Part IX - Vietnam and… Lembeh?
This month turned out a little different than expected - which, at this point, I should have expected, I suppose?
We started our month by flying from Thailand to Ha Noi, where we spent a few days sightseeing in ridiculous humidity and temperatures, as well as with a lot of people. May 1st in a communist country? Yep, it’s a thing. We then continued to Ha Long Bay, where we spent two days on a cruise ship. The views were pretty, and as we now know, the water is cold. From there we went to Sa Pa, which I imagined to be a quaint mountain village with rice terraces and water buffalo and good views.. Which there were, but the mountain village is one of the more touristy places I’ve seen in my life. Meh. From there we flew to Da Nang, but moved directly on to Hoi An, which in my opinion had some of the best food I had in Vietnam. Onwards to Hue and its wonderful citadel and royal palace, where I kind of lost it due to the constant noise and hustle and just felt like I needed to get out of there. Phew. We ended up in Can Tho at a very pretty resort and managed to relax for the rest of the time that was planned to be our trip.
And then things got even weirder. I was supposed to continue to the Philippines to board a boat out to the Tubbataha reefs, but looking at the weather for the region showed a super-typhoon approaching. Not super at all. The day before I was supposed to get on a plane to Manila it was clear that no boats would be allowed to even leave the harbor in Palawan, so I figured out a last minute alternative - Lembeh Resort! I hadn’t been in quite a few years (there was a pandemic or something?) and missed the place, so I jumped at the opportunity and spent a great week diving with all the little creatures Lembeh Strait is famous for. You can see some of them below. And now: Off to the Philippines, again, for a second attempt at Tubbataha!
