Endless Summer Tiny World

From Nha trang Chelsy and I headed to mui ne. We had heard lots of good things about mui ne and were told it was supposed to be pretty nice. Well as always, if it says three hours to get there it will probably take 6 hours, so by the time we got there, got our accommodation it was evening, so we spent the evening just walking up and down the strip, swimming in the pool an listening to live music. The next day we decided to have a beach day and it was such a disappointment! We were told the beach in mui ne was really nice, but actually it was littered with garbage!! It was so hot out and after swimming a couple times and feeling like we were swimming in garbage we gave up and headed back to the pool at our hostel. That evening we went out to a burger joint with a bunch of the people from our hostel and just headed for drinks after! Whitney, the American girl I met diving in Nha trang arrived late that evening to stay with us too! The next day we rented motorbikes and headed down to a nicer beach/ cove type area and it was much better. There was still garbage but not so much you were swimming with it and the water was much prettier. Later in the evening after it wasn’t quite as hot we headed or the famous mui ne sand dunes. We headed to the red sand dunes an had a blast! We were sledding, or at least attempting to sled down the dunes and by the time we headed home we were covered in sand from was to toe! That evening we headed for dinner and played a round of mini golf. It was a cement course, but we still had a lot of fun.
The next day we were off to ho chi Minh city or what I call ho chi mini. This was another day long process even though it’s only supposed to take three hours, and we got there in the evening and had dinner and then drinks at cheap places where thrifty up little plastic chairs and little tables on the sidewalk. We also got to take in some great live music. The next day we were off to the war remnants museum. We now know going in to any of these war places or museums to take it with a grain of salt as try are still full of propaganda and one sided, but it is still interesting and very sad to go. After having our hearts put through the wringer we were off to happier times of shopping at the market and dodging crazy traffic trying to find our way back to our hotel. We had an early night since we were headed off to the Mekong delta early the next morning.

The Mekong delta was cool, but we have basically already seen this type of stuff in Laos, so like always hind sight is 20/20 and it’s something we really could have passed up as it was mostly a lot of driving! We did get to see a fish farm, a floating market, a crocodile farm and took a bike ride through a small town. We spent the night in a floating hotel and the next morning we were off to the border of Cambodia by boat. We arrived in phnom penh and that’s where we said bye to Whitney for a couple days. This is also where our trip had a rough couple days! My passport is now very full and needs new pages, and we weren’t sure the border control would use my last couple pages, yet you need an appointment to get more pages, and we didn’t want to stay in phnom penh overnight…. So we decided to chance it and get to ko Chang Thailand without getting new pages. Well no worries I’ve crossed the border fine, I now just have to get to eastern europe without new pages as the embassy in Bangkok is not open on a Saturday. So we got on a bus at 12:30 at night bound for ko Chang, it was supposed to take 8 hours. 8 hours later we were at the border of Thailand, still had 5 hours to ko Chang but we had to wait for the bus, which would leave in six hours! Chelsy and I were so frustrated and irritated we took the next bus going anywhere close to the coast. This also took twice the amount of time! We finally got to ko samet at 6 pm last night! It was a long wasteful irritating day and were so happy it’s behind us! At least we made it and now we have two days to sit on the beautiful white powder sand beach! Oh and Whitney just met back up with us for the last couple days, so that’s nice too!!

Hue was really ice and very old! There is an old imperial city there which if restored would be really similar to the forbidden city in Beijing. It was still meat to walk around and see all the restored buildings and the massive wall around the whole thing! We then rented a motorbike and spent the rest of the afternoon motorbiking the countryside and checking out some of the tombs of the old emperors. The first tomb we went to was really cool because even though it’s all black cement on the outside the inside was done in all little pieces of colored glass. It was really beautiful. We then got lost for awhile until we found the next tomb which was not as impressive it was just very large with a huge lake and forest as well. The last tomb we went to was cool simply because the guy it was made for was a pretty funny story. He was tu duc and he had 108 wives, lots of concubines and no children! He also was very short so all the statues were fairly short because they all had to be shorter than him! We had a really great day, we got lost lots but loved getting out of the city and into the countryside!
The next day we were up early for a trip to the DMZ. We got to see the rocklike, which was fairly unappealing as now it just looks like a large mountain. We also saw the start of the ho chi Minh trail, also unappealing as it was just a bridge over a river, and the place of the khe sahn battle. This was interesting because they had “American” planes and tanks, as well as sone we think were real that were just scraps of helicopters. It was all super interesting because based on the photos and the story of the battle told to us you can tell it was all propaganda. The story of the battle I read in our lonely planet was completely different than the one they told us. The other thing the lonely planet said was the us removed or blew up everything up there so the vietnamese couldn’t use it as propaganda so it was very interesting they had us helicopters and large planes. The next place the tour took us to was the vine moc tunnels. These were soo crazy!! They were very short and narrow and so extensive! There were three different depths and they had 90 families in them! There were 17 babies in them and tons of entrances!! It was just so nuts how small and still all clay! If you were claustrophobic you would not want to be in there!
The next day we headed off to Hoi An. Hoi An is a really really adorable town as it is one of the oldest towns in Vietnam. Our first order of business when we got there was to find somewhere to get sone clothes custom tailored! The first place we went to we got some pants made, and they were ready to try on for alterations within 4 hours! The next place I found I decided to get a dress and a shirt made. This place took longer as the lady who measured me actually sewed the clothes herself and they fit perfect when I tried them on the next day! It was so cool getting things custom made for me, I think we should do that with all clothes!!! The next day Chelsy and I worked on our tans at the beach all day. The beach was really beautiful and it is so nice to be on water as it is so hot here! After Hoi An we headed on an overnight bus to Nha trang. Nha trang also has a beautiful beach so the first day after a nap we headed to the beach! We also found a micro brewery in Nha trang so enjoyed a nice microbrew! The next day I found some really really cheap diving so I was off for the day to the islands and a marine park for diving! It was awesome because I saw three octopuses!! One that wasn’t hiding so I actually got to see him moving and he was huge! I also saw lobsters and eels and sone great coral! I had lots of other Americans on the boat and had a good time chatting with them. One girl was named Whitney and she is traveling by herself so age is now hanging with us! We had another beach day and enjoyed the nightlife of Nha trang as well! We are now in mui ne for a couple days until we head to ho chi Minh city and decide the rest of our route.

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