Mui Ne, Vietnam

It has been awhile because we have had company which has just been a blast. But I will get you all up to speed on what we have been up to. We finished up our travels in Vietnam on the beach in a town called Mui Ne. We decided to just chill out for a bit before heading to Ho Chi Minh City to catch our flight to Bangkok. Our misfortune continued the second day, it poured the entire day and the locals said it had not rained in 9 weeks! Of course that is the case! But, we did have one nice day and we able to check out the sights and the second day I worked on my scholarship applications so I guess it all worked out.

Mui Ne was really neat because it is a costal town with red, yellow and white Saharan sand dunes surrounding the area. I felt like I was in Africa.

Getting to Mui Ne was quit the journey. We ended up taking an overnight sleeper bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang. It was nothing less than horrible I must say. We were one of the last to get on the bus so we got stuck in the back where there were 5 beds lined up and the beds were much shorter than both Justin and I. What really got me fired up was that the lady who sold us the tickets told us we would have plenty of room and we even each paid more for the VIP bus. Anyways, it was 14 hours of tossing and turning, trying to find a place to put my legs to keep them from sleeping. Once we got to Nha Trang we had an hour wait before we boarded another bus to take us the rest of the way. What I thought was suppose to be a 3 hour ride turned into a 6 hour ride, again in the back of the bus. Justin said he felt like Rosa Parks. That is horrible!

But when we arrived it was beautiful! Mui Ne beach is famous for kite boarding. There was an international kite boarding competition taking place while we were there. If I had better travelers insurance we may have considered lessons. I just don't understand how all those kite boards avoid getting all tangled up.

The second day we went on a jeep tour. The guy tried to sell us on the deal by telling us we would be riding in a proper American jeep! Tee hee! It was good, he drove us around to all the sights. We first stopped at the red sand dunes. We walked down this river to a waterfall.

It was really cool, I felt like I was on a jungle safari.

I felt like I was walking in a giant pumpkin pie!

Oh yes, we rode an ostrich too. It was a very strange experience, seemed so wrong but at the same time we could not help ourselves! I felt like I was going to fall off the back the entire time.

They tired to charge Justin and I twice the amount because of our height! We put the smack down on the them. Seriously, they will say anything to make some extra dough!

Fish sauce in the making! It smelt like wet cat food passing through here. Gag!

The Mui Ne Harbor.

Photo by Justin

White sand dunes

We rented these plastic boards to sled down the hill with. It ended up not really working and in the process my camera fell out of my purse and drown in the sand. I climbed back up to find the blue strap poking out of the sand but the camera will not turn back on do to "lens error". Sadly, most all of my electronics have died on this trip. First, I sat on my Kindle and it died. Then my Ipod stopped working and now my camera is full of sand. Sheesh, my computer is still holding on but barely. I just received warning that my hard drive is now full so I no longer can up load photos till I get my delete on! My oh My!

We also had the best meal ever in Mui Ne. We sat on the beach and ate 2 plates of fresh grill prawns and Justin had a half kilo of grilled clams, noodles, french fries, salad and some beer all for less that $14.00. It was so crazy. The same meal back home would have been well over $50 for sure. We also treated ourselves to an hour full body massage for about $8.00. Life is good!

We only stayed 2 nights in Mui Ne and then took another sleeper bus to Ho Chi Minh City. We stayed 1 night in Ho Chi Minh before we met Chris and Collin in Bangkok. I wish we had more time in Ho Chi Minh but I did get a Mexican meal out of the deal. I have been dying for a burrito. I know I should have had Vietnamese food on our last night but I just could not help myself! Plus, I think I have an allergy to fish sauce.