Scuba Diving in Nha Trang

The black lion fish skirted delicately over the coral outcroppings, pausing for a curious glance as we hovered just out of range of the graceful, yet poisonous spines protruding from its sides. Not such a rare sight in the jade and turquoise waters of the South China Sea. What was rare was the fact that I was fifteen meters underwater scuba diving in Vietnam. How did I get there?

It started with some discussions in Phuket, Thailand a few weeks previous to the lion fish encounter. I was working on a film and one of my associates mentioned going to Vietnam when the movie was over to try out the diving. I had already gone diving in Thailand and had not heard of any dive spots in Vietnam. No one at the Diving Equipment Manufacturers' Association convention mentioned any sites and I had not seen any articles in diving magazines. I mentally filed the idea. After finishing the movie I was en route to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

After experiencing the chaotic thrills of riding a motorcycle around HCMC, and eating pastries at Givral and washing them down at The Gecko, it was a welcome relief to board the overnight train for the coastal resort town of Nha Trang.

Nha Trang is situated on the southern coast of Vietnam, 400 kilometers northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. The South China Sea graces the shoreline with a deep ocean trench nearby, making the water some of the richest and clearest in the region. I arrived at 4:30 A.M. thinking the town would be asleep but was greeted with the contrary. A crowd milled around the train station selling drinks, cigarettes and snacks. A group of cyclo drivers awaited fares.

"Cyclo mister?" an entrepreneurial youth in a baseball cap stated in broken English as I left the station.

"No...motorbike," I replied, knowing the six-kilometer ride south to the Bao Dai Villas where I was staying would be painful for both of us by cyclo, a heavy three-wheeled tricycle with a passenger basket in front and the driver pushing the load from behind.

"No motorbike here...look..."

He was right. There wasn't a motorbike for hire in sight. I was resigned to a long but pleasant ride by cyclo to the villas. Even though the moon was still out, people young and old were already up and jogging the road out of Nha Trang towards Cau Da, a small town where the commercial docks and Oceanographic Institute (Vien Nghiem Cuu Bien) are located. It is also the departure point for diving and tourist boats to the surrounding coastal islands. The villas are on a hill which overlooks the entire area providing incredible vistas, but no mercy for a cyclo. Halfway up, I helped the driver push. We jettisoned the cyclo for the last half, carrying the bags up the final steep ascent. I still paid him the full fare of three dollars as he breathlessly thanked me and departed.

At sunrise there was an incredible 360 degree view of Cau Da, the bay and the hillsides surrounding Nha Trang. The only drawback was a new hi-rise hotel under construction on the coastline (a joint venture with a Philippino company) looming above an otherwise quaint resort and fishing port.

Five French colonial buildings make the elegant villas, a flashback to a different era when plantation owners and officials in the Vietnamese government would spend holidays here. Now it is open to anyone with currency or credit cards. The high ceilings and hardwood furnishings along with the spectacular views make it worth the extra few dollars to stay here as opposed to the cheaper hotels located closer to Nha Trang.

The Center of Diving Tourist Services (Trung Tam Dich Vu Du Lich Lan) is located in a storefront office midway between Cau Da and Nha Trang on Tran Phu Boulevard just south of the airport. This is the branch office with the main one in HCMC. The staff are PADI certified and pleasant. The shop has a selection of various regulators and BCs (buoyancy compensators) - mainly a Korean brand called Seaco which I had never used before but seemed to work fine. They also have an assortment of snorkeling gear so you don't need to lug dive gear around if you plan on more traveling in the region. This is all included in the excursion price of fifty dollars. The air tanks are from a French company, Le Spirotechnique. Most of them had an inspection stamp date from 1994 but some never went beyond 1988. This could be a potential problem so make sure to check the date (a good thing to do with all tanks everywhere before filling).

After picking out some gear and checking out the charts of the area, we were driven over to the docks at Cau Da. The street was filled with souvenir stands. One shop had over twenty stuffed turtles of various ages adorning its walls in-between pictures of Jesus and Madonna. Pieces of hard table and fan corals are also widely sold. Even though some might have been harvested dead, it still presented an ominous sight. Perhaps in the future they will see the value of preservation, but for now the quantity of endangered marine life for sale is alarming.

Dockside we were hustled out onto the pier with another group of tourists who were going sightseeing. I expected a dive boat with a simple platform and a rack for the tanks. What we got was a converted wooden fishing boat with some benches put on the deck that was also used for tours. After some confused tourists got on and off our boat we loaded the gear and left the dock, the Yanmar diesel engine chugging away loudly on its three cylinders as we passed a lone paddler in a large basket covered with tar (the standard boat tender for the region).

Our first dive site was on the leeward side of Ho Hun Island, about five kilometers off Cau Da. Uninhabited, it plays host to various tour and fishing boats with a small beach and an anchorage. Dropping the hook in ten meters of water near a large rock formation we all scrambled for our gear which lay in piles on the deck. I helped my dive buddy (Jennifer, an Australian journalist) into her BC vest and dropped over the side.

Descending ten meters, I encountered various soft corals and a wide array of hard corals including table corals with diameters up to two meters. The visibility through the turquoise water was about fifteen meters with a mild current and a balmy temperature of eighty-three degrees. Jen made her way down and we met up with the dive master, Nguyen, who motioned us to follow. Our communication improved underwater since his English was as limited as my Vietnamese. The universal OK sign and we were on our way.

Heading north into deeper waters the current increased and the bottom became more boulder strewn with plenty of ledges and hiding places for a variety of fish and invertebrates. We encountered several lion fish (including the black one) and a huge school of mackerel fry inside a cave.

Kicking back towards the boat the other divers ran out of air and ascended. Jen, Nguyen and I stayed in the surrounding area looking for shells and admiring the table corals. We were joined by a diver with a surface-supplied hookah rig who kept a curious distance. I never found out what he was there for since he never collected anything while we were around. Coral? One thing I did note with some sadness was the amount of damage by anchors to some huge displays of table coral -- broken chunks and missing branches. A mooring system would greatly benefit this and other dive sites in the area.

Returning to the surface, I climbed the small steel ladder which had been tied alongside the boat and was greeted with a delicious lunch of squid, prawns, rice, bread, pineapple and bananas. All of this had been prepared on two small clay pot stoves with a wood fire on the aft section of the boat.

After lunch we hoisted anchor and went around Ho Hun to the south-west windward side. A much stronger current prevailed here. As soon as we jumped in we were already considerably forward of the bow. It was a good four-knot current at the surface but after a few strong kicks downward it eased off. The life on this side was more sparse but interesting. Large funnel-shaped sponges and a one-meter trumpet fish that had a mask-to-mouth stare down with Jen were some of the highlights.

Climbing the shaky ladder back on board I was greeted by a humorous sight: three men in one of the small basket boats paddling by inspecting us. I'm amazed at how many people get in or on vessels and vehicles in Vietnam. I once saw five people on a small motorbike in HCMC and this was a similar feat as the basket wobbled dangerously close to tipping with each stroke. We raised anchor and started the hour long ride back to Cau Da. Arriving at the Cau Da pier the crew gathered the gear and instead of waiting for the bus we walked up the hill towards the villas passing the Oceanographic Institute. Deciding to take a quick look around was an eerie experience. The place was empty, the tanks dirty and most of the specimens were embalmed in glass jars on shelves.

On the terrace at the villas we dined on lobster and watched an engaging sunset as the night fishing boats appeared -- dots of bright lights far off on the horizon. This was a great treat for a budget traveler to afford these views and food, especially reflecting on the royalty who had sat here before and savored the same experience. An appropriate way to end a day of diving in Vietnam.

Published on 10/1/95