Hoping for clear skies
The threat of the typhoon loomed. Our diving instructor said he’d let us know via email if scuba diving was on or not. Both of us kept checking our phones throughout the early morning to see if it was on. Due to the typhoon still being imminent, scuba diving had to be postponed, for definite. Our diving instructor, Khuong, did email us to say we can go into the centre to complete our theory. As we had nothing to do, we decided on doing that today.
We ended up heading out rather late in the morning. Mat and I arrived at the diving centre around 1pm, an hour early. There was a restaurant joined to the diving centre, so we decided to have lunch here. I must say my lunch was delicious. It consisted of beef in a pot, being marinated in a sauce, peppers, tomatoes, and onions. A side of french fries came with this meal, which I believe is called Bo Luc Lac. Inspired by the French apparently.
I'm not here on holiday
Due to our location for lunch, we were able to walk 30 seconds to the centre and be right on time. The first activity we did was to carry on with the theory videos. After each of the videos, we had to do another end of section test. After an hour or two of watching these videos, we had finally finished. We moved on to the final exam. If we wanted to get our PADI licences, we had to pass this exam. This exam probably took us between 45-60 minutes, and just went over everything we’d previously learned. Click here for more info on the Open Water Course.
Luckily, both of us passed the exam with flying colours! All in all, it took around 3 and a half hours to complete. That takes a big weight off of our shoulders. After we’d finished, we realised it was raining and pretty windy too. I was expecting more from a typhoon to be honest. We went back to the hostel, picking up a few snacks along the way. I received a message from Khuong saying the harbour would be closed tomorrow as well. We assumed it was because the worst of the typhoon was to come.
End of a damp day
It was quite late in the evening when we decided to head out for dinner. We ventured down a road we’d not been down before, in the hopes of a good, warm meal. Our hopes were being dashed, one by one. Every restaurant seemed to be closed. It didn’t help that the rain was dampening our spirits, as a trudged onwards. Finally, we found a small place on the corner of a street. As it was the only one open, we dashed inside. I decided on a simple pumpkin soup, accompanied by some croutons. Pumpkin soup isn’t something I had tried before, but it was lovely, much better than I expected.
We returned to the hostel, soaked to the bone. Due to the typhoon delaying us, we had to book another 2 nights here. After that was sorted, we called it a day. During the night, some fool turned the aircon off. No one knew this, but it meant everyone was sweating like mad the entire time. Not comfy!
