We arrived in Mui Ne and the weather was nice and warm, but with quite alot of rain. There was not much to do there so we decided to catch up on some time by booking a half day tour in the morning. then a bus to dalat in the evening.
The tour was better than we expected, a jeep picked us up at 4.30am and we drove out to some sand dunes which is a prettty amazing contrast agains the greenery and rivers all over the rest of southern vietnam. We saw the sunrise from the sand dunes and there were lots of little kids, oldest was 9 years old i think but they all speak english learnt from tourists, even using slang and swearwords to convince us to have a go on their sledges down the dunes. We had a good time there although it was too much excercise climbing back up the dunes at that time in the morning, we went to a few other sites like the fishing village and the fairy stream, i tried to be all technical and set the cameras up on the timer for a nice shot of the three of us. as i ran to join the others in the photo i lost my footing and fell straight in the stream! so glad my camera wasnt in my pocket because i couldnt afford a third one!!!
Later that day we got on a small minibus to take us to dalat which is high up in the mountains about 5hours in from the coast. although it was not a very clear day the views were stunning looking down on a large river flowing off into the horizon with typical vietnamese villages lining its banks. when we arrived it was cold and wet! and it stayed that way. we decided again to cut our losses and press on towards hanoi. so visited a large waterfall wearing rain macs on rented motorbikes then got on another bus out of there heading to Nha Trang.
Seven hours on the coach after telling us it would be 4.5hours we arrived driving through flooded streets we were worried we would not be able to do anything here. luckily the next day the sun was shining and we went out exploring. It is a beach resort built up around the good diving there but its the wrong time of year for diving. so we got drunk, good nightlife there and we met a large group of people and ended up going to a few clubs with them. The next few days were spent doing the same thing, and spending alot of time with a vietnamese girl i met that night. even though she could not speak english we had a good time together and i got to see what the local people do all day. (eat and drink coffee and generally fuck about because nobody seems to work)
Time was catching up with us again so we took a boat trip one day which luckily the weather held for. we visited a few islands, had good food and then a floating bar in the sea with bottles of wine each. there was even live music and dancing on the tables or roof of the boat. And one of the islands had boats doing parasailing trips, i went up with greg my first time flying it was quality! i need to get myself one.
That night (last night) we took a bus from Nha trang to Hoi An. we got on at 6.30pm and arrived here at 7.30 this morning. we all went for a walk to the market, this place is really really old. historic architecture and lots of chapels and pagodas, not really my cup of tea but good to see. Later i went for a walk on my own headed towards the beach (4km from my hotel) i stopped a vietnamese boy on my way who was fishing and made him my friend by giving him a ciggarette, my plan worked and he let me have a go at fishing with his rod. i only stayed ten minutes and caught nothing but he spoke a little english so it was interesting. then carried on walking to the beach, very big waves due to the hurricane that is apparantly on its way here and it has been raining all day, walked up the beach and thinking i could loop back took a different road up, i ended up walking up narrow streets, a shanty town with small handbuilt houses, some people were very friendly, others very threatening and i prayed i would get to the other end and know where i was, but 20minutes later i eventually saw the river opening out to sea and no bridge to where i needed to be. id been walking maybe two hours and now had to turn back. then out of the corner of my eye i saw english writing 'the end of the world' three big vietnamese smiles sat under the sign in their hammock, laughing at me walking in the rain drenched to the skin in my t shirt. they rushed me in and i had a coffee. Hoping they could suggest a different way back to my hotel. but there was only one way.. back through the slums.
We are running out of time now before our flight on the 14th from Hanoi to bangkok (again) so tomorow we get on a bus (or a boat if this rain keeps up all night) 5 hours to Hue then a few hours break, then 14hours to Hanoi. my back is mangled already i dont know if im gonna make it.
