Andre and Jill's Adventures: 2/20/11

On Monday morning we took a bus further South to Mui Ne, a quiet fishing village on the coast. We booked 3 days at a beachfront guesthouse. I'm not sure what we expected, but the shores have eroded back to the steps of the properties along the beach. There was a nice strip of sand with loungers and palapas and during the day the ocean was out far enough to wade in the water. The temperatures were in the 30's, so we were happy to have the ocean at our front door!

Courtyard Restaurant at our guesthouse

Ocean View!

Narrow beaches

Our lounge area just above the ocean

We booked a private Jeep tour of Fairy Stream, the fishing village, the Red Canyon and sand dunes Mui Ne is famous for. There are 3 types of sand in Mui Ne, red, yellow and white. Fairy Stream is actually fresh water through the sand, and looks really muddy, but is actually the red sand.

Fairy Stream

Mui Ne Fishing Village

A Vietnamese woman repairing fishing nets on shore

An Ice Deliver "truck"

Red Canyon

Andre carving our legacy in the canyon

Voila!!

Our guide locking the wheels before heading to the dunes

White Sand Dunes

My National Geographic photography moment...we found ourselves in the middle of a cattle run

:-)

Lastly, Yellow Sand Dunes

There isn't much more to do in Mui Ne, unless you are a kite surfer. It is very windy year round and that is the primary reason most visit. We did, however, find a Phat Hamburger joint that had the best burgers and fries! A little western treat!

And after 3 days, we hopped on another bus for a 5 hour ride back to Saigon. Our plan for Saigon was to arrange our 90 day Thai Visas and fly out to Koh Lanta, where we have booked an apartment for 1 month.

The past week has slipped by at the mercy of sun, sand and plain laziness.

Not a lot has happened since our last post. We met some new friends from Brisbane on our way home after dinner one evening. We stopped for a drink with them..and one thing led to another. We played pool and did a bit of bar-hopping, landing at "Why Not Bar". Well, I'll tell you Why Not!! After ordering drinks and beginning a new game of pool, Andre was drawn to a sign on the wall for the Why Not Bucket. This so called "bucket" was comprised of a large cooler (you know the big Gatorade cooler jugs that are always dumped on football coaches when they win?? That was our "bucket"), a bottle of vodka, 2 bottles of rum, half a bottle of gin, pineapple juice, 7-up, some ice, and a ladle... This may have been a brilliant idea at the beginning of the night (which Andre mentioned the next day), but after midnight, and many drinks, perhaps not so much. So, we all chipped in for an 800,000 VND (around $40) Why Not Bucket...this might not seem like that much, but if you equate it to Vietnamese valuation, one beer is usually around 16,000 VND... Anyway, I'm not certain I even had a full glass before disappearing to make my contribution to the Why Not Bar. Shortly thereafter, and a total of about 6 drinks out of the bucket, the 4 of us made our way out of the bar...Andre, very conspicuously, carrying the bucket. I'm not sure what we would have done with it if we had made it past the doorman. If I remember right, he took it from "us" and said he would "make it to go". We didn't wait around for it...it was time to go home. We made it safely home and both passed out (Andre on the bathroom floor, me tucked in bed), and didn't rise until Valentine's Day afternoon. A very unromantic, but memorable Valentine's eve and day!

With our friends, Jo and Pete (note the glass of Why Not Bucket Drink in Pete's hand)

The last few days spent in Nha Trang were more quietly spent on the beach. We also took a day boat trip to see 3 surrounding islands and enjoy some snorkeling. Obviously the details of these days are far less interesting than the last! The snorkeling was not bad. The water was quite murky in places, but we did see one vibrant reef with numerous fish and a very large, blue starfish. An underwater camera may be a worthwhile investment at some point. We also saw 2 larger fishing villages with homes on land and in the water. We also boated past Vinpearl Island. Vinpearl is home to a very luxurious resort, water park and amusement park. There is a large gondola from mainland Nha Trang to Vinpearl Island..a very cool sight.