Mui Ne, Vietnam (Post #85)
Monday, January 30th, 2006Michele here (with later minor editing by Mike)…it’s January 30th and we are in Cambodia…
I have not been able to attach any photos because the internet connections in both Vietnam and Cambodia are incredibly slow. If nothing else, we are scheduled to be back in Bangkok within a week and I know of a fast connection in an internet cafe there. So, for now…only boring ol’ worlds. [Note: it’s now Feb 6th and I am in the internet cafe that I just mentioned so photos are now inserted into Vietnam blogs.]
As I mentioned in the last blog we took a 7:00pm bus from Saigon to Mui Ne, Vietnam. Mui Ne is a beach town and we had big plans to hang out at the beach and beach bars, you know, sort of relax for a few days. But nooooooooooo!
The first thing that happened was that instead of being a 3 hour bus ride (as mentioned in the guidebook), it turned out to be a 6 hour bus ride, meaning we rolled into town at 1:00am. We had reservations to stay somewhere associated with our original bus company. However, our tickets were sold or transfered or something and we ended up going with a different bus company. When we arrived in Mui Ne we were dropped off at a completely different guesthouse than where we originally had reservations but whatever…it was late and we didn’t care. We took the first room we saw for $10. Although it was a bit far from the center of town, the guesthouse was right on the beach. The problem was that this beach is known for being incredibly windy and the waves are very loud. Loud crashes can be heard all day and all night so, you really need to put in earplugs when you go to sleep at night. The other problem, we later discovered, were some giant roaches. In Asia, all the roaches are giant so this is not unusual, but I really hate seeing them in our room – and I especially disliked seeing one in our bed! Eeeeek!
The next morning Mike woke up with a fever. He stayed in bed the rest of the day while I explored the town center (about 30 minutes walk away) and got information on kite surfing, sand sleding, and jeep tours of the sand dunes. Although the kite surfing looked like a lot of fun, it was really expensive – something like $350 for a 5 hour lesson. O.k., that was definitely out. However, it was fun to watch the people being pulled on a surf boards by small parachute-looking things. Here’s a picture:
Michele Harmon