June 03, 2005
Vietnam | Nha Trang | 26-30 April 2005
Nha Trang, being the primary beach and diving location in Vietnam, was always on my must-visit list. I skipped it on the way down from Hanoi as I figured that Kelly and I would visit it after Dalat. And so it was the next destination for me –visiting there for a week then coming back to Saigon via Mui Ne (halfway between Nha Trang and Saigon) for a party weekend with all the Saigon guys fit in well with my 2 month Vietnam visa and leaving plans.
I decided to catch the train to Nha Trang as I wasn’t altogether excited at the prospect of another 12 hour bus trip (after the 26 hour one, I wouldn’t mind not doing any more, thank you very much!). Fortunately, the train wasn’t too much more expensive than the bus and I got an overnight one so I avoided another night’s accommodation expense :). I booked into The Perfume Grass Hotel, which was recommended to me by someone (not sure who, but I’d written it in my Lonely Planet). It had a great feel to the place, a very laid back, comfortable feel, with classy, locally-made furnishings. It wasn’t the cheapest place around, but for a few days, but at that stage, it wasn’t such a big deal – I was going home after all. I got one of the cheapest rooms, but in hindsight, it would have been better to pay even just a few dollars more and get a nicer room (they go from $10 to $30, $15 gets you AC, mini-bar, nicer trimmings and furnishings).
I spent a couple of days chilling out, relaxing, walking on the beach, eating fantastic curries and seafood from the restaurant downstairs, and generally lazing about.
Having gone to Nha Trang for the diving, I decided I should book myself in for a trip! However, during a heavy clubbing night the previous Saturday night, I had fallen over – I don’t remember it – I was told I had fallen over – the end result being that I had seriously hurt my coccyx. Thus, even walking fast or jogging pained me, so I didn’t want to rush into diving lest it be too painful and become a wasteful exercise. That was part of the reason I was lazing about, as well as not rushing to book my diving.
I finally felt good enough that I booked a day of diving for the Thursday. I went with Jeremy Stein’s Rainbow Divers, marked as the best diving crew in the area. It wasn’t too expensive, although having only done diving courses (Open Water and Advanced Open Water), the cost per dive was significantly more than previous dives. We went to two dive sites during the morning that were quite interesting, and I had my own Instructor-in-training, so we were able to just wander around at our own pace, looking at cool coral, fish, even an octopus! The second dive was significantly colder and noisier (with Party Boats cruising around overhead), but equally as pleasant to meander through.
I have to say I wasn’t blown away by the diving I did – the colours weren’t brilliant, probably due to the overcast weather, and I guess I was expecting more from the location (I hyped myself up a lot before I got there!). It was still worthwhile – after not diving for 8 months it was great to experience diving again :)
That night I went out partying with Justin (a guy I met on the dive boat) – from the Rainbow Club (yes - café associated with the dive shop) to the Sailing Club (‘the’ place to end up most nights in Nha Trang – a very trendy, lively bar/nightclub right on the beach, even having beach-chairs to chill out on).
The next day I went out with Jason and some girls he had dived with on the island hopping Boat Trip – with Boat Number 4!
These boat trips are notorious for being party boats, where much drinking, dancing and general havoc-wreaking occurs. This one was no different. The guys running the boat were absolute showmen, firing off jokes and laughs the whole time… We visited 4 different islands, had plenty of snorkelling time (we even snorkelled in one location that I had dived at the day before!), plenty of ‘lets jump off, or be pushed off the top of the boat’ time, had a huge feast-like lunch, before getting settled into the climax of the boat trip – the floating bar!
Our host singing away (Number Four Boy Band!)…
The floating bar was a home-made ring-style floating device, with our host sitting in the middle, pouring us warm mulberry wine while we floated around him (on inner tubes) with our feet dangling over the bar – Impressive look! (shame I didn’t get a pic) We played a drinking game, whereby if anyone said the word ‘no’, then they had to drink from the open bottle… As you might imagine, various interesting questions and conversations started up, each of us (especially our host) trying to trip each of us up!
By the time we got back on the boat, the case of wine was all gone, and we were all struggling to climb up the ladder…
After the drinking session, we went to the third island, where we were given a couple of hours free time. The beach on the island was covered with the tourists from a dozen other party boats, sunning themselves, relaxing, playing sport and engaging in paid water-sports. Having lost my inhibitions through a single utterance of the word ‘know’ during the floating bar event (not ‘no’, but it was claimed to be close enough to be worth a drink), I decided to go Jetskiing (for the first time) – which was absolutely awesome (just like a motorbike on water!).
Even more exciting than that was going parasailing! $15 and a matter of seconds after being on sand, I was shot up into the air, attached only to a parachute and a speedboat! It was a very short lived, but incredibly exciting event! I can’t wait to do it again, hopefully somewhere that they actually tow you around!
After the incredible (and incredibly touristy) time on the beach, we got back on the boat, headed for the last island (where the opportunity to get in one of the circular boats with a fisherperson was offered, but none of us were too excited about), before being dropped home…
What an awesome day!
That evening Justin and I had dinner with Jody and her friend (sorry, forgotten name!) before going out for some drinks and foosball (table football – I’ve been given a natural gift at this game…). The next day I caught a bus to Mui Ne, where the next party was about to begin…
Posted by Dan at 01:10 AM | Comments (0)
Vietnam | Dan’s Personal Development | April 2005
After my month of holiday time in Vietnam, the time came to try to pay for it all… Having taught in Cambodia (and having CELTA tucked in trusty tool-belt) I was well prepared for English teaching, although it was not my preferred choice of work. Brandon, who had taught in Cambodia also, was working at a couple of schools in Saigon and told me it was pretty easy to get work there.
But, teaching English would have been a means to an end, the end being finance – paying my way to stay there – not exactly what I was looking for. One reason I had chosen Saigon was that there seemed to be a reasonable amount of IT work available (based on the online ads I was seeing). Unfortunately, upon applying, most of them seemed to be seriously targeting Vietnamese only, or perhaps those who were willing to work for Vietnamese wage rates. This was really disappointing, and quite ironic that I could only get a salary of about $500-600 a month doing 40+ hours of qualified IT work, whereas any foreigner that could speak English could earn $1500 a month doing 20-25 hours a week! Clearly the benefit of being a foreigner doesn’t translate into IT work, doh!
So, after a couple of unsuccessful applications and interviews, I decided IT in Saigon wouldn’t be for me. It was around this time that I achieved my ‘crisis’ point in my personal life. I spent my days sitting in my guesthouse room, watching cable TV, barely bothering to go out for food then maybe going out for some social drinks with Brandon et al. After 3 days of this, I got really bored and shitty – duh. Having spent anxious nights in Cambodia concerned about my direction in life, this was the ultimate bottom of the pit for me. I remembered the satisfaction I gained from the first week of listening to an Anthony Robbins ‘motivational’ audio program (I don’t like to use the word ‘motivational’ because ‘motivational speakers’ have serious stigma associated with them in society), and started listening again.
This was THE turning point in my life.
To an external observer, it could be possible to have seen the next 3 weeks to be as self-centred, unsocial and boring as the previous three days (holed up in my room most of the day), but it was an incredibly concentrated period of personal development for me. I listened to three of Robbins’ audio programs in their entirety, including doing all the exercises (this ‘can’ take more time than the listening), I put the tools and techniques into use in my own life and I have now taken control of my life and its direction.
Anyone that hasn’t listened and is cynical should open their minds and try it. Anyone that HAS listened and didn’t gain anything from it – sorry to hear it!
I’ve learnt many techniques to master myself - my psychology and my emotions. From the way your physiology affects your mindset (and how to control both) to turning disempowering emotions into learning directions to learning new time planning techniques, everything I heard has made some kind of impact on the improved Dan.
If anyone’s interested in mastering their psychology, or even fine tuning that control if you’re happy where you are, I’d recommend looking into some of this stuff – and I’m more than happy to help guide you as to what to specifically listen to if you don’t feel you have the time/motivation to go through a full 10-30 day program!
Anyway, that’s enough of my rant about the program, as I’m sure not everyone reading will be as excited about it as I am :)
In net effect, I turned my life around. I started exercising my body and mind every day. I exercised my body 45 minutes (as part of an hour of psychological warm-up) every morning for more than 3 weeks straight (before making my way home – see later logs), and even if this was all I had done, it would have been a single beneficial act – getting my body going – switching on my mind as well.
I started to think about what it is I might want in life, WHO do I really want to be, WHERE do I want to be, WHAT do I want to be doing and HOW do I want to act.
For the first time in a many years I created visions for my life. From these came specific goals and results/outcomes I want to achieve. More importantly than the goals themselves, however, is ‘who’ I become in the process. It’s easy to think of people that achieve great things but are not happy or fulfilled, so it’s important to be grateful for what you have already, as well as aiming for greater things.
I decided that I’d had enough ‘drifting’, which is exactly what I had been doing in Asia – ‘paying my way’ to holidaying… There’s nothing wrong with drifting, I enjoyed myself, enjoyed the experience of different cultures and environments, I met some incredible people and had wonderful times. BUT, I wasn’t ‘getting anywhere’ in my life. I wasn’t aiming for anything, so how could I be getting anywhere?!
I decided that I wanted to get a real IT job, give it a real effort, as opposed to ‘avoiding’ the big bad real world of work. I spent many hours deciding what to do and where to go… Asia? UK? US? I came to the conclusion that in my present state of passion and motivation, I really wanted to make the most of all the resources available to me in order to achieve my short and medium term goals. Most of these resources are in Australia, many of them in Sydney (resources such as family/friends, as well as things like my motorbike, exercise equipment, IT equipment, housing, jobs, etc), so that became my decision – go to Sydney.
Once I had made this decision, I almost wanted to get on the next plane home, to get started on next part of my journey in life. However, I also wanted to enjoy and appreciate the region I was in while I was still there, so I planned to travel to the remaining Vietnamese cities that were musts, as well as planning to visit people in Cambodia before I left.
I continued the programs and learned more tools and techniques (the Rapid Planning Method has really good concepts behind it) while planning (and enjoying) my remaining time in SE Asia and my journey back to Sydney.
It was sad to say goodbye to Brandon, Tim, Ele, Karen, and all my other Saigon friends, but for me there was a great deal of excitement for the future.
Posted by Dan at 12:47 AM | Comments (2)