Days 458 – 459, February 28-29, 2012
After another night where I paid for my bed at the hostel but stayed overnight at Scott’s place (the guy I met at the bar the other night), I was awake early again and waiting at the hostel for the shuttle to the Deep Sea Diver’s Den main office. With the snorkelling trip out of the way, I was now headed for a two-day, one-night liveaboard dive trip to the outer Great Barrier Reef.
Days 404-411, January 5-12, 2012
It’s funny how things can change in a hurry. When I was thinking about Thailand, I pictured myself spending week upon week on white sand beaches, hopping on ferries to the next out of the way island to bask(or bake as it were) in the sun. As it turns out, I got none of that, and completely on purpose. Besides the little stint on Koh Samet back in September, Koh Tao was going to be my only other Thai island. And for me, it was strictly business. I was going for my Dive certification.
Vietnam has really hit the mark when it comes to [pandering? helping?] tourists. Case in point is the plethora of options available with their “Open Tour Bus” routes. These buses are a hop on, hop off style bus ticket. You purchase a ticket with a certain number of stops and go at your own pace, reserving your seat the day before leaving. I ended up booking my ticket through The Sinh Tourist.
That in itself is an interesting story as The Sinh Tourist, formerly The Sinh Cafe, was the original company to offer this. And they did so with such professionalism, and gained such a good reputation, that dozens upon dozens of imitators sprung up. And without any sort of major copyright law, they all had the same name too. Finding the real Sinh Cafe/Sinh Tourist proved to be a challenge, but I managed. And for only $23 I got a four stop ticket from Ho Chi Minh City, stopping in Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue, and Hanoi.
First stop: Nha Trang.
