Nha Trang

4 June 2011

Deciding to dive

We hadn’t decided on diving in Nha Trang, but at only USD40 for two fun dives with Coco Dive Centre, it was too good to be true. This was slightly less than their website price as it may have been a slow period.  It was a good way to keep current and also check out the waters of the South China Sea.

During our initial enquiry, the people in the shop asked where we had dived before. When I told him about my Malaysian and Indonesian sites, he said that it wouldn’t be anything like that … so he prepared me not to be disappointed.  Surprisingly honest!

Shortly after we set off, our boat nearly collided with these plastic or composite tubs (looked like spa pools) that had a man with a paddle in each of them.  A while later, I realised that they were all on our boat with their tubs being towed by our boat.  They had hopped on for a free ride.  I now understand that those tub have a glass porthole for people to look through down to the coral.

The dives

We had two dives, the first of which was at Moray Beach. It was quite a shallow dive (max depth of 15m) which allowed us to have a rather extended bottom time of 63 minutes and come up with half a tank. Visibility was variable … it got rather murky in parts to the point where I lost interested. The fish life wasn’t anything much to write about but the coral was quite interesting.

The second dive at Madonna Rock which included going through some passages and cave. It was quite pretty in the cave with quite a bit of fish.

Overall, the diving wasn’t the greatest … not so much fish but the coral life was reasonably plentiful.

We opted to have underwater photos taken for us by our dive master … it’s the way local dive masters make some pocket money. At USD10, I believe it is like 3 days wage for some Vietnamese.  Posing underwater is a skill in itself. Buoyancy control is truly put to the test as you try to remain stationary for the snapshot. This is compounded by trying to not too many bubbles to ruin the photo … ideally he needs to snap when I inhale, not exhale.

The half day went quickly but we were worn out for the remainder.  I don’t know how I used to do three dives per day … doing two nowadays wears me out.

Pros and cons

Some good points about the diving experience:

  • Very cheap diving.
  • Nice mix of local and expat dive masters who set up your equipment and go through the checks with you. But they could tell you a bit more about the site before hopping into the water though.
  • The biggest boat in Nha Trang so you won’t get sea sick.

Not so good points:

  • The local dive masters will offer to take underwater photos for you for USD10 and will encourage you to dive close to nice stuff, increasing the risk of damage to coral.  In fact, I saw a chunk of coral snap off as it was hit by the dive master’s tank.
  • They also tend to touch soft coral and anemones as they show them to you; also tease the fish a little. In all, they try to maximise the entertainment value.

 

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