Mui Ne Vietnam - 26 Nov 2010
From wikitravel.org
"Northeast of Phan Thiet the coastal road climbs over the slope of a Cham-Tower-topped hill and descends onto the long, sandy crescent of Mui Ne Bay. The formerly little-inhabited beach south of the fishing village of Mui Ne proper has seen some serious development in the last 15 years. Now it is a 15 km long strip of resorts that line up like pearls on Nguyen Dinh Chieu street, shaded by coconut palms. The main resort strip lies between the addresses of 2 and 98 Nguyen Dinh Chieu and is actually named Ham Tien"
And after a 4 hour bus ride from Saigon, that's where we are.
We spent our last day in Ho Chi Minh City walking around again. We visited the Zoo and then the Jade Emperor Chinese Pagoda, famed for it's ornate carved gilt woodwork and panoply of weird and wonderful deities.
Jade Emperor Pagoda
On the way home we found ourselves in the rush hour in a busy section of town. The traffic there is worse than anything we've ever seen, even Mumbai. There are 10's of thousands of motorbikes, literally no rules and because they drive on the right it's hard to remember which way to look when crossing the street. There are crosswalks everywhere but they make not the slightest difference to the way anyone drives. As best I can tell it just means they aren't allowed to deliberately run you over if you cross on one but they certainly give no quarter.
We thought we had the art of crossing down, a combination of a 2 step, dodge, shuffle, run, jazz ballet, kung fu aerobic combat, but this one street had us licked. We ended up walking a few km's out of our way and doubling back.
It poured with rain for the last few k'ms and for some reason K refused to hail a cab so we ended up jogging the last km or so home completely saturated. The rain was torrential by the end.
We were up at 6, out the door at 7 and on the bus at 8, now we are here.
It's very beautiful and laid back in Mui Ne. There is one long street with the beach hotels on one side and shops and restaurants on the other. There is a whole section that is just seafood BBQ joints. They have Crayfish, Prawns, Fish, Squid, Oysters, all sorts of stuff, caught that day and they just cook it up for you right there. A beer is less than a dollar and a Crayfish costs about $5.00. Good times! Although of course I only enjoy the cheap beer vicariously through K.
View from our Hotel Room Balcony
There is a really nice feel here, it's not as frantic as Bali or Goa but it still has that beach holiday vibe. There is a nice little cafe down the road with live music and movies at night. The hotel we are in is run by an aussie expat and you can throw a stone and hit the beach from our window. The surf is crashing outside as I write. A lot of people are here for windsurfing and kiteboarding as the wind gets up a bit but the temperature remains pleasantly tropic even with the sea breeze in. You can live in shorts and thongs, T Shirt optional (sic).
So the plan is no plan for a while. Just rest up after all the madness of Saigon, swim, sun-bake, walk a lot, eat seafood, chill out, read. Doesn't get a whole lot better than this. Even K plans to get a suntan if she doesn't burst in to flames lying on a sun-bed (ok we're even for the taxi thing now).
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