Mui Ne is very small, very quiet. Our four day trip ended there and Julie and I decided to stay a few nights to take advantage of my last beach! Our resort was beautiful. So quiet. We shared a bungalow right off the pool. The pool is steps away from the beach. Needless to say we spent three days sunning ourselves. Because it is off season, the night life was minimal. We had amazing food, but went to bed early most of the time.. Up to watch the sunrise over the sea and then a swim. Our last night we were sitting at a local outdoor restaurant sort of cafe and Julie says to me "B, you have to turn around and see this" So I'm thinking it's a big old rat or another dead thing, but I look. The moon was rising over the few lights of the town and it was incredible. The dust from the red sand dunes made the sun a beautiful vibrant orange and the clouds looked black. It was a beautiful sight that if you missed you would have never seen again. Lovely Mui Ne. Caught a bus to Saigon and found a little hotel in District 1. $15/night for the two of us, so we were pleased. We went to see the War Remnants Museum, and it was eye opening.. Don't believe the American version of the war. War is always brutal and never heroic. Seeing the devastation (you can still see craters, it wasn't long ago) it is amazing to see this new generation rising from years and years of war. This generation of Vietnamese is the first to grow up without a war. This country is so little, but so strong.
We did a 2 day 1 night trip at the Mekong Delta, but after our epic Easy Riders trip, we were disappointed. There really is not much to see. We could have just done everything in one day. We had to get up early to catch the bus, so when we went to check out we had to wake up the guy at reception. He was still so asleep he only charged us $9 for the room! What a deal! When we were at the floating market we were getting on our boat and we saw video cameras. I wondered aloud to Julie if it was a documentary about the market. Even better! As we were going along we see a strange looking guy paddling along in a long boat with another boat following it. They were making a music video and we got to be in it! I never thought I would be an extra in Vietnam! We saw tons of different animals in Mekong: giant pigs, red squirrels. We saw how coconut candy is made (bringing some back, it's DELISH) rice paper is made, and walked over a big monkey bride! Also tried durian: WORST IDEA EVER. That stuff smells like a corpse with dirty socks on. One of the ladies on our tour bought some and left it on the hot bus. Needless to say our 4 hour trip back smelled horrible. Can't wait to not smell that everyday. Back in Saigon we did some shopping, and while we are in a lovely shop we hear someone behind us and it was Margaret & Rick who did the bike trip with us! We were so excited to see them!! After the initial hugging and screaming and being excited, we had dinner and then went to a local 'pub'. Saigon beer was only 10 000d (about 47cents) and so they drank as Margaret and I stuck with our Cokes again. It was their last day in Saigon and Julie's as well so it was an excellent way to end the trip. They flew out to Singapore this morning, and Julie caught a bus to Cambodia. I'm on my own again, but not for long. I ran into two Philippine women that I had met in Mekong, so we are going for dinner tonight. More later, but I'm almost done. :(
No comments:
Post a Comment