Snorkeling in Nha Trang

Vietnam Trip ~ Day 4

July 16, 2012

The morning after we arrived in Nha Trang, we inquired at our hotel's front desk about a snorkeling trip. The manager called around and found us one leaving later that morning. Once we found out the time that the tour operator would pick us up, we headed out onto the streets to find some breakfast. We wandered along the road, glancing at the restaurant menus on stands by the front doors, but nothing piqued our interest. Then we spotted another white tourist going up to a roadside vendor and asking for a breakfast sandwich. We watched as the vendor cooked an egg on a small charcoal stove and added in cut up, fresh veggies, then scooped it all into a long French-style roll that looked like a small baguette. This looked delicious to us and when the other tourist's meal was finished and paid for, we approached the vendor and asked for two sandwiches. Then we sat at an empty table along the road and ate our breakfast as we watched pedestrians and motorcycles hurrying along the street.  With our bellies full and happy, we continued our walk around the neighbourhood. We stopped at a couple stores that had flip flops for sale and Jonathan tried on many pairs before finally finding one that was about the right size. He was happy to have found them so he wouldn't have to wear his sneakers for the rest of the trip, but was still missing his Tevas. His new flip flops were stiffer and a lot less comfortable. Then it was time to head back to the hotel. We changed into swimsuits in our room and gathered up towels, goggles, sunscreen, and water bottles, then went down to wait in the lobby. A few other hotel patrons were also waiting for the same snorkeling tour as us, and after a few minutes of waiting, our driver arrived to take us to the wharf where we'd catch our boat.

Locals hanging out on the street

Preferred mode of transportation in Vietnam - in the U.S. a V8 4x4 pickup would be needed for this load!

At the wharf, we were herded to a waiting area made up of lots of wooden benches and told to all sit in one area to stay together. Our tour guide left to figure out which boat we would board and came back a few minutes later to show us the way to the gangplank. We found out that our group was too large to go on one boat, so we were split into two groups and boarded boats side by side. Our captain backed the boat away from the dock and we were off on our snorkeling adventure! We cruised across the ocean, our eyes drinking in the gorgeous views of the blue water and rocky beaches.

Canal boat

Gondola to an island which had a resort and theme park

Island village

Prime real estate

Beautiful water

During the ride out from shore we were given snorkels, masks, and flippers. After about half an hour we arrived at the first snorkeling site and were very ready to jump into the water. After a few instructions and tips from our tour guide, we hopped into the ocean and dove under the surface to explore the sea floor. We were so happy to have our underwater camera to capture all the interesting sea life. We had a long time at the first snorkel spot and saw lots of really beautiful fish.

Our first snorkel spot

Jonathan readies his equipment

Great scenery

Trumpetfish, we believe

Diving

Sea star

Blue fish

Coral

Clearing the nostrils

Another brightly-colored fish

Island retreat

After a while (it seemed like a good long time) we were encouraged to swim back to the boat and were given towels to dry off with as we moved to another area. We had a shorter snorkeling time at the second spot, and saw a few different sea creatures: sea urchins, a sea slug (which scared Ali a little, until she realized it wasn't a snake and wasn't going to be moving very fast), and a giant clam.

Ali takes a dive

Sea urchins

Sea slug

(Small) giant clam

When we were called back to the boat after our second snorkel experience, we climbed back on to find the middle benches folded down to make a table. Many dishes were being laid out and soon the whole table was covered with a large variety of foods. Our guide told us about the different foods and what was in them, so we knew which dishes were fine for vegetarians to eat and which to stay away from. Although we were floating on the ocean just a little ways off shore from a seaside city, we were pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of vegetarian dishes. All the food we tried was delicious, but we especially enjoyed the Vietnamese noddles.

Waiting for the meal to be laid out

It was pretty good!

At the bow

After lunch and a short drive to our third and final snorkeling spot, we jumped back into the water to see some more underwater life.

Waves

Deep blue

Parrotfish and sea urchin

Giant brain coral - looks kinda like a manatee!

Mysterious mounds on the sea floor

The elusive Alifish!

All too soon we were called back to the boat for our trip back to shore. Upon climbing back into the boat we found a refreshing snack of pineapple, watermelon, and bananas. Mmmm, all the fruit tasted so good after all our swimming that day! As we headed back to Nha Trang, we discovered that despite slathering on a good bunch of sunscreen, our backs were a bit burned. The burns definitely could have been worse (unfortunately, both of us have skin that is easily susceptible to burns), but we decided that we weren't too impressed with the sunscreen we had stocked up on before leaving Korea. We later found out that it was just water resistant instead of waterproof, but that kind of thing is rather hard to know when you mostly see Korean writing on the packaging... Despite the burns, we had an amazing day out on - and in - the water and having the opportunity to see such interesting and diverse underwater creatures! We would definitely recommend a snorkeling trip in Nha Trang to anyone visiting Vietnam. Once back in Nha Trang, we relaxed for a bit in our hotel room and waited for the sun to set before venturing back out onto the streets to find some supper. We settled on a quiet Italian restaurant not too far from our hotel and had a yummy "Western" meal. Then we walked around the neighbourhood, popped into a few stores to look at souvenirs, and then made our way back to our hotel for a good night's rest.

Afternoon snack - yum!

Floating fishing huts

Trip planning during evening refreshments

Next up: Exploring Nha Trang

Mui Ne sand dunes & traveling to Nha Trang

Vietnam Trip ~ Day 3

July 15, 2012

Our guidebook mentioned that, along with windsurfing, another thing Mui Ne is known for is its sand dunes. We wanted to experience the sand dunes before we moved on up the coast. On Sunday morning we asked at the front desk of our resort how we could get a tour of the dunes and the lady working at the desk called up a tour operator and got us a tour to the white and yellow sand dunes (sadly, we didn't have time to also see the red sand dunes, which were further away). She also helped us get reservations on a sleeper bus traveling from Mui Ne to the next large city up the coast, Nha Trang, for that afternoon.

(One thing we want to mention now is how wonderful it is to be a tourist in Vietnam. We didn't know this fact before we arrived in Vietnam, but we quickly learned that all the hotel managers and tour operators we met in our travels were extremely beneficial to us and other travelers in helping us get tickets on the various modes of transportation, in getting reservations for hotels in the next place we wanted to travel to, and in booking tours for us. It was so, so helpful to have this extra, free-of-charge service so that we didn't have to try to book various things with a language barrier or without knowing what we were doing or what we were getting into. Those who helped us always had great knowledge to share with us about whatever we needed assistance with. What a wonderful resource to have! It was like getting your own private tourist information center at each hotel we stayed at or with each tour operator we met. That is definitely part of the reason we had such a great trip to Vietnam, and we think this type of service should definitely be implemented here in North America.)

After we packed up our backpacks, we sat out in the open-air lobby and waited for our tour guide to arrive. When he drove up, we left Jonathan's backpacking backpack behind the front desk and hopped in the back seat of the Jeep. Our guide told us that we'd start out visiting the white sand dunes, which were farther away from Mui Ne and then come back to see the yellow sand dunes before returning to our resort to catch our bus. The drive out to the white sand dunes was very pleasant with a warm wind blowing past our open windows, and we arrived at the dunes in about 20 minutes.

Jeep and driver that took us to the dunes

Beautiful scenery on the way there 

The yellow sand dunes on the hills

Distant white sand dunes

At the base of the white sand dunes we were greeted by a group of men tending some ATVs and were told that we would have the best experience of the dunes if we rented an ATV and drove around the dunes on it. Having had experience ATVing on sand dunes on the Oregon coast, Ali agreed that it would be a good idea, and we rented an ATV for half an hour. We had fun driving up and down the tall dunes until the drive chain happened to fall off as we were trying to drive up a dune. One of the ATV caretakers soon came to help us and we were off again for the rest of our rental time. Flexible plastic sheets were provided at the top of one dune to use to sled down the on the sand. We tried them out, but they didn't work quite as well as sledding on real snow. :) We were very glad for our waterproof camera at these dunes, which withstood the sand much better than Jonathan's DSLR would have.

We rented an ATV for a half hour to explore the dunes a bit (We had to be careful not to burn our legs on the hot exhaust)

Quite a high dune

Dune riding!

At one point Jonathan managed to drop the chain somehow - we had to wait for someone to help us get it back on.

At one place, there were makeshift sleds to slide down the steep slope with

Ali gives it a go

Our half hour of ATV rental time was soon up and we drove back to the parking lot to rejoin our tour guide, who quickly got us into the Jeep for our ride back toward Mui Ne and the yellow sand dunes. We stopped at a roadside store along the way for a bathroom break and to get a couple extra water bottles. Then we continued to the dunes. At the yellow dunes there were no options for ATVing, which was fine with us - one rental for the day was enough. We walked up and down the dunes, stopping for pictures whenever we felt like it. We had a fun time, except for the unfortunate event when, near the end of our time there, Jonathan decided to slide down one dune on his feet and lost one of his flip flops in the sand. We dug around as deep as we could reach for a few minutes without finding it and finally had to leave with Jonathan wearing just one flip flop. On our drive back to our resort our tour guide stopped at a sandal store for Jonathan to find another pair, but none of them fit his feet!

At the second dunes area - the sand here was more yellow

Very hot!

Water! Please water!

Ali making a sand angel

"See!"

Sandy expanse

Right before losing one flip flop in the dune

When we got back to our resort, we waited in the lobby for about half an hour before our bus showed up. Another nice thing about Vietnam is how the buses will just stop by the various hotels to pick up passengers so you don't have to find a way to the bus station if you're staying far away. We put the backpacking backpack in the storage compartment under the bus, then boarded and found two seats beside each other at the very back of the bus. Since it was a sleeper bus, we had seats that lay back, giving us more room to stretch out. Ali was pretty comfy, but poor Jonathan was a bit too long to be completely comfortable. We spent the 5-hour bus ride reading and peeking out the curtained window every once in a while to view the scenery. The view, beside the coast and up through verdant green hills, was gorgeous, but it was hard to capture the beauty through our dirt-flecked windows. During the trip, we made a couple stops for bathroom breaks and food purchases. At one stop we were surprised to see large fried spiders on sticks. We opted for a box of crackers instead... It was dark and pretty late by the time we arrived in Nha Trang. As we disembarked, we found a number of taxis and motorcycle taxis waiting for the passengers who might need their services. We found a free taxi and told the driver the name of a hotel we'd decided on during our bus trip, and he delivered us there within a few minutes, after a stop at an ATM to replenish our supply of Vietnamese dong. At the hotel we booked a room for a couple nights and then rode the elevator up several floors, got settled into our new quarters, and fell asleep soon after.

Back at the resort

Waiting

Our last three Jeju chocolates! We finally decided to eat them...

Sleeper bus

Not so comfortable for Jonathan (Ali's feet not pictured...)

Attempted scenery shot out the window

Next up: Nha Trang & snorkeling tour