float away even though I was desprerately trying to deflate my air jacket (called a BCD) and attempting to empty my lungs as much as possible. Sometimes he wouldn't notice, and would happily entertain himself with the fish as I would helplessly float to the top like a helpless blimp baby. Most times though, he and the dorky Australian assistant would grab me (I felt like the girl who turns into a blueberry in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"). Luckily I didn't damage any coral or wildlife with my lack of bouyancy control. I'll try and practice it before I hit the reefs in Australia, the last thing the great barrier reef needs is me bouncing around the coral like a pong ball.
I do like scuba diving...it is a different world. I also enjoy the discipline in it. There are strict rules for safety and emergency procedures. It's nice to have a skill that requires a good level of responsibility in regards to physics and an alternative physical state. It is an interesting form of meditation. I would highly recommend it as a very cool life experience to anyone. I would suggest however, that if you get certified and you are a woman, get a female instructor. Scuba diving tends to attract somewhat of a meathead macho crowd for some reason (the guy who runs the diving place I went to looks like Chuck Norris). That said, there were also some cool Vietnamese divers. One guy named Nhang was probably 40 years old and had probably done more dives than all the instructors put together (20,000 dives to date). He used to dive for the government, searching for gold from sunken ships and doing oil excavation. Evidently they didn't have compressed air and he woul just have an air hose that would go to the top from 40 feet below (man, good think that hose never kinked!!!!) He knows the underwater landscape of Nha Trang better than anyone, every cave, local moray eel den, scorpion fish hang out, etc. so on the third day when he advised the crew not to go out because of wind and rains...they listened(hence my 3 day course turned into a 4 day course). I was quite happy to have a break after the first two days of diver boot camp.
I like Nha Trang. It's a laid back town with nice folks. The sidewalks are filled with food stalls (small tables and chairs making a makeshift restaurant), barber shops (two chairs and a mirror on the sidewalk with a barber), fish stalls selling lobsters and crabs (and sometimes roasted bugs like crickets and scorpions), and of course the ubiquitous tourist stalls (seling t-shirts postcards).
There are a lot of artists it seems in Nha Trang as well. Long Thanh is an amazing photographer whose work is in many of the cafes etc. Take a look at his stuff at:
http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/artist_profile.997.1.html
I really love his work. There is also a guy who sits at the sailing club and hand paints t-shirts for the tourists named Kim Quan. I didn't want to ask, but he was in a wheel chair, and his legs were deformed. He was around my age, and I assumed it was probably from Agent Orange as the deformity looked much like the deformities at the war remnant's museum video that was shown about the chemical. I have seen many folks with this (short stunted limbs twisted like pretzels).
Many people here are extraordinarily friendly. Everyone asks where I am from and when I tell them, they want to know if I voted for Kerry. When I tell them I am from San Francisco they usually say "ah, many Vietnamese in California" . No one has shown any hostility towards me for being an American, though I believe there is a healthy level of suspicion. I suppose if I told them I voted for Bush they would simply change the subject quickly. The Vietnamese seem like very polite people (though I've been told by travellers that this is not the case in parts of the North).
Vietnam got hit with a Typhoon last week and 30 people died. I was in Cambodia and Saigon at the time, but another one is coming (900 people died in the Phillipines from the first storm, and a "Super typhoon" is hitting today). It's a totally different reality people live in here. Their small shacks are no match for logging enduced mudslides and 180 km/hr winds. With the super typhoon coming so near Vietnam, I decided to cut my trip a bit short here and head inland to Laos. I'm a bit concerned about mudslides if I were to travel any further north. So I'm going back to Saigon tonight, then Ventienne and I'll catch a boat to Lao Pobang. After that I'm hoping to catch a two day slow boat down the Mekong River back to Ventienne.
In retrospect, I don't feel like I have really seen Vietnam (skimmed it perhaps), and I would like to see the north someday, perhaps head up into China which is what most travellers do. I am meeting so many people who have been travelling around the world for a year or two, other people working here in Vietnam, teaching English, Scuba Diving, studying etc. It is a lush and beautiful country. It's hard to believe it was bombed into a moonscape up until 1975. It's interesting how I don't run into very many Americans while travelling (I've met about 4 since I hit Cambodia and Vietnam). It's also interesting how CNN international, which is everywhere on Vietnamese TV sets NEVER mentions Vietnam in weather reports or ANYTHING. All if indochina is completely ignored. Funny that.
I've been on my own while in Nha Trang doing the Scuba course which has been nice as the experience was a bit daunting and it was great to just go to my hotel and relax at the end of the day. I'm sure heading up to Ventienne I'll meet more people, it isn't hard to do, all you do is sit at a cafe, turn to the person next to you and ask them where they are from. The answer is usually Australia Germany or France.
posted by Mr. Sophie at 3:35 AM
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