Last day in Hoi An

Four of us were up and ready at 8am to catch the shuttle bus to go to Cham Island for the diving. The day was perfect, warm – not too hot, with a little cloud cover and the one and a bit hour boat ride out was a little bumpy but not too bad. A couple of the passengers became seasick, one of them was really quite sick by the time we reached the dive site, and didn’t recover when she got into the water and spent the hour we were snorkelling or diving resting on the rocks.

Despite wanting to dive, I took advice from home not to do an initial dive here, and just snorkel and I am so glad I did, the snorkelling was amazing. The coral was beautiful, so many beautiful shapes and colours. Not a lot of fish, but the ones we saw were very colourful and all shapes and sizes. I would say that this snorkelling site was better than the one I did four years ago at Lady Musgrove on the Barrier. The coral was way more spectacular.

We spent an hour in the water and then went ashore for lunch and a bit of sunbathe. We weren’t expecting lunch so had snaffled some bread and cakes at breakfast time, and I had wrapped mine in one of the hotel serviettes and smuggled into my back pack, but certainly didn’t need it – the lunch was great. Once more my little allergy card came to the rescue – that card has been a god-send, and I would certainly recommend them to anyone travelling with diet requirements.

Because there was a storm brewing, we didn’t get the extra hour of snorkelling or diving after lunch, instead headed home. The four of us headed for the top deck – it was beautiful and warm up there, with just a gentle breeze, certainly not too hot. I got a wee touch of the sun, not bad and just enough to add a little tan colour to my arms and legs.

The ride home was a little bumpier, but not too uncomfortable and later that evening when we called in to the dive centre, the boss said they had made the decision to head home for the comfort of all the passengers, it may have been okay to stay, but safety is paramount and so the decision was made to head home. An interesting comment as the four of us had been discussing the trip over dinner and we felt that safety was perhaps not the biggest concern. There had certainly not been any discussion with the snorklers as to how comfortable we were, and there was no help sorting out masks or getting into the water. Didn’t bother me because I knew what I was doing, and so it seemed did everyone else. However there were no instructions on what we were doing, how to know where to go or how far, or when to know that the boat was going to leave. Maybe I am just so used to living in NZ where everything is documented in triplicate and OSH is the main concern and we can’t do anything without having the right instructions and safety precautions in place.

But the day was awesome, the water was just a nice temperature, there was plenty to see, and the bonus of the lunch thrown in. The boat was full of interesting people, and we got talking to a German Swiss professor who was visiting Hanoi to lecture, there was an interesting German guy who had been living in Ireland and so spoke with an amazing Irish accent, and a chap from Darwin who had been in Hanoi for the World Life Saving Convention (and it turned out that it was the Australian Premiere who had opened the conference and that was all the hoo-ha in Hanoi with police convoys and road closures etc that I spoke about earlier.