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A Fin-tastic Day

Today (October 24, 2023) I woke up at 530 and Hunter around 6. It was raining quite impressively most of the night and still some this morning! 


Puddles in the hallway


Morning rain

Lots of condensation on the windows from the cool room to the hot and humid outdoors


Good morning!

Sunrises just keep getting better each morning!

Cool tide change causing the water to mix

Leftover fruit from yesterday that I forgot to photograph (oops)

Around 7am we headed to breakfast. Thankfully, they have very nice umbrellas available for our use since it was raining again as we left the building. The walk to breakfast was short this time since the new room was much closer to the main street. We sat and enjoyed breakfast offerings till around 8:30 when we headed back to the room to get ready for our exciting adventure. 


Two umbrellas is best

A tour of the hotel's breakfast


Cleaning the roof - today we found out they were preparing for a big Marriott executives conference, and so they were trying to get everything in order to impress the big execs. 

Today's activity is a snorkeling trip! I found this well-recommended guy named Tommie who used to actually work at the hotel we are staying at, but now does tours. A local recommended him and his page was very appealing, so we booked him up! He picked us up at 9:30 and introduced us to Thang, his understudy who would be going with us today because he had an appointment he needed to make at the local DMV for new motorbike plates. His understudy spoke pretty good English as well, so we were okay with the change, and overall the day went very well with him as our guide!

The port was not very far from our hotel, around 15 minutes. We passed through a very active market and Thang was telling us that it's always fresh here and Vietnamese people usually go to the market twice a day or more instead of our once-a-week grocery trips back home. There was a lot of fresh fish. Once we got to the port, we were met with street vendors trying to sell us waterproof baggies for our phones. It was pretty funny! We passed through the building and then went to the boat. It was squished tightly in between other tour and fishing boats. We hopped on, were given life jackets to satisfy military requirements, and started heading towards the smaller islands. Although it had been stormy in the morning, the sun was already poking through and by all accounts, it was the making of a beautiful day.

Driving to the docks at the south of the island



Local market bustling even in the rain




Toyota Fortuner similar to our 4Runner

Fresh fish


More fresh seafood items

Walking to the boat docks

Tightly packed boats


Massive concrete pillar for the cable car - it was out of service for repairs this week

Ready for adventure

Everything was so green and luscious

The pillars for the cable car were impressive



Building a new resort on one of the islands with the cable car

A waterpark also on the islands



We shortly slowed down and came to a stop where the boat crew put the anchor down. We were then told it was time to go fishing, which we knew was part of the tour, but we were hoping to avoid it because all we wanted to do was snorkel the whole day, however, I am so glad we did it because it turned out to be a ton of fun! We were fishing the way most locals do which is just by hand with a baited line as opposed to any rods or reels. Neither of us had ever tried it before but we quickly got the hang of it. Initially, I did not catch any fish while Hunter had caught 5! I keep losing my bait. We moved to another two spots as well where they hoped to find more fish, and finally, after what felt like forever, I caught some fish!

Hand line fishing


Hunter's first catch was a little rockfish


Squid bait


Moving locations with the anchor - a bit worrisome but they seemed okay with it



Cool rock


Our catches so far


Getting the anchor unstuck

Interesting statue on one of the islands - a giant crab




Rock outcropping


More fishing - another rockfish


The coolest leopard grouper 



My first catch! I was so happy to finally catch one!


Another!




After about an hour of fishing excitement, we headed to the snorkel spot of the day. Here our guide prepped the GoPro and then hopped in, telling us to wait first so he could ensure it was a good spot before we jumped in. We were given the OK, and then spent the next ~2 hours just floating around the rocks and taking in all the amazing sights. We have tons of videos from this snorkel session, but for ease, I combined them into one 10.5 minute video which also includes some lunch clips and the return back to shore. Feel free to press the little gear icon and increase the speed to 2x so you can see all the cool fish more quickly! Don't forget to ensure you have the video quality as high as possible for the best views too. My favorite parts are at 1:12, 3:00, 4:00, 5:40, and 7:00 (lunch prep). We saw striped fish that reminded Hunter of the Sargent Majors from the Caribbean when he was growing up as well as several species of clownfish, tangs, eels and more!

Snorkel Adventures!


Quick rest on the rocks


After snorkeling, we got back on the boat and headed about 5 minutes away to the beach for lunch. Thang set up a tarp for us to sit on and then went off to a rock in the shade with the other tour helpers to help prepare the seafood (cleaning, descaling, and gutting). I spent quite a lot of time trying to learn the names of things and how they went about preparing the different seafood items. I didn't know at the time, but while we were snorkeling, one of the other guys on the boat went and caught a bunch of other seafood items. I was totally mesmerized by all the cool creatures we were about to eat and also how easily they prepped everything. The sea urchins were my favorite to watch with their pretty iridescent colors (which tells you their gender) and were pretty tasty too even though they have a high effort-to-consumption ratio in my opinion. As I watched the guy prepare our food, we were then treated to fresh sashimi with local sauces to try. It was pretty spicy, but so good!


Looking at a clam

Looking at a snail

A snail!

our boat and picnic spot


Beautiful beach




Crystal clear waters that were basically bathtub temperature


One of the guides preparing the fish


Scaling

Cutting and gutting the fish








Hunter could be a Coke ad!


These were the rocks we were just snorkeling at


Amazing panoramic shot of our lunch spot


Sea urchin with its spines cut down

The colors were so cool to see shining in the light




Snack time!

Yum





Some sort of marker Hunter found on our little island

While we were focusing on a lot of the fish preparation in the water, there was also a BBQ going on back by our picnic spot. They had shrimp, clams, and other types of fish (yellow snappers). They also surprised us by having rice, corn, chicken, and pork as well - I felt like we ate our body weight in different proteins! This experience was truly and amazingly unique - it really is hard to describe my feelings! I have always wanted an experience like this, to catch seafood and eat it just like the locals do - it feels like a movie! I am so grateful to have found Tommie and very thankful he takes everything so seriously so his customers have an incredible time. 

BBQ foods!

More fish to cook



Clam

Ready to eat!

Delicious!


Fresh young coconut as well!

So much good food, Hunter loved the peanut clams done local style (on the plate with the shrimp)



Hello cooked fish head


fish and snails

The snails were a unique experience, but I don't think I would be seeking them out specifically anytime soon

Shared meal



Watermelon for dessert - my favorite 

After lunch we tidied up from our picnic, making sure to give the local dogs a small snack too! After everything was just like we left it, around 2:15pm, we got back in the boat and started towards an island to get drinks at a bar, but we quickly redirected Thang and asked if we could instead go snorkeling as we wanted to see more fish. He was happy to do so. We went to two other locations (no photos or videos were taken this time however) and tried to find some good spots, but the water was being stirred by the currents and the visibility was not the greatest. Around 3:30 we called it quits and headed back to the docks to wrap up our day. All the swimming and eating definitely had me tired out!

can't forget the dog tax as we left





Leaving our lunch beach



Full and Happy

A local fishing boat





Back at the marina

We got back to the car around 4pm and then headed back to our hotel, but not without stopping at Sunset Town first. Sunset Town is a part of the island that was developed as a tourist destination for Chinese people who can't or don't go to Europe. They have created it to be similar to a European town, but right now it is more like an empty ghost town. It was cute nonetheless and could be fun, but its hard when there are not many businesses operating in the shops - everything was very empty. The Venice Clock Tower,  Pompeii Ruins, and Spanish Steps are some of the little "copycat" attractions they have built here, and it definitely feels a bit more like Las Vegas or Dubai than Vietnam. They also have a cute "kissing bridge". Hopefully one day it sees the action it is trying to promote. 

Kissing bridge in the background









Small beach

Kissing bridge



The car we have been using to get around today






Looking out towards the islands we boated past today


The fishing fleet coming home for the day

Sunset is surprisingly early here thanks to the time zone







Sunset Town 

After our jammed packed day, we returned to our hotel just before 5pm. We stopped at the restrooms by the lobby and they had quite the humorous dog theme since the mascot of the university is the ridgeback dog. The urinals were fire hydrants! Hunter and I returned to the room and showered off all of our clothes to try and get rid of the sticky salt water - it actually worked pretty well. We just kind of lounged about and fell asleep pretty quickly after our long day in the water. 


Note from housekeeping - so cute


Sunset lit the clouds beautifully!

Little lizard friend hanging out on the balcony!



Date: October 24, 2023

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