Day 144 -- Nha Trang Diving

Today I took advantage of the free fun dive they gave me for getting my PADI certificate through Vinadive. Weather was better than yesterday, but still a little cloudy. Early start getting picked up at 7:30am and the boat was packed...large group of Vietnamese locals in town for the weekend decided to try diving. A handful of other travelers too and I found out later that I was among 5 Americans on the boat..couple from Baton Rouge, expat in Saigon and a guy from NY...I think thats the first time on this trip that I've been around so many at one time. Headed to the first dive site at Fisherman's Bay which was literally littered with fisherman about 500 meters off the coast. We came close to the island for the coral and I got down for about 35 min. at 14m. Good viewing with lion, trumpet and puffer fish but the visibility wasn't the best. At Orca Rock decided to stay in the shallow water to get some picture (9m for 40 min.) but the camera got flooded with water and failed miserably...so much for depth up to 10m. Saw a large cuttlefish which is pretty rare and was able to get close along with some scorpion fish. Visiblity here was better and the coral had some rich colors...wish I could have got more pics. I got the camera fixed later at a camera repair shop so no major harm but dont think I'll be taking it in the water much more. After the dives met up with the Americans for a few beers in town before my night bus to Hoi An. They all have already been through Southern Thailand so I got some tips and got back to the room to pack for the bus. Had a quick dinner before the 7:30pm bus and then waking up in Hoi An.