Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Welcoming in the New Year

Blogging
You may have noticed that I haven’t updated my blog posts for a while…well, there are a few reasons for this. One, the internet hasn’t always been the best. Second, we just finished a motorcycle tour of the Central Highlands (as passengers) and it was exhausting let me tell you! And lastly, we left our camera in HCMC (I will explain later) and couldn’t post till I had the photos….Now that I have the camera, I am playing catchup.
New Years in Bangkok
Yes, we went back. It was a vacation from our vacation. The Air Asia flight was inexpensive and we found a fantastic hotel for 55 dollars with a COMFY king sized bed, huge pillows, separate tub and shower, and it was QUIET!!! It was a super location close to all our favourites – Au Bon Pain with yummy cappuccinos, the Emporium with movies and Asia Herb Association for massages…We ate bread, peanut butter and fruit in the room opting out of the hotel breakfast.
Almost every day we went to a movie – all big Hollywood blockbusters because that’s what you find here. I got my hair dyed and cut at a place a lot cheaper than my last cut (same colour) – and we found Keens shoes so Ian could replace his stolen ones!! Both pairs of shoes that were made in Cambodia have been left in hotel rooms so hopefully they have found good homes. In Bangkok, we've enjoyed good food and the comfort of a good hotel and spent many a day lazing about doing very little. The weather has been about 34 degrees but surprisingly I’m not noticing the heat as much, I think the humidity must be down.
Phu Quoc, Vietnam
We flew into HCMC and stayed one night as we had an early flight out the next morning. The flight to Phu Quoc from Saigon was 70 dollars each return and was booked through Saigon Tourist. Phu Quoc is only 15 km from Cambodia and Cambodians claim it as theirs - for this reason, there is a large military presence on the island. The island is about 50 km long and is the largest island in Vietnam.
Our accommodation picked us up at the airport and it was a short ride to Hiep Thanh Resort. Our lodgings turned out to be very basic but for 45 dollars on the beach, what could one expect? The bed is much harder than we’d like but the a/c works and there’s hot water so that’s a plus. We’ve got two days of diving booked with Rainbow Divers so it’s probably a good thing accommodation is cheap.
The beach is quite lovely and so incredibly quiet. The water is warm and clean with sand underneath our feet; no rocks, no seaweed, no coral.

We grabbed a couple of sun beds and lazed about reading and swimming. A nice surprise was catching the sunset right from our sun chair.
We cleaned up and grabbed a taxi to Rainbow Divers to fill out our paperwork and show them our SSI certification.  Everyone was friendly and made us feel welcome and comfortable. Ian asked for a recommendation on a place to eat and we headed out on the road, walking, to Hop Inn. The food turned out to be only mediocre but it was inexpensive. We walked back (should have taken a cab but Ian loves  to walk) and made our way tentatively down the bumpy poorly lit path to our hotel with me only twisting my ankle once.
Our night was absolutely silent – another plus. We were up early for our 7:45 pick up. Breakfast was okay – eggs again (ugh) and baguette. I can’t say I am a fan of the Vietnamese coffee. It’s really sweet and strong – I hate sugar with my coffee as it is. I’ll stick with tea. The van arrived and in it were a father (Steven) and his son 11 year old son (Noah). They were Chinese from Malaysia but Noah had only been educated in International schools so both spoke fluent English and Noah seemed more American than Asian. Noah talked up a storm for the entire two days – to anyone who would listen to him.  He was already a certified diver and his dad was taking the open water course.
The van soon filled up and we headed to the dock. The boat was large with the bottom level having benches, tables and a Western toilet – the top deck had another table with benches and several sun chairs. The boat headed north for Turtle Island where we would dive with Nicolas, DM, and Marty, an Australian Vietnamese dive master in training. 
The crew was extremely professional, I was most impressed. We had our equipment checked so many times I couldn’t help but feel secure; and for once, we put on our fins first rather than last. I would rather waddle in fins then try to lean over with all that gear on trying to get them on.  My weights were 6 kg so I was happy with that. Entrance was off the back of the boat and was giant stride.
The dive was okay – again the visibility wasn’t the greatest. Plenty of small marine life kept us interested: fusiliers, basslets, gobies, nudebranch, etc. The coral was fantastic: feather, barrel, mushroom, leaf…and we did see a giant puffer fish about half the size of me. We hovered and looked at it for some time from the side and then it turned to face us as if it were going to take off.
After about 54 minutes with a max. depth of 9m, we surfaced and entered up the back of the boat with equipment on. Again, the crew was ready to help us. We had a snack of fruit and rested while the boat moved to our next location, Nudebranch Garden.  I put on my equipment and did my checks but noticed I only had 90 bars of air in my tank – which was what I had when I finished my first dive. They had forgotten to put on a full tank – no worries, a new tank was added quickly.
Everything went smoothly again; with less weights, I do find it a bit difficult to descend and end up having to turn around to swim headfirst rather than descend feet first, but it’s all good. Our second dive lasted 56 minutes and was a maximum depth of 8m. We won’t be diving too deep on these dives but that means more time in the water.  The deeper you go the more air it takes and you end up with much shorter dives.
We saw more or less the same marine life but did see the tiniest sting ray lying on the sand, tail moving slowly back and forth.  After our dive, lunch was served on the boat and consisted of rice, soup, mixed veggies, etc. I picked at my food but Ian ate plenty. The ride back to the island went quickly and we were back at our hotel around 3:00. We were so tired, it was incredible – I ended up crashing for a couple hours while Ian worked on the computer.
Our second day, pick up was 7:15 because we were heading south and it took a few hours to get there. Today we were diving with Lauren, a Canadian who learned how to dive in B.C., and Mitch, another DM in training. There were 4 in our group and the descent went as well as yesterday.  
Anemone Cove had poor visibility of about 2 to 3 metres so I had to keep close to Ian so I wouldn’t lose him. It’s hard to see far without my glasses so when there’s poor visibility, I often can’t see the DM and totally rely on Ian to lead the way. I need to get a prescription mask. Anemone (coral) meant clown fish and who doesn’t love Nemo?. I saw a vibrant blue tilefish that was cleaning another fish and a small triggerfish.
At one point during the dive, I suddenly started going up and had a really hard time coming down. Lauren saw me so I did the trouble sign and pointed to my weights – she came over, did something to my gear and I sank back down – it was really strange. Then about 10 minutes later, the same thing happened and Mitch pointed to my BC to deflate but that was weird since I hadn’t put any air in my jacket but I gave it a go anyways – some came out but not much. Mitch came over and released a bunch of air out of my jacket using the release valves. I was very perplexed since I had not added any air to my BC jacket and couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t release it on my own. That was solved by Mitch who said sometimes the air release hose gets twisted and you need to lean to the side to get it straight.
 Later on the boat, Lauren said she was switching my jacket because she figured it must be self-inflating – and that turned out to be exactly what was happening.  She has also released air through the vents and that was how I’d sunk. Good lesson to learn for me – next time I’ll know to try releasing air even if I hadn’t put any air in, just in case the jacket was filling up on its own.
Like yesterday, we ate some fruit and rehydrated while the boat moved to this lovely rock island called Bat Island.  Once rested, we easily exited the boat and Lauren told us to hold onto the anchor line as there was a current.  After everyone was in the water she wanted us to move to the front of the boat – against the current.  Everyone leaned back and kicked with their fins but the current was so strong, we barely moved.  It was exhausting and being out of shape – we were quickly panting; not something you want when you’re about to dive because you’ll quickly use up all your air.
Lauren realized this and sent us back to the anchor line where we rested a little before descending.  Descent went fine, visibility was again 2 – 3 m so not great. The dive however wasn’t bad – when the sun came out, we saw colourful coral and lots of tiny fish.  Lauren showed us a tiny bamboo shark with its head hiding beneath the coral but the rest of its body was visible. There was an interesting long fish that was quite flat and blended into the coral that we hovered over – it might have been a puffer fish (that wasn’t ‘puffed’) or a scorpion fish – we couldn’t find it any of our books. Identifying fish is incredibly difficult especially when they can change so completely as they mature and develop and usually the only photos you have are of adult fish.
A decent current carried us along easily. Our maximum depth was 12 m and our dive time was 55 min. Lunch followed the dive and we headed for home. I had a plugged ear and was having a hard time hearing, but other than that, all was well.
Ian and I went upstairs to sit in the sun. Ian laid back to listen to music and I tried napping. Noah was making a nuisance of himself by speaking out of turn and trying to be funny with a couple beside me; I could tell he was bored. After they ignored him for awhile, he made his way over to me and talked up a storm. I asked him tons of questions to keep him engaged and it helped pass the time. He told me all about a school trip to Dalat, his youtube postings, and a ‘shooting’ party using BB guns at his friend Josh’s house.  He was so happy to have someone listen to him and in all honesty, it was kind of fascinating to hear how an 11 year old spends his time.
The boat came up to dock around 5pm and with our log books filled, Ian and I headed back to our room for hot showers and some dinner.
The following two days we were absolutely lazy – sunning, swimming, reading, playing cards and catching more sunsets.
The weather was great, the water lovely, the beach quiet and clean….Sea lice were out in full force a couple of times and they bit me fiercely, especially along the seams of my swimsuit. I now have a beautiful rash from all the bites, and my ear is still plugged. I am so deaf.
Our flight back to HCMC was quick and it was brilliant seeing the massive Mekong laid out beneath us.

We were at the famous Rex Hotel by 10am. Surprisingly the room was available early and we settled in for our one night’s stay.  The room isn’t fancy but the bed is soft and it’s quiet.
Saigon has really grown on me – I quite like it here.

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