Saturday
Another travel day today, we had the chance for a lie in but I woke up early still do wasn't a happy bunny. The bus was 40 minutes late for pick up, and it was quite a small thing with little leg room and the overhead shelves wernt big enough to put our rucksacks in so they were on our knees the whole time. Compared to Nepalese transport though it was luxury, I didn't really mind the journey at all, I read for the majority of it. However Liam, although aware it was a lot better than what we've had, was finding things quite difficult. I don't know what it is with him and public transport but he just doesn't get along with it, and is constantly terrified the bus driver is going to crash or tip over the bus. To be fair to Liam though he was abit of a maniac going over the pot holes, at times we were a good 3 inches off the seats. I just found it funny but Liam wasn't laughing! There were also some right weirdos on our bus with us, some weird German people with skinny legs and big beer bellies with buzz cuts and beer. A weird skinny couple in their 50s who brought a massive bag of food on with them and the man changed seats 3 times and also took his shirt off.
We were glad when the 5 hours finished and we arrived in mui ne. We walked about 10 minutes to our hotel and were showed to our room. It's a good room overlooking a nice pool area. It's more than what we usually pay with half the facilities but its the best we could find in the area. After showering and settling a bit we headed out for food. There are quite a few restaurants but they're also a bit pricier than what we've been used to as well so we took some time choosing where to go. We had a good meal and a couple of cocktails, went to find me some antacids because I've had heartburn for the last 3 days then headed back. We were going to watch one of our programmes but it wouldn't stream (another moan from me about how we should have a good connection for the money we're paying!)... But it was a good job really as I was tired and asleep within minutes of getting into bed.
Sunday
Well the original plan today had been to check out the dunes, I don't think they were supposed to be anything special, just the only sight seeing thing to see in mui ne. The stop over really was just that, an interim before saigon. Anyway we went to ask about getting to the dunes believing we could walk, apparently not. Our choices were either pay 16 dollars to hire a bike (not seen bike hire for any more than 2 dollars anywhere else in Vietnam), or pay 27 dollars for a jeep. We decided we would pass...yes we could have done it, after all I suppose it wouldn't break the bank. But the whole place just reeks of tourist ripoff and we didn't want to have any part it in! So we decided to spend the day on the beach.
After getting sorted we went and found a spot on the beach to relax for a while. It was a nice beach, no where near as nice as nha trang though! We spent an hour sunbathing then half anhour or so in the sea before deciding it was time to get into some shade. We had food and drink, reapplied sun cream and went back out onto the beach to read, doze and watching the dozens of people kite surfing. After about 2 hours we decided that was enough. It was quite hot and also there was a bit of a wind and it was blowing the sand a lot more than what was comfortable half of the time. After wandering around a little trying to figure out where Liam could watch the football tonight, we went to the hotel and spent an hour or so in the swimming pool. Then we just pottered around showering, packing, watching stuff, reading etc before heading out for the evening.
We had a nice little Vietnamese meal and found a pub about a 10 minute walk from the restaurant that showed the football to be til did started at 11 not 10...which was way too late to sit waiting! We could have found another bar I suppose and had another drink but it was 10pm and we had an early start for the bus to saigon. Also, although the place is nice in its own way we havnt been overly impressed with mui ne. There are way too many tourists, everything is overpriced and any Vietnamese you come across are tainted by tourism and trying to get you to buy something. So after stumbling across somewhere for Liam to have a quick cut throat shave we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.
