Friday, October 26, 2007

Snorkeling in the rain

I was a bit concerned that trying to snorkel in the waters around Nha Trang would be minimally interesting at best. Since the waters around the beach were a bit turbid I figured there wouldn't be much to see. But after getting out to one of the islands off Nha Trang in the marine protected area we could see the waters starting to take on their greenish blue color. We got into our wetsuits and prepared to get in. I jumped into the water and started to see what I could find under the sea. I didn't see much of anything. But as I headed closer to the rocks seemingly out of nowhere a school of small blue fish appeared. Then more an more fish until I could see the colorful coral beneath me. Though I never did see the clown fish (no Nemo) I was still impressed with everything that I saw. I'm just amazed with all the colors of the fish and the coral. I was, however, a bit disappointed to see a stretch of dead and dying coral. It was such a contrast to the beautifully colorful part of the sea.

I only snorkeled for a total of 2 hours and though I thought that would hardly be enough time, I was very much ready to head back to dry land. The coolest part of the whole experience was how calm and tranquil it felt while I was under the water. Even though all around me the currents were pushing me towards the rocks and the rains started to get more and more intense. As we headed back to the mainland I was pretty exhausted, and I had to fight off a bit of nausea from the rocking boat and the diesel fumes.

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