Ba Province

The day started with the simple thought of going snorkeling in the awesome coral reef on the sunrise beach where we had such a great time the previous day. But it was a bit windy from the east, so that didn't look ideal. We borrowed rental gear again and first tried the sunset beach on the other side. Unfortunately it turned out there wasnt much going on there, few fishes and no coral. Worst of all, there was basically just sand so the visibility was poor. We tried the north beach, and despite the eastern wind making it also wavy and tougher to swim, we did see some coral and a few fishes. But it wasn't all that, especially after yesterday's experience. So we went back to sunrise beach. Another snorkeler just got out of the water. We asked him about his experience but he didn't sound too positive and the waves looked even tougher than on the north beach. So we decided to skip snorkeling for the morning.

Instead we thought we'd make ourselves useful and do a beach walk. This was announced to us at breakfast as a 9am activity in which we'd collect plastic trash from the beaches. Now it was already 10:30 though. The guy organising it seemed very disappointed that no one had shown up at 9am but he seemed very thankful and happy when we volunteered to do it now. With a pair of plastic gloves and a trash bag each, we made our way to sunrise beach. Within an hour we had collected a significant amount. Plastic straws, tooth brushes, lighters, clothes pegs, shavers, cookie bags, flip-flops and countless of plastic bags in all sizes and huge pieces of hard plastic whose origin we couldn't figure out. While knowing about the plastic soup in the oceans, it was still shocking. We went snorkeling at this same beach the day earlier and you generally didn't even notice it much, even at the shoreline. But walking by it now specifically looking for trash, you keep finding more and more of it and it never ends. When lunch time arrived, our bags were heavy and we handed them in. After lunch we wanted to try more snorkeling, but the wind was only gaining in power. Susanne still bravely gave it a go. Still the same fishes and coral as the day before just a bit more tiring as you had to fight the wind, waves and resulting current.

The wind kept increasing, to the extent of everyone leaving the sunrise beach and finding somewhere to chill on the other side of the main resort building. We did as well, and it wasn't bad at all there because the clouds and strong breeze made it a little cooler. We asked employee Sam for a coconut and even though it wasn't on any menu, he got us two fresh ones. Later in the afternoon we went for a little walk along sunset beach. At the very end we discovered some small sharks that were hunting small fishes near the shore. Sometimes they were as close as a meter from the rocks we were standing on. Around the corner would have been the perfect wind shaded private spot for a valentines day sunset. Just the clouds weren't playing along. So we headed back to the resort to have dinner with a pasta buffet. Our table was joined by one of our new roommates and another girl and we kept talking until it was time for bed.

In the meantime the wind got so strong that we were seriously a bit worried about all the coconuts above our heads. Luckily they didn't fall when we passed but we still heard the wind the whole night and for the very first time here we slept with the door and windows facing the ocean closed.もっと詳しく