The Beach

What seems like weeks ago now we left Saigon and headed for the small fishing village of Mui Ne. The town has grown a long tail of resorts along its beautiful beach. It seems many of these are about to be swallowed by the ocean due to the incessant rip tide running parallel to the beach. It is this current which has formed, over a very long time, the massive sand dunes to the north of the village. We hired a scooter and managed to successfully navigate out to the dunes, only got lost twice thanks to a map on the back of business card, where we did some sledding and other dune related activities such as walking, climbing and politely declining a third sled for "very good price". Mui Ne is well-known for its seafood so we ventured to part of the beach lined with huge restaurants where all sorts of (no longer) sea-dwelling creatures can be selected from tanks and cooked in front of you. We choose the busiest restaurant and dined on kingfish, scallops and mussels for about $7. Despite the rain we will miss you Mui Ne.

A few Vietnamese holidaying at Mui Ne

From Mui Ne we headed inland to Da Lat.  Expecting a small, sleepy mountain village we were (almost) surprised when a bunch of men immediately started offering us taxis, motorbike tours and accommodation deals. Da Lat is a really cool town which reminded me of Wellington with its hills and cooler climate (jerseys came in handy after all). We hired a scooter and checked out the surrounding mountains, where we saw Vietnamese zebras. We went to a waterfall which had a roller coaster to get down to it from the car park which was rather novel but the whole area was swarming with Russians so we didn't stay long.
Later in the day we entered Da Lat's cafe scene and got hip with the visiting Vietnamese kids. We stopped in at a cafe called 'Bicycle Up', which possessed every hipster cliche under the sun, and had amazing coffee for fifty cents.

Just a few of the Russian and Vietnamese tourists at the Datanla Waterfall

Yesterday we got up at 5.30 and took a four hour bus to Nah Trang.  There we blobbed on the expansive white beach among expansive white Russians. We received obligatory oil massages and bought fresh fruit and other snacks in between quick dips in the warm ocean. After five the beach came alive as hundreds of locals came down to eat, swim and play volleyball and soccer. With heavy packs, and that exhaustion that only comes from a day of lying about, we checked on to the night bus that would take us to Hoi An by the morning.

The mountain pass between Da Lat and Nah Trang was  incredible

We rolled into the old port town of Hoi An as the sun rose above the young rice fields. Staggering of the night bus (think Harry Potter without the magical amounts of space) we fended of the hotel hawkers before wandering into the guest house district. We ended up choosing quite a nice hotel at a budget-stretching $18 a night and, as we were able to check in at 6 in the morning, crawling into bed and going straight to sleep.

Sunrise over Hoi An Province