Nha Trang

After a fairly gross train ride, we arrived at Nha Trang. We quickly settled into our hotel. This is where our hotel clerk told me my eyebrows are too light and I should pencil them in black. I pretty much gave him a look that said go f*** yourself and did not have any time for him the rest of our stay there. Then, went for dinner. Brad really wanted to go snorkelling, so we searched for a tour company to do so. We couldn't find the tour company lonely planet recommended, but we were pretty sure we found the same tour. We booked it in hopes we didn't book the overfull Chinese tour we had been warned about.

We then went to this pretty sweet bar called, "Why Not?" and drank far too many strong margaritas. Brad said he only snorkels hungover.

We passed out at a decent hour and woke up early to go on our snorkel tour. We hopped on a boat and we travelled for about 45min to our first destination. I had never been snorkelling before, and was feeling pretty apprehensive about wearing flippers and a mask and floating in the ocean with nothing but those two things. Well, everyone was jumping off the boat at our first location and I didn't really have an opportunity to hesitate, so in I went jumping a meter or two off the boat into the water.

I hit the water and pretty much panicked because you can't breathe out of your nose with the mask on. I got my nerves under control, and the swam out nearing the coast of one of the islands. Once I got over the fact that I could stick my face in the water and breathe (it goes against your natural instincts!) I was amazed by what I saw. Coral of all types, starfish, sea urchins and hundreds of colourful tropical fish. It is by far one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had.

We went back on the boat to go to our next destination. The next place had tons of tennis-ball sizes jellyfish. I honestly couldn't relax and enjoy this area simply because the jellyfish kept freaking me out. Even though the little guys don't really sting (more just like a mosquito bite), I couldn't help but be intimidated by seeing 10 right close to my face.

I was pretty happy when we were done at this spot to get the hell away from those damn jellyfish. I was swimming back to the boat, when something caught my eye. I initially thought the light was refracting strangely in the water. Suddenly, it came into focus. It was one giant jellyfish, about the size of a basketball. We were told to stay away from these ones because a sting is going to hurt much more. I pretty much Bee-lined it in the other direction as fast as I could to get away from it!

When Brad also returned to the boat, he asked if I saw the giant jellyfish he did! He said he pretty much had the same thought-process: get the hell away from that thing!

It was then lunchtime. All the bench seats got folded down to create a table all 25 people could sit around. Then, they brought out squid. The morning glory. Then fish. Then spare ribs. The food just kept coming! We had a massive amount of food on the table. It was pretty much awesome, and we were all awestruck. It tasted pretty good, too!

After lunch we reached our final snorkelling destination. This was the best place by far. Tons and tons of colourful fish playfully flickering about in an alien world under the sea. There were no jellyfish here, so it was very enjoyable.

The boat ride back was lovely, too. We enjoyed watermelon, pineapple and dragon fruit as we watched the cerulean waves roll across the hull of our boat. It was incredible.

We showered all the salt water off of us when we got back to our hotel, clearly waking up our sunburnt skin. It's a little painful even today. Damn whities trying to do what the locals do!

We went for a lovely dinner in clay pots, went for a beer tasting at the local brewery Louisiane on the beach, and then walked along the beach path. It was a fantastic evening!