We had been told by Geoff on Con Dao not to expect too much from the diving in Nha Trang. We were told that the reef wasn't that great and the life wasn't as interesting as on Con Dao. This meant we did not go into the dives expecting to witness a pod of dolphins piggy-backing on a whale shark. The dive company here was more commercial as they had much more competition. They also seemed to employ boat captains who were not afraid of the consequences of crashing t...

After an early start we boarded our 6:25am train for the long journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang. The train was pretty basic and rather dirty. As we passed the 'toilet' I quickly made the decision not to drink much water on the way! We soon realised we were in the middle of a carriage of Vietnamese tourists, all from one large tour group. This meant loud, regular updates from their tour guide throughout the journey, especially when we were trying to sle...

We started the day by heading out to the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels were constructed by the Vietcong during the American war. They were used to evade bombs, make movements easier and allow the Vietcong to engage in Guerrila warfare. They lie about 40km outside of Saigon and were constructed very close to a number of American military bases. The district of Cu Chi was one of the most heavily bombed areas of Vietnam during the war as the Americans tried, but faile...

After packing up and checking out we spent a last couple of hours on the beach on Con Dao before heading to the airport. Luckily the flight was a bit better and there was less turbulence. Once back in Ho Chi Minh City we got a taxi to the hotel, which was surprisingly nice for $8 each a night! The hotel had just opened a roof-top restaurant that served Western food at reasonable prices, a nice treat after all the rice and noodles we'd been having - especially wi...

After a busy day and night of diving and watching turtles we arrived back at our bungalow around 11am, ready for a thorough shower and a much needed sleep. However, we were determined to soldier on and not waste the day with such luxuries and so borrowed a couple of push bikes from Larry and headed out to explore the island. I felt comfortable with Emma in charge of navigating. If we made any wrong turns I had promised to be in touch with her new school immediate...