Nha Trang Hotels
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Nha Trang - Sun, sand, sea and SCUBA!
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Yet another overnight bus, and easy as usual; couple of "aunty vals" and I was away with the fairies. I didn't even bother getting up for the irritating food stops.
I booked into a hotel, $6/night, a wee bit expensive really but I couldn't be bothered looking at any more after checking out about 5 already. As Vietnam is probably the cheapest place in the World to go SCUBA diving I headed off to find a dive school to go diving with. I sorted out a trip for the following day with Octopus divers, ran by a British bloke. $32 for 2 dives including all kit and a hot lunch, bargain! In Ko Tao, Thailand, you pay about $45 for 2 dives with a few pieces of fruit and some soggy cookies-hmmm, tasty...
The whole setup proved to be so much more professional than on Ko tao; there was no faffing with your kit and carrying it to the boat, it was all done for you. It just felt more relaxed and not like the "SCUBA farms" of Ko tao. The diving itself wasn't amazing, comparable to Thailand but with fewer fish. But what was the same, was the effect on my ears.....Yet again I had trouble equalising the pressure in my ears. It was taking so long that the instructor sent me back tot he surface as it was spoiling the dive for the other guys I was with. So I swam back to the boat, frustrated that yet again my ear gives me grief. When the instructor came back he offered to take me down to try again so I gave it another go. After taking the descent nice and slowly I managed to get down to about 12m, and had a short 30 min dive before breaking for lunch.
Smiles all round! On the following dive I took it easy again and my ear was OK, however on surfacing I was spitting blood and orange phlegm, not a good sign, although it had happened before.
That night I headed out to a club with a few lads I met the night before, and ended up completely wasted, as usual.
For me Nha Trang was a bit of a blur; it all went far too quickly, until I got and ear infection. I had finished 6 dives and I was still spitting blood on surfacing but I still thought nothing of it. Then one day my ear started to ache and I was contemplating doing some more diving the following day, but I decided not to luckily. That evening the pain was so intense that no amount of paracetamol was going to stop. So at 1 in the morning I had to go on the back of a motorbike to hospital to see a doctor. This was not a pleasant experience; the people spoke little English, the bed I was put on was splattered with blood stains, it was steaning hot, flies were everywhere, people were being wheeled around in beds dripping in blood, people being sick, basically it was disgusting. It really made me appreciate the health care system we have in the UK. Next time you want to complain about it, just think about what it's like in the 3rd World = GRIM. I waited a while before the doctor arrived and diagnosed me with an ear infection, for which they gave me 3 injections, one of which was an ineffective painkiller, another one made me shake violently, and the 3rd? who knows....
It cost me $5 to see the doc, a $1 each for the injections, and then I was sent packing with a prescription which I could only collect in the morning when the pharmacies open up again. What a night. I took another moto back to my hotel, where I was greeted by a woman offering "sucky-sucky"; I was amused..
The pain didn't go away, and a yellow liquid began running from my ear along with drops of blood. My pillow in the morning looked disgusting! I got my prescription from the pharmacy, the usual stuff, Amoxicillin, anti-inflammatory and some paracetamol and started the pill-popping. After 2 days the ear was still no better and to make things worse, I couldn't drink! Every time I went to the pub it was a Pepsi, fan-tastic. I also found out that by taking Doxycycline at the same time (as anti-malarials) that it cancels out the effect of the amoxicillin, hence the zero improvement of my ear (Someone please correct me if I am wrong on this, it's just what I was told)
All in all, I spent longer than I expected in Nha trang. I was only going to be there for 4/5 days but ended up staying for 9 as I didn't want to bus it down to Saigon with a dodgy ear. It was a cool place, with great food and even better street food. I met some cool people, and had a few mad nights in the Sailing club, with 50% discount on drinks (Big shout to Robbie for that, he works for the same company! Cheers Robbie!)
No sightseeing here, hence lack of pix...
Next stop Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), then Cambodia, the adventure continues....
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