Rinse and repeat
We had another early morning today, accompanied by cereal and milk! Today was the last day of our open water course. The dive centre was our first destination, and when we reach it, we got the taxi to the harbour once more. It was the same procedure as yesterday, go to the dive site, set our gear up, then get suit and booted. Neither of us were feeling sea sick at this point, so this bode well for our day out on the ocean. Check out my first day of diving here.
This time, Khuong said we were going deeper, almost to the deepest we were allowed. The deepest we could go as open water course students/graduates, was 18 metres. This deepens to 30 metres when you’ve done the advanced course. We ventured to around 16 metres deep on the first dive. Visibility was still a bit on the poor side, but we were still able to see some wicked sea life. We saw several schools of fish swimming around us, some awesome lion fish (look but don’t touch!), and some clown fish in their anemone. The clown fish were pretty bold, if you get too close to their homes, they’ll swim out and bite you. It’s only a slight pinch, but you’ve been warned! We practiced some skills again, before going back up to the boat.
No scurvy in sight
Once we were back on the boat, we dug in to the fresh fruit that had been prepared once more. There’s no way we’re getting scurvy with refreshments like this! I still didn’t feel sea sick, so perhaps I’m made for the ocean now. I’m battle hardened and stern. Everyone moved to the next dive site. This was just going to be a casual dive, as it was our last. Due to this, I was able to take my camera. It didn’t have a wrist strap, so I had to make one myself out of the pieces I had. I had to hold the camera in the palm of my hand the whole time, lest it be swept away in the current, never to be seen again.
Again, visibility wasn’t great, but I was still impressed at the sights presented before me. There were countless corals and reefs, as far as the eye could see…which wasn’t far. They played host to a multitude of different fish species, spectacular. Just like previous times, it’s so peaceful and relaxing down here. It’s just you, your thoughts, and the fish. The only time you panic, is when you lose sight of your instructor! Luckily we caught sight of him and resumed following. I was able to get some decent videos out of the dive, memories forever!
Diving done
Back on board the boat, we savoured some more chicken curry (same as yesterday), which was still delicious. As we headed back to shore, everyone was chilling and speaking with each other, it was the perfect atmosphere. Once we were back on land, we went to the hostel. Here, we chilled out for a time, and took our laundry to the laundrette. I’d ran out of underwear! The laundrette was fairly nearby, so it was pretty simple to drop off.
After this, we headed back to the dive centre where we signed some documents and had a photo taken for our PADI cards. We had official passed the open water course, and henceforth would be PADI certified divers. Woohoo! Mat and I had some food afterwards. I’d say it was to celebrate, but we eat out every day anyway. I had a chicken stir fry, and then a mango pancake for dessert! On the way back to pick laundry up, I nipped into a Russian drug store for some ear spray. I had a build up of wax, and when I’d gone scuba diving, the water wasn’t getting back out. This meant I was partially deaf for now.
We picked our laundry up on the way to the hostel, then we turned in for our last night in Nha Trang. Our few days in Nha Trang turned out to be a week, due to the ‘typhoon’ that never showed up. Ah well, we still aced our open water course!
