CouchSurfing Nha Trang

After a fun time at a CouchSurfing meetup I had taken Justin to back in Saigon, we had our first joint surfing experience in Nha Trang. Nha Trang is a beach town and a popular place in Vietnam for scuba diving. Our host, Richard, owned two dive shops, both with rooms above them for employees and surfers. The rooms were basic, but there were always people hanging around in the bar downstairs. Couchsurfing is never really about the couch, anyway. We never actually met any real, paying guests, and I kinda doubt there ever were any. Even so, Richard made out pretty well in the deal since most surfers went on some type of dive trip with the company. This wasn’t a requirement, of course, just a happy side effect of CSer laziness. I was no exception and signed up for a course to get my advanced rating. The course didn’t really have any new material to learn, only more experience on some of the trickier skills, so the 30 second commute in the mornings was a much more important factor than comparison shopping, checking company ratings, or, you know, caring too much about quality.

It turned out the boat, the instructors, and especially the included food were of fine quality. The scenery and wildlife weren’t nearly as good as on Phi Phi, but I had been kinda suspicious that the stupendousness of Phi Phi might have ruined me for the rest of the world. No turtles? No seahorses? No sharks? What a waste! The course itself was easy and fun. One of the dives that was new had us diving to 30 meters, which, if you don’t know, is pretty goddamn deep. The other was exercises in buoyancy control. This involved floating upside down, running along the bottom, and swimming through hoops forwards and backwards. Training for the Vietnamese Underwater Circus was fun, but I still would have liked a chance to laugh at turtles doing funny turtle things.

I made my first diving purchase in Nha Trang, as well. I have pretty wide feet and usually need the widest footwear people make. Fins are no exception. Most dive outfits don’t have wide fins because there aren’t enough bigfoot freaks to be worth it. Any prolonged use of borrowed fins can result in…uncomfortable side effects. My first dive course ended in misery and bandages. With big chucks of my pinky toes missing by the end of the first day in Nha Trang, I was pretty motivated to do something about it. Solution: SOCKS!!! Thick neoprene diving socks, to be specific. I don’t know if you guys have bought socks before, but I’m pretty sure none of you have ever felt MAXIMUM HAPPINESS while doing it. During the second day of diving my feet felt like they were wrapped in fluffy clouds. It was the most worthwhile $15 I’ve spent in my entire life.

When I wasn’t diving we walked to a wat one afternoon. It was regular. We walked around the market. That was regular. It was really, really hot. Despite the reprieve in Dalat, that was unfortunately regular, too. On the bright side, breathing underwater, which is a pretty badass thing, is quickly becoming regular. TURTLES: still unsatisfyingly irregular.