Only the Boat understood
How large the Ocean was
Only the Ocean knew
Where the Boat was going or coming.
The rhythm of a song is ringing in my head while cycling along the coast this afternoon. This song was converted from a famous poem written by Xuan Quynh named A boat and The Ocean, however, today I will not go more details into either the song or the poem but my favourite beach destination for snorkeling.
Two years ago, I visited a mate in Phan Rang which is a beach city located down to the south of Vietnam. I fell in love with this so sunny and windy land on the first arrival day, not only because of its their pristinely natural beauty but also local life here. Everything appeared to me so gorgeous even the boats were very energetic. Even though I have lived at the beach city and joined a lot of outdoor adventures, I've never dared to go snorkeling. I am afraid of being swallowed by the ocean. However, that time somehow my friend could convince me to experience a snorkeling tour once. Probably he promised to save my life...lol. At the beginning, it was terrified for a person who doesn't know how to swim like me but so much fun indeed.
To join this snorkeling tour, it tooks us one hour driving to Vinh Hy by scooter, we got up in the early morning and packed our small stuff with us. It was in December, therefore, the temperature was quite pleasant during the day, but I still needed to bring sun-cream, sunglasses, a hat, and of course, swimsuits. There are so many attractions on the way that we had to stop many times to take photos. We passed a fishing village, pagodas, an abandoned Cham towner, salt field ect. My friend kept joking at me when I took a bunch of photos with boats, beaches, and local fish markets, etc, even though I come from a beach city 😅 I told him that each place has a unique beauty, and pictures are the way to keep memories of the place.
We arrived at the meeting point around 8:30 am, and a driver picked us up with a special truck that was able to go on sand. It was not far, around 300 meter up and down a sand dune, and 5 minutes on the truck, however it would take longer to walk I guess.
While waiting for other people to join the boat trip, I could discover this small bay by climbing on rocks. Water was so cool and clean! Probably only a few local people go swimming here as it's quite far from the center. I put my stuff on the side and played with some children for a while. Surprisingly, even a little boy could swim, I thought all of them learnt how to live with water since staying inside of their mom 😆
I couldn't dare to take photos since stepping on the boat as it was such a windy and quite small size boat to keep everything safe and dry. The local guide who handles this boat must be very skillful to drive us in the right direction. After 30 minutes on the boat, we arrived at a coral land where there are huge coral reefs including the dead one. The guide showed us the area where we could dive safely and taught beginners like me to get into the habit of staying under water. After listening to all instructions, we followed him to go inside the ocean and our adventure began! We could touch some coral reefs when diving a bit deeper. It was quite sharp to walk on dead one,that's why some of them were wearing special shoes to protect their feet. It was so cool to do something for the first time. I imagined myself in a big aquarium with plenty of colorful fish and corals which I had only seen on the internet before. It was such stunning underwater landscapes, what a pity that we couldn't take any pictures or video but it's definitely worth joining this trip.
We finished the tour after 3 hours and went back to land for lunch. Seafood here was also a highlish of this trip. They are so fresh and juicy, even better than eating them in my town. Moreover, it was so cheap! We ordered some clams, oysters, shrimps, a big squid and fish which were presented alive on the side of a restaurant, then they cooked them in front of us (another way to say it was an outdoor kitchen). When we called for a bill, we paid about 700k VND (30 USD) for everything.
What can I say to summarize that day? It was a remarkable holiday with a lot of fun, new friends, great experience and I will definitely come back again. At that time, I even asked my friend to find me a piece of land for my early retirement one day.. lol. Now I am still in love but somehow I feel skeptical as it's not convenient for flights as there is no airport there, except you must go to Nha Trang - another beach city nearby.