Victoria Phan Thiet Beach Resort And Spa

Next was Mui Ne, a popular Vietnamese holiday destination, further up the coast. On the surface Mui Ne is just like any other holiday resort. Leafy green palm trees frame clear blue swimming pools flanked with toasted sun bathewrs, some swimming the in ocean only metres away. Renting a moped from a very friendly local, we toured the area to see what we could find, took the best way to explore and got lost.

Not only did we see the ...

... of the day covered in sand so we walked around for a while and headed back to the jeep!
we also visited the red canyon, not as magnificent as the grand canyon ciara!! in fact it was a little disappointing. it was interesting to see the different shapes carved by the water in the canyon and to see how red the stone was, but it didnt' cover much land plus we weren't able to get into it and have a better look!
We went then to the fishing village wherethere must have been about ...

... was only a lot of more of the same, or worse, and the couple running the place were really nice. So, after a lot of laughs and some more negotiations we got the room for 175,000 VND, which we have since discovered was way too much, but hey, early days. Later on in the evening when we were walking back from eating, we noticed there were at least another 5 or 6 guest houses around the corner, with young ladies sat outside. On a serious note, I think ...

... 125 cc motorbikes in Vietnam, although that seemed hard to believe with so many motorbike rental places in Vietnam that cater to tourists. Instead of having to worry about whether the police would really bother us, we arranged to go on a tour with some of the motorcycle drivers that hang out in front of Lam-Tong Popular Restaurant. They asked for US$7 and agreed to 12,000 dong for a six hour tour around the Mui Ne area. There was an option to leave at ...

... one of these rather than in china and just jumping on a train. We are just off to book our next stop to Dalat, leaving on saturday. xxx Giles: Mum don't panic about the food poisoning, it wasn't anythign like you're imagining! All is fine now with Nurse Bonito watching over me, restricting my diet to water and rice (something I bet she would like to do the entire time to lose my belly, only now she has a reason to do so ...

... as we really had only 24h in Mui Ne before moving on to Nha Trang. We hired a moped again and set off for the famous sand dunes. We pulled up at the nearest set of dunes with the intention of having a quiet sunset with the dunes as the back drop. As soon as we pull up about 50 kids all trying to sell us time on their homemade plastic sledges for sand sliding show up. And they are persistant. We make it halfway up the dunes ...

... We passed another accident scene whereby dozens of locals surrounded a bike....all was cleared but one only had to imagine the human inuries adding to the smashed bikes... the Vietnamese really don't think ahead and ignore the possibility of other drivers possibly affecting others' safety at the same time.... oh well... The long wait for our 1am bus dragged out but we did momentarily rock up at a beachside open-air bar with a half-hearted Hallowe'en fancy ...

... had to hope that this would give the embassy enough time (two days) to process our visas. So that was it, the plan was fluidly set, the wheels were in motion and we could look forward and plan our exodus from China. Because of the Spring Festival / Chinese New Year bus schedules and other modes of transportation are restricted and more expensive than normal so we weren't surprised when we were told that the only bus available and leaving for Shanghai Pudong airport on the 19th of ...

... friends. I felt quite alone too, which I guess is sort of to be expected in a foreign country. My entire journal entry for New Year's Day day reads "Sat. Jan 1st. OK... it's 2005. Now what?" It was a moderate struggle to get up that morning, the bus ride was OK, saw some amazing not at all Vietnamese countryside. I thought we'd missed a turn and ended up in the southwest of the US for a time. Very freaky. And then to top a rise and see ...