July 21 – Under the Sea…

We had planned to get our scuba diving certification in Indonesia or the Philippines but given our limited amount of time, the typhoons and my burn, we were unable to do it. We found out that we could do it in a place called Nha Trang which is a small city on the beach in Southern Vietnam so we took another 24 train ride down the coast and signed up for our PADI Open Water course.

 

 

 

 

It’s normally a 4 day course but seeing as we were short on time, they agreed to let us do in 3 intense, 12 hour days. We started off in the classroom going over theory, then in the pool and on our 2^nd and 3^rd days we were out in the sea. It was a really cool experience although being 30 feet below the surface is certainly a little freaky especially when we have to do some of the tests like removing our masks or cutting our air supply and swimming to the surface in the correct amount of time. I was definitely better at this than Jacob – he kept freaking out under water and trying to go back up, but the instructor would make him stay at the bottom trying to calm him down. After 3 very long days we are now PADI certified open water divers meaning we can go diving anywhere in the world.

(Pics: Lungi in pink, Jacob in yellow)

 

 

 

 



 

It was awesome being able to breathe under water and to enter the fish world; seeing all the coral and weird looking fish. But even though we have our certification, I don’t think we can go diving by ourselves because we already forgot most of the important safety procedures.  

 

 

Due to our full day diving schedule, we spent the majority of our time in Nha Trang hanging out with the staff from the dive shop. They are a great bunch of people and we really had a good time with them. By the way, one of the most exciting things for me is that I got a better grade than Jacob did on the final exam!

 

Pre-dive briefing

 



Our instructors