First Week of Work and Trip to Nha Trang

Nikki started her job this week after three weeks of language training. The initial reviews are good – everyone seems really nice and the work is interesting. She's already got a trip to Hanoi in the works, which will be a good excuse to see the northern part of the country. Today there was a happy hour organized to welcome us and we had fun catching up with all of her work colleagues. I'm still doing some work for MLPA and MarineMap and am also working on a proposal for some new work here in Vietnam regarding aquaculture planning. I take Vietnamese classes for 1.5 hours every day and Nikki is probably going to start back up soon.

Monday this week was a holiday and we took advantage of it by booking a 30 min flight to the beach town of Nha Trang. Travel itself was pretty interesting. The lights in the airport in Ho Chi Minh City went completely dark no fewer than 8 times while we sat waiting for our flight, which was delayed several times. Then, when the flight started boarding, there was no announcement and the signs showing destinations for the gates were mixed up. Finally, we made it to Nha Trang, and took a harrowing 30 min taxi ride to our hotel along steep cliffs (which turn out to be gorgeous), where we were utterly convinced the right rear wheel of the car was going to fall off.

It was totally worth it though. The first day we went diving, chartering a "speed boat" to visit some of the outer islands. The whole area is beautiful, with fishermen in tiny round boats and steep rocky cliffs where people live and collect swiftlet nests for use in birds nest soup. Our guide, Anh, was super interesting, having worked as a deep water diver for the government for many years, and was willing to help us practice our Vietnamese. We dove nitrox for the first time and saw tons of great stuff, including at least 10 different nudibranch species (unfortunately, our underwater camera housing is still being shipped!). We got back around midday and headed for the beach, where we lounged, had delicious drinks, and caught up on our reading. When we got hungry, we sauntered down the beach to a restaurant in the sand where I got to pick out a live fish to be cooked for dinner.

We started the next day doing things we love – we started with breakfast on the beach, followed by a 4 hour massage for Nikki (approx $50) and wakeboarding for me. In the afternoon, we took the world's longest over-water gondola (2 km I think) over to Bamboo Island which is home to the Vinpearl Amusement Park. They had a ton of waterslides, a nice aquarium, delicious ocean-side dining (I had a "snake head fish"), and some barf-o-licious spinning rides. They also had a light and water fountain show that was entertaining – imagine Bellagio-style waterworks choreographed to soviet and Vietnamese patriotic folk songs. We finished the evening by visiting a bar in the backpacker park of town and having dinner at a lovely place called "lanterns."

Monday was a holiday for us, but not the rest of the country, so we had the town pretty much to ourselves. We visited a temple with a huge white Buddha and memorials to several monks that were self immolated during the "American" war. Properly introspective, we headed for the local oceanographic institute, which had lots of big fish tanks and a surprising number of preserved specimens. Finally, we visited the gallery of a local photographer that takes pictures of everyday life and develops his film with a homemade mix of chemicals. The photos were stunning and we had to purchase a couple, even though we have a ton of art on the way. We then squeezed in a lunch al fresco before heading to the airport (where we had all kinds of trouble getting our bottle of Dalat red wine back home!).

The social schedule is of course packed. We had our first evening with the dinner club last week and are going out for billiards tomorrow. Hotel Fox has officially opened and our friends Aditya and Priyanka are here this weekend for a visit. Saturday we've been invited to a wedding and there is tennis planned as well. So much to do and so much to see!!

I'll end with the culinary highlights of the week. First – mushroom hot pot. What is that you say? Well, you add delicious herbs and peppers, along with your selection from 25 different kinds of shrooms to a bubbling pot of water on the middle of your table and voila! tastiness abounds! Pretty good, but the absolute highlight for me was a small Oc (better known as "little things with shells") restaurant. We had three different kinds of shellfish/snails that were cooked with lemongrass, spicy pepper sauce, butter, and other secret ingredients. We went with one of our Vietnamese teachers and rolled up our sleeves at tiny tables in a narrow alley crowded with locals. Noms! And I feel like we are just getting started.