Vietnam Trip ~ Day 2
July 14, 2012
We learned a lot about Vietnam on the 6-hour bus ride from
Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne. Specifically, we learned a lot about Vietnamese transportation. There are two key words that describe the transportation situation in Vietnam: motorcycles (or scooters) and slow. Google Maps says that it only takes
4 hours and 15 minutes to make the trip. Our trip took a lot longer due to the abundance of motorcycles zipping all over the road and due to the fact that apparently Vietnamese vehicles can't travel faster than maybe 40mph. Seriously. It is slow going.
When we arrived in Mui Ne on Friday evening it was already dark. Our bus dropped off passengers at their hotels or resorts, if they already had reservations. Thanks to our very helpful hotel owner in Ho Chi Minh City, we did have a reservation in Mui Ne and were dropped off right in front of our resort gates. We checked in, were shown to our room, and went to bed soon after.
On Saturday morning, July 14, we woke up to warm sunshine glowing through the lightweight fabric curtains and the sound of ocean waves rolling unto a nearby beach. We got up and went out to the hotel restaurant - really just a large structure of poles holding up a thatched roof in the middle of the resort grounds - and ordered breakfast that was added to our room tab. After a simple, but delicious meal (everything tastes better when you're eating in the open air), we put on sunscreen and then lounged on some beach chairs in a sandy area at the edge of a retaining wall overlooking the ocean and read a bit. It was very relaxing, and we alternated between the beach chairs out in the sun and the ones under the thatched umbrellas for some shade when the sun got too hot.
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| Neat washcloth designs on our bed |
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| Ali tries out the tiny vanity |
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| Eating area at our "resort" |
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| The little bungalow were we stayed |
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| Local catch of the day coming in |
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| Condiments for our breakfast |
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| Relaxing by the sea |
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| Ali relaxes under the umbrella - we really liked this other bungalow |
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| Looking down the shoreline |
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| Yes, that's trash... Not the cleanest beaches ever. |
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| These washtub-style crafts are rather popular |
After relaxing in the sun for a while, we decided it was time to explore the town. We went back to our room, doused ourselves with sunscreen, and headed out. We had learned from our guidebook that Mui Ne was a popular stop along the coastal travel route, especially with windsurfers. The town sits along a large bay and there is a lot of wind in the area, making it the perfect place for windsurfers to play in the water. We wanted to watch the windsurfers, so we left the hotel property and walked along the road heading toward the main area of Mui Ne. The day was very hot and sunny and we soon wished that we had brought our water bottles along with us. As we got closer to downtown Mui Ne, we saw the ocean filled with windsurfers in the small breaks between business and hotel properties. But no matter how far we walked, we couldn't seem to find an open area or public beach access so we could get out to the beach to watch with an unhindered view. All the hotels and businesses had signs out front saying that only patrons could enter their properties and have access to the beach. Finally, after quite awhile of walking, we decided that we probably wouldn't be able to get to any beaches from the road, so we decided to walk back to our hotel and get to the beach from there and then walk along the beach to see the windsurfers. One notable store we passed both ways was an open-air seafood and snake restaurant. Ali was very trepidatious when walking by this area. She did not want to meet a snake, nor see one being butchered.
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Many houses are tall and narrow like this with plain, windowless sides.
We think this is due to properties being very narrow leading to close neighbors. |
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| A rather ornate building |
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| Tropical - A rocky beach we found along our walk |
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| Vietnamese fishing boat |
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| Nearby, there were many windsurfers out in the bay |
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| Another view down the coast (Note the yellow sand dunes in the hills - we'll talk about them in the next post) |
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| Intense cow |
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| Roadside gas stand |
The walk back seemed longer than it had on the way there (as it usually does...) and we were very glad to see our hotel sign and get back to our room to have a nice long drink of water. Then we reapplied the sunscreen and headed out again. We walked along the ocean in one direction, but found the experience to be less than pleasant. It was not a very clean beach and garbage dotted the sand and floated out in the waves. Several times we saw small dead fish or bones lying on the shore and when we came across a large half-rotted rat, I was ready to be done with our beach walk. It just was not restful and relaxing like we'd hoped. So, we abandoned our hopes of sitting on a clean beach and watching the windsurfers, and we turned around and headed back to our hotel once again. It was getting to be dusk by then anyway. When we got back we sat on the edge of the retaining wall, with the relaxing sound of waves in the background, and sang some hymns together to end the Sabbath. After our worship time, we had supper at the hotel restaurant and then asked at the front desk where we could find an internet cafe. A couple other people at our hotel also wanted to use one, so once we were given the directions we all went together and found it a few stores down the road. Later, when we came back to our hotel, we spent some time reading in our room and figuring out where to travel to next. Then it was time for bed and we fell asleep to the rhythm of ocean waves.
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| The entrance to our little resort |
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| Sunset on the beach |
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