26th August
Early rise this morning at 6.45am. We have a boat to catch and I will do two fun dives for the first time in Vietnam (very exciting). We cruised for the first 45 mins before reaching our first dive site. The weather was overcast but nice all the same. I went through the procedures and got kitted out with my wet suit and oxygen tank and jumped right in, the water was warm and very very clear, so I was very excited to see some beautiful marine life. The dive itself went ok, but I was very disappointed with the dive master (who was Vietnamese) He touched everything and they all semmed to love chasing the fish. Swimming after him i could se him braking corals here and there with his finns and after a few times i just wished i could have had longer arms to grab his balls, the rest you can figure out yourselves. You see when I did my course none of these things were allowed, and its common sense that things should be left alone down there. But not for these guys I'm afraid, they have no respect at all. So Vietnam diving will not survive too much longer unless something is done about it and the people are educated a bit more at least. I was down there for a good 55 mins, while David was swimming in a cloud of jellyfish on the surface, and even got bitten by one or two of them, so he didn't really enjoy the first stop as much.
Angela
I always enjoy a cup of coffee before a dive
________________
Angela..
..and my so called "Dive Master"
Braking the coral like that....i hope you DIVE to HELL!
_________________
Angelaready for the first dive
_________________
After grabbing a basic bread and cheese sandwich, we arrived at dive site number two. And off I went again, as before, jumping off the boat into the deep blue sea grabbing on tight to my mask and regulator. The dive itself was also nice this time, I saw some unusual sea eels and trumpetfish, and some lionfish too. This time things didn't get better with the dive master either as they tried grabbing the eel and playing with it, picking up sea stars and sea cucumbers, not a good idea. So I was down there again for another 55 mins with once again a bad impression left in my mind about Coco Divers and how they don't have a care for the environment that they are in. David on this occasion had a better snorkel and he got some nice pictures of beautiful fish and coral there, and the jellyfish didn't bother him too much this time either. So he concluded his morning with a leap of the top of the boat.
AngelaReady for a 2nd dive
_________________
DavidEnjoying the peace and quiet on the sundeck
_______________
We got back before 2 pm and after the dive log got a little bit filled we enjoyed a lovely lunch with a drunk Swede/Australian/ American/Vietnamese/arthritis stricken man, but he was fun for a little while at least.
Next plan was to book the bus to Dalat, so we headed to TM Brothers cafe/Camel Travel to do just that. On getting there they told us that we didn't have a ticket to Dalat on this open bus ticket, even though when we bought it we paid for it in Hanoi. So a stand off began, we were not leaving without the ticket, and we sure as hell were not prepared to pay for it a second time. We sat, we argued, we made demands and eventually got through the thick heads of theirs that they are a joke of a travel company, so to get rid of us they cracked and gave us our tickets free of charge. (Success). To celebrate we did the laundry, and had a fine meal in Rainbow Divers bar, where I asked many questions about how they treat their marine life here. And to tell you the truth I wish I went with them on the dive as they seemed more competent and far nicer people. Oh well, moral of the story is to never go with the cheapest dive school, even if they do have a bigger boat.
More happy beers followed in La Cabanon bar while we waited for the laundry to get done. We met a sweet poor girl selling cigarettes, she didn't have any parents, so we bought her a soft drink and talked to her for a bit, so hope she will be ok. Sleep followed after that, as we had another early start in the morning.
Next plan was to book the bus to Dalat, so we headed to TM Brothers cafe/Camel Travel to do just that. On getting there they told us that we didn't have a ticket to Dalat on this open bus ticket, even though when we bought it we paid for it in Hanoi. So a stand off began, we were not leaving without the ticket, and we sure as hell were not prepared to pay for it a second time. We sat, we argued, we made demands and eventually got through the thick heads of theirs that they are a joke of a travel company, so to get rid of us they cracked and gave us our tickets free of charge. (Success). To celebrate we did the laundry, and had a fine meal in Rainbow Divers bar, where I asked many questions about how they treat their marine life here. And to tell you the truth I wish I went with them on the dive as they seemed more competent and far nicer people. Oh well, moral of the story is to never go with the cheapest dive school, even if they do have a bigger boat.
More happy beers followed in La Cabanon bar while we waited for the laundry to get done. We met a sweet poor girl selling cigarettes, she didn't have any parents, so we bought her a soft drink and talked to her for a bit, so hope she will be ok. Sleep followed after that, as we had another early start in the morning.
Angela & David
2 comments:
it's after 1am in the morning here and i was just about to go to bed but than i have decided to check on u two and what do u know...
i was diving with u and getting pissed off with u also
u are great fun to watch and follow
i wish i was as brave as u are
love u both very much
have fun
t xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooooooo
I know, it's heartbreaking!!! I mean, i would never go and brake someone elses house, i wouldn't chase after other peoples children! Thank you for understanding!
And you are brave!! It's never too late :D
LOVE from both of us.
-angie baby
Post a Comment