We took the ferry into the waters and it took us a 15 minutes ride to reach the island. We passed by many boats and saw a few neighbouring islands along the horizon with cable car towers stood along the long stretch of waters. As we closed in to our destination, the first thing that greeted us was this enormous ship.
We got off the ferry and realised that the water was so very clear with this blue tinge of colour to it, very different than Singapore's.
It turns out that the ship we saw was actually our disguised aquarium! We "boarded" the ship and headed down below the steps that takes us into the decks. The design for the aquarium was eerie yet still quite beautiful, with large fish jaws as entrances and exits, dull coloured coral painted along the pillars and walls.
The tour guide they have at the aquarium described and gave an introduction of the many fishes we see in the tanks, which got me quite interested in them. However, tourists from elsewhere joined our small group and in the end, "stole" our tour guide from us. With a little agitation but the willingness to continue forward ourselves, we made our way deeper in to the place. There were only a handful of fish compared to Singapore's Sentosa's Underwater World, thus, i was not really impressed.
As our tour in the aquarium ended, we got on our ferry and headed for some scuba diving. Another long trip to an area in the sea, a few my friends got ready with their gear and dived down into the waters. I really wanted to join them but you had to take off your spectacles when you dive in; my eye degrees was really high so I had no choice but to watch them.As noon came, we headed to another island for our lunch. We had a lunch of fish, eggs, soup, salad, some meats and keropok. As i have noticed with every meal we have eaten in Vietnam, it turns out that it is somewhat much the same for every restaurant we have gone. They will always serve us tea, be it ice cold or hot (depending on their climate) and the usual fish and eggs with a small dish of fish sauce for dipping.
Our fear that the rain would prevent us from going to the amusement park became a reality. The skies still continued to rain, ruining our chances of heading to the beach or the roller coasters they had. With our thoughts of going to the theme park drenched in the cold rain, we headed back to our hotel.
As night fell, we had to get dinner. However this time I decided to join my muslim friends, Muhammad and Syafiqah to an Indian Muslim restaurant, instead of my tour's. Luckily, the halal restaurant was just a few stores away. The place's specialty was indian cuisine and the food there was awesomely scrumptious. My friend made small talk with the assistant of the place and it turns out that the chef came from Calcutta, India. We ordered fish and chips, 4 naans (indian flatbread like roti prata) and 2 satisfying bowls of aloo keema (Mutton gravy with potato chunks and herbs). Even when typing that whole sentence, it made my mouth water and my stomach growl. Why didn't we find out about the restaurant a day before? We praised the chef of the delicious food that we were served and it turned out that he discounted our bill!
With full stomachs and our moods restored, we headed back to the hotel to pack up for home (the Vietnam university hostel that is).
