Nha Trang - Vietnam Diving

From Ho Chi Minh I took an overnight sitting bus up to the beach town of Nha Trang, about ten hours north. Thankfully, the bus was half empty so everyone was spread out across entire rows, with their asses hanging in the aisle. Not too comfortable, but better than sitting up for the whole trip. Cyrill decided to head up to Nha Trang just for the day and head back in the evening (nuts).

 

When I got to Nha Trang I ended up finding a hotel right on the beach with these two English guys, Bill and Jack. After spending the day walking around town and checking out the local dive shops, I decided to book two dives for the next morning with Octopus Diving, also known as the Sailing Club. This is one of two dive shops in town that I’ve been told are trustworthy, as many shops are somewhat sketchy. According to Lonely Planet, Nha Trang has some of the best diving in Vietnam, so I was pretty excited.

After grabbing a few drinks in the evening at the Guava Bar with some other English kids, I went back and crashed.

 

The dive group the next day was not quite typical. I was the only fun diver, with everyone else doing either their Open Water class or Discover Scuba. Discover Scuba is exactly what it sounds like - an opportunity to try diving without having to take the three-day Open Water course. For not much more than a fun dive, adventurous individuals can explore the underwater world with a divemaster holding onto the back of their tank. It’s kind of like tandem sky diving, but underwater. To subdue their utter boredom, the divemasters will often mess around, unbeknownst to the new divers who are focusing on breathing and what’s in front of them. As an example, I took a great picture of a divemaster straddling a diver bull-rider style - it’s funny what people will do when they know I’ve got a camera.

 

As the lone fun diver, I went diving with one divemaster. In our group of two we were able to do our own thing, and we were able to poke fun at the Discover Scuba divers. While the diving was apparently far better than usual, it still kind of sucked when compared to Koh Tao. We didn’t really see anything too special, and visibility was sometimes quite poor. Highlights included a one-meter gruper, lots of clownfish, a mantis shrimp, and a big sweetlips. We also did a really tight hundred foot swimthrough that involved swimming through the school of fish that resides in the cave.

 

I hopped on an overnight sleeper bus bound for Hoi An later that evening. The sleeper busses are great - far more comfortable than a sitting bus, though a little cramped for tall folks. Overnight busses, especially sleeper busses are a great way to travel. You hop on the bus in the evening and arrive in a new town around 6am, having saved yourself the cost of a night’s lodging. Not bad.