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Wednesday 27th May 2009, Mui Ne
We left Dalat at about 07:30, we were waiting about half an hour from the said time of pick up. We were a little bit dissapointed to discover that the bus was an actual mini bus instead of a spacious coach. But the reason for this appeared to be that there weren't that many people and being a smaller bus meant that it could go the quicker route over the mountains. Not that we were aware until we arrived at Mui Ne at 11am instead of 2pm. Bonus!! Unfortunatly for some the over the mountain route of twisty steep roads did cause some travel sickness, thankfully not for us!!!!
Once in Mui Ne it was time to find a hotel. We hadn't booked as not many on the net and we had been told (by people and Lonely Planet) that all the hotels were just next door to each other in close proximity!! Not strictly true!! There are several resorts near each other but some of the hotels were spread apart by a km or so. Mui Ne is basically a beach resort. Its not really a town as it doesn't have an actual centre, its a 11km stretch of beach just outside the fishing village of Mui Ne. Well an hour and a half later 2 very sweaty p**sed of girls (with bags) eventually found one we liked at a reasonable price!! It was called the Hoang Kim Golden resort. We had a twin room on the beach with a pool!! Slightly more expensive than usual but still very under budget!! Once we'd checked in and then had some lunch we then had a kip! Caroline wasn't feeling too good and I just thought it wouldn't be polite to go off and explore on my own! Any excuse for a snooze!!
We eventually decided to go out and explore at about 4pm. We just walked and walked along the road next to the beach. It was high tide when we arrived and it hadn't really changed much by this point. After walking for about an hour and deciding that Mui Ne is just as it says, beach, shops, bars and Kite surfing we stopped for a drink before turning round and heading back!
We had dinner at The Saigon Cafe which was about a ten minute walk from where we were staying. It was very nice with some lovely seafood. The owner and her family were also very sweet but unfortunatly we spotted some rats!! I thought I'd seen one earlier on but after dinner we wre more than aware of them. Vietnam streets at night seem to be a wash with rats. it has nothing to do with the actual restaurants but to do with the culture here of just chucking all there rubbish straight on the streets!! No bin bags or wheelie bins! Then once a night it gets swept away before the same process starts again the next day! Its fairly gross! As well this restaurant was outside so no real way of stopping them. I'm not that bothered if there not in my close proximity but Caroline's feet were straight off the floor!! After dinner we had a few drinks at POGO Bar before heading to bed!
Thursday 28th May 2009, Mui Ne
We took full advantage of a lay in this morning and then spent a couple of hours sunbathing by the pool!! Very relaxing! At about 1pm we had some lunch and got ready to head out. Getting ready basically involved putting at t-shirt over the bikini! Very strenuous!!
We had booked a local tour for the afternoon. We were driven around by jeep which was in places very much needed!! The jeep was more of a old war one than new but it did the job! First stop was the Fairy Spring (Suoi Tien). This is a stream that flows through a patch of the dunes and some interesting rock formations east of town. The locals like to think its similar to the Canyon. I could just about see where their coming from but on a much smaller scale!! Whilst here we aquired 2 very young informal guides. You don't seem to real get a choice!! So they walked us up the stream, mostly in the water-not very deep, and showed us the rock formations. There is a water fall at the end but this was suposively a good few km's away! Who knows?! Once back near the end money was then demanded! If only it was that easy!! They had given us some info and tips so we were happy to tip but then of course it wasn't enough! So our money was bad money and it was our faults they couldn't go to school!! etc etc! We did and do feel bad but we can't give to everyone!! Plus we didn't ask them to walk with us. From the Fairy Springs we went to the Fishing Village. Very small area along the beach that surprise surprise stunk of fish! The view out to sea was nice with all the very colourful fishing boats moored up in the sea against the mountains. The beach area could have been quite nice but once again the locals inability to put rubbish in a bin spoilt it!! After the Fishing village we then drove 25km out of town to the White sand dunes. The drive there was fun having to negociate the cattle, and the views were fairly great. Where else would you see cattle grazing in a cemutury?? On arrival at the white sand dunes we wre amazed. The view of the dunes was spectactular and once we had walked up them it was even better!!! We spent about an hour here and at this point we decided to watch the locals sand sliding and then we were going to try it ourselves at the red dunes. It looked fun and they liked us watching. I quite happily could have just sat there for hours and it would have been a great spot for sunset. But we had to keep moving to the red dunes, these are back towards town about 5km outside of town. And yes the sand was red but thankfully as it was late afternoon it was possible to walk on the sand without scalding our feet!! On arrival we were bombarded by kids trying to sell us the plastic to use as a slide. We only wanted one much to their disappointment and after abit of negociating we settled on a price for the plastic and not per go! But on the condition that if we broke it we had to pay more!! Well of course!! The kids are sweet but there well practiced at swindling the tourists. Walking on the red dunes was alot harded than the white ones so it took a bit of time to walk up the dunes. Once we had found a good spot we set about trying to sand slide. Its fairly easy and very much like sledging just on sand. Also its not as fast and the walk back up the dunes is a killer! We spent another hour here before heading back to the hotel.
Dinner tonight was at Sizzerlers! We didn't know what it was put it turned out to be a very English pub/restaurant run by 2 guys who previously had a restaurant in Goa. They were both English and the menu was very much comfort food!! We both had pie, chips, mushy peas, bistro gravy and Heinz tomato sauce!! Fabulous!! Although trying to eat comfort food in these heats was extremely difficult!! And tonight there were no rats but near the end it did turn into a bit of a nature reserve!! Bugs galore!! Including a swarm of wasps which the owner proceeded to tell us "Don't worry they were here last night as well!". Well thanks for that! Thankfully they didn't bother us but between them, the small bugs dropping on us and the flying bats it was just like a nature reserve! After a few beers we headed home to bed!
Friday 29th May 2009, Mui Ne
Another lay in today before checking out the hotel. After a bit of internet and a walk we had some lunch at Pogo on the beach ready in time to be picked up at 1pm for the bus to Ho Chi Minh City. Well typically it didn't come till 1:30pm and then 10 minutes later it proceeded to stop for a half hour break for the drivers!!! What was the point!! We eventually left Mui Ne at 2:20pm on our journey for Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).
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