Nah Trang
This place is considered the Capitol of scuba diving in Vietnam. After such a long drive and meeting up with our friends Amelia and Elliot we decided to sleep in and book an afternoon dive. Once we got up and were ready it was already eleven. So late in Vietnam standards. We head out to book some scuba spots and found out that they only do morning dives. Since we were planning on leaving the next day it seemed like we weren't going to be able to.
After a little discussion we decided to push back out trip a half day and leave after diving. Since we had an entire free day now we sat down at breakfast to decide what to do. I had heard that it is possible to go ostrich riding so I told the others. There was a small interest so I set off to figure out how to make it happen.
We would have to take a twenty minute taxi, then a boat, then walk across a small island to find the ostrich farm. Ok! Sounds easy enough for me. I rallied the troops and convinced everyone to go.
Eliot was in charge of getting us a taxi. He is the ultimate bargainer. He will bargain things that can't even be bargained and is quite determined. He managed to get us a decent taxi price.
The ride there was a lot of fun as our taxi driver, and Elliot, played a lot of loud vietnamese music. Once we arrived at the boat station we boarded our small private boat. With the entire thing to ourselves we acted like a bunch of animals. You would never guess we were adults. We were climbing all over the boat and got scolded by the captain a few times.
There was a section of the island we boated through that was bizarre. All around the water were small floating shacks. Many of the home owners were sleeping in the hammocks on their docks. It was just weird to see. I can not imagine living like that.
Orchid springs island itself is even more bizarre. At first it seemed like we had found some remote island. However after walking further in a massive Russian tour group appeared. Then we see a bear in a dress being paraded around as well as an elephant. It was a sad exploitation of the animals. I am guilty of holding the giant snake.
We finally found what we came for, the ostriches. Two of them were walking around freely. The one bit Amelia on the back when she wasn't looking and the other was trying to rip apart Elliot's flip flop. These things are scary! Why did I think it would be fun to ride one?
I bought my ticket at a whopping two dollars and fifty cents and mustered up the courage. They cornered the ostrich in the back and I had to climb up the side of the fence and hop on. And just like that I'm ostrich riding around the pen!!
Afterwards we went to explore the rest of the island and find the waterfall listed on the map. To our surprise there was no waterfall because it had been switched off for low season. So weird. Why build a fake waterfall?
The island was draining our energy. The combination of heat and the oddities around us gave us a weird vibe so we decided to get out of there. Back on the beach we figured the island could maybe redeem itself with a little swim in the water. Not even that was good! The ground was rocky and when you got out further it was sinking mud. When we got out of the water a few of the people were covered with what looked like oil. Yuck! On that note we got on the boat and called it a day.
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