Saturday, January 7, 2012

Not my kind of place

I've been in this country for less than a week, and I feel I've been here for over a month.

I'm ready to leave...

This is not my kind of place at all.

It's very expensive. It's full of university style party people. The locals are not very friendly. The food isn't great. The weather isn't great. The choice of activities and day trips is very VERY limited.

Only good thing so far, I've bought a nice shirt and a nice pair of light and airy pants, and I got a nice haircut. Besides that, everything is meh...

I am looking forward to something though. I booked a 5 day 4 night trip up the coast on a motorcycle. I won't be driving because traffic is INSANE here, but I'll be sitting on the back of a cruiser bike for the duration. I think it's going to be great. I hope, or else Vietnam will go on my "Not Like" country list. And that will be a first.

Also, I found a great sandal that I want made in Hoi An, the place with all the tailors and shoe makers. Hopefully they can make it. I also want to get a nice pair of convertible shorts/long pants made. The ones I have now are wearing away, and I need something for the rest of my trip.

I've bought my motorcycle trip, I've bought my flight ticket to Thailand... I wish I had an earlier date... I might change it.

I am a bit down, and it's just so crappy to feel like that during vacation, when I should be having a wonderful time.

This is the first time in a long time that I'm actually travelling, and not just going to a place for the whole time and with a purpose. And what is also difficult with this sort of travel, I'm travelling on my own, and it's kind of sucking... sucking a lot actually.

I think, next time when I go travel again, I'll either go with other people, or go to one place and take part in something.

This morning I went scuba diving. I didn't think I'd actually freak out. But I did.

I realize I have a fear of edges, and gaps. Maybe it's because of all the crazy things like Bungee jumping and Skydiving I've done. Anyways, I was on the boat with all the scuba gear on, and I had to jump off of the boat into the water. It took me about 5 minutes to jump off, and then I was having a panic attack and freaking out. It took me about another 20 minutes to calm down enough and relax and breath through the mask and keep my face in, before attempting to dive. But, I kept freaking out and rushing to the surface. So, I only dived to 2.7 meters. I did see some pretty fish and corals, but the waters were pretty murky, so visibility wasn't great.

Also, my dive instructor was kind of spacey. She wasn't very good at calming me down, or making me feel confident in her ability to watch my back. I kept rolling on my side, which I found out later from a girl in my hostel, was because my weights were not adjusted properly and I wasn't balanced in the water. Also, she didn't really give me much instruction on how to actually move in the water. I think I needed more instruction on the actual mechanics, once you are in the water. The breathing and such was ok. Also, my face mask wasn't working well because I kept getting water in my goggles and that was making me panic as well.

All in all, a shitty experience so far.

I am hopeful that it will get better, and that's why I'm not just quitting this and moving on to the next country.

1 comment:

Sara said...

No,please keep on with the scuba diving, it can be such a great experience. It is frightning at first, but once you overcome that, it is amazing!