Mui Ne: Thanksgiving by the sea and a bus ride gone bad

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When we left the resort in Phan Thiet on November 22, we took a taxi a few miles north to the adjacent beach town of Mui Ne. We'd booked two nights at the beachfront Mui Ne Backpackers Guest House to give us a few days to regroup and plan our next move, while still enjoying the beach. We arrived and were greeted by John Jenkins, a delightfully enthusiastic ex pat from Australia who ran the guest house with his wife, a native of Vietnam. He was skyping with his grandkids in San Fransisco at the time of our arrival, but said "no worries," he could call them back later. He was thrilled to see that we shared a name when he looked at my passport, but I had to woefully inform him that Jenkins was no longer part of my name. Sadness. At any rate, he gave us some basic info about the hostel and showed us to our room, a very simple, bare bones set up, but clean and air-conditioned nonetheless (with a mini-bar much cheaper than our pervious lodging!). We unpacked a little bit and dropped off some laundry at the front desk before making our way to the beach - again, only a few steps from our room - for a leisurely walk. We were slightly disappointed to find that this beach was also not the best for swimming. It appeared to be perpetually high tide, with a sharp drop off when you entered the water. There were also fewer awesome sea shells than the beach in Phan Thiet, but it was still a lovely view and fun to people watch as we walked.

After heading back to the room and showering, we had to conquer our pending dilemma: where to eat for Thanksgiving dinner. John recommended the place next door, not for their traditional American Thanksgiving cuisine of course, but for their wide array of delicious sea food. Scott and I decided to check it out, and found that John was spot on. We shared some grilled calamari and a pot full of an amazing seafood soup, complete with rice, okra and tomatoes. Not the most traditional Thanksgiving meal, but definitely an unforgettable one, as it was our first one shared together and we had so many things to be thankful for (if you're reading this, you are one of them!). After dinner we crashed relatively early, as usual, and woke up with the plan of (a) taking part in a sight-seeing excusion offered by the hostel and (b) finding a place to call our families and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving (since it was still Thanksgiving in the states). Luckily, we were able to fulfill our plan, finding a tiny internet cafe with headsets after a bit of searching and proceeding to skype with both our families. It was wonderful to finally get to talk to them! Afterward we ate lunch at a restaurant called Bamboo Bamboo (again recommended by John the friendly Australian), which had great food for good prices. We liked it so much we ate there for literally every meal for the remainder of our time in Mui Ne. Side note - there were the most adorable tiny puppies and kitten roaming around the restaurant and I wanted to steal them and take them home with me.

Our excursion began around 1:30. The plan was to visit a few of the places Mui Ne is known for: the Fairy Stream, the White Sand Dunes, Lotus Lake, and the Red Sand Dunes, with a brief stop for a photo op alongside the harbor filled with beautiful wooden boats. We set off in a bright yellow Jeep knock off with zero shock absorbancy and a hole in the floor you could see the road through - simultaneously scary and awesome. When we got to the Fairy Stream, we found it to be a pretty cool spot. Though it was right next to the main road, it felt like we had teleported to the Vietnamese wild, with trees and plantlife on one side and amazing red and wide sand/rock formations rising above us on the other. The stream itself was very shallow - it was as if we were walking on the water instead of through it. I'm still not sure how it got its name, but I'm guessing its because of this effect. At the end of the stream was a less than exciting water fall, but it wasn't really a downer. As we walked back through the stream to meet up with our driver, we noticed that it seemed exponentially hotter than before. Luckily, I stepped into a huge, deep hole in the stream, submerging myself waist deep in the water. Scared the heck out of me but felt wonderful at the same time. The only downside was that I was wearing some inexpensive black lightweight pants I'd bought earlier that day and they bled all over me. Should've known. In any case, it was on to the Sand Dunes.

The White Sand Dunes turned out to be my favorite part of the day. After a long drive out into what seemed like the middle of nowhere, we approached what appeared to be a little piece of desert by the sea. The massive slopes towered over us and went on for a little ways in all directions. If you were feeling adventurous, you could choose to rent a four wheeler to speed around among the peaks and valleys. Even though I'm experienced with four wheelers, Scott and I opted out of this option because we couldn't get the mental image of Anthony Bourdain (from No Reservations on the Travel Channel, if you're not familiar) having a mishap on a four wheeler at similar dunes in New Zealand, where the four wheeler fell over and almost rolled on top of him as he ascended a dune. Since we weren't in the mood to potentially almost die, we decided to walk instead. Turns out, most of the people who did rent four wheelers didn't have a clue how to drive them, so we got a few laughs watching them. We definitely got our exercise for the day, and the view from the top of the highest dune was fantastic. Our next stop was supposed to be Lotus Lake, and, though we did walk past a small pond full of lotus flowers on our way to the dunes and we drove by a lake on our way out, our guide never actually took us to or pointed out the lake itself. So we might have seen it, and, if so, it was pretty neat. As sunset approached and fatigue began to set in, we arrived at the much smaller and less impressive (but still very cool) Red Sand Dunes. As one might imagine, the sand here was more of a reddish color. We perched ourselves on the top of one of the dunes to watch another gorgeous Vietnamese sunset before returning to the hotel. And you'll never guess what happened next...we ate dinner at Bamboo Bamboo and went to sleep.

The next day we wandered around a bit before boarding the overnight bus to Hoi An that John had booked for us. He told us this bus line was his favorite and the best one there was...unfortunately, our experience did not match this description. Our first bus ride was between 5 and 6 hours long and dropped us off in Nha Trang, a larger city by the beach north of Mui Ne. This bus wasn't too bad - it was set up with three rows of "bunk beds," one for each person," and the ride went fairly smoothly aside from the driver barking out orders in Vietnamese the whole time. However, when it dropped us off, we were totally confused and didn't know where to find our next bus. Some women at the bus station kept pointing to a sketchy looking van across the street and telling us to get in it, so we finally obliged and were happy to find that there were other travelers around our age in the van, which would supposedly take us to our Hoi An bound bus. Relieved that we were not in fact about to be kidnapped or murdered (and yes, I'm exaggerating - don't freak out Mom and Dad, haha), we drove a few minutes to a different bus station and boarded our second bus, the one we would be spending the night on.

Our second bus was constructed almost identically as the first, only it was noticeably older with less comfortable seats/beds. It did have more leg room, which was a plus. Once we got moving, everything was fine for awhile until a Vietnamese man who didn't have an actual seat and was sitting in the aisle (there were a few passengers doing this - we weren't entirely sure why) began talking loudly and being obnoxious. There were even a few occasions when he smoked on the bus. I guess it was allowed because nobody stopped him, but the smell woke me up several times throughout the night. Other than that, I was surprised that both Scott and I managed to get a good bit of sleep while on the bus, though we were both happy to get off when it arrived in Hoi An at 6:00 a.m. This was when things got fishy...literally. As the bus driver unloaded our packs, we found them to be completely soaked. It did rain on and off during the ride, so we assumed perhaps there was a leak, causing our bags to get wet. We soon realized, however, that our bags were not drenched in mere water, but had been sitting in smelly, rotten fish water for the past 12 hours. Neither of us knew how this could have happened or how to communicate our disgust and desire for some sort of compensation to the driver, so we gathered our things and waited for our ride to our hotel, the Hoang Trinh, to show up. He never did. We later found out this was due to a miscommunication and that he had gone to a different bus station, but at the time we decided to just take a taxi.

When we got to the hotel, we were greeted with cheerful hospitality and immediately invited to sit and have tea accompanied by bananas and sweet coconut cakes. Even though there was a significant language barrier, we were able to explain to them what had happened with our bags, and they allowed us to send all of our clothes (and even our backpacks) to the laundry right away. We're still waiting to see if they were able to get the dead fish smell out of our bags, but our clothes came out fine, aside from one skirt of mine that was totally ruined. After talking with our hosts for awhile, we were off to see the sights, despite the fact that it was only 7:30 a.m. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we couldn't officially check in. Thus began my love affair with this wonderful city. Unlike Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An is smaller and quieter with a quaint, romantic feel. It's known for the craftsmanship of its people, from woodworking to the art of making silk lanterns to, most famously, designing and creating custom made clothing. Scott and I walked around the "Old Town" in the city center, lined with very old buildings displaying Chinese and Japanese influenced architechture. We then walked along the river that runs through the town, admiring the beautifully painted wooden boats. After awhile we got hungry again and decided to stop for a second breakfast (since it was only about 10:00 a.m.) at a nice, French inspired cafe called Cargo. Yum!

We then mosied a few doors down to a craft store Scott had read about called Reaching Out. This was absolutely the highlight of my day. The store showcases high quality crafts, from quilts to ceramic tea sets, made by Vietnamese people who are differently abled. One of sales women walked us around the store, educating us about its mission to help people who may not be able to find jobs elsewhere to become skilled craftsmen and women with a steady income. Everything in the store is fair trade and eco-friendly, not to mention extraordinarily beautiful. Scott and I splurged and bought several items, including an ornate tea set, a table runner made with patches of brightly colored fabric with intricate patterns, a very cool lantern made of wood and fabric, and some handmade greeting cards. The salespeople even offered to box and ship our items home, including any other items we bought elsewhere during our time in Hoi An. I highly recommend you check this place out - our visit there was positively amazing. So much so that we returned today to tour their workshop and see their craftsmen and women in action (they are truly talented individuals!). Visit www.reachingoutvietnam.com if you get a chance. Their website appeared to be down when I tried it, but it may have just been the not so great computer I'm using to write this 😊

Upon leaving Reaching Out, we went back to the hotel to officially check in and shower before going to lunch at a highly recommended restaurant called Morning Glory. The food was so tasty there that we signed up for a cooking class with one of the chefs for tomorrow. That night we ate dinner at its sister restaurant (and supposedly the first restaurant ever to open in Hoi An), Mermaid. After lunch, it was time to check out the scene Hoi An is known for - tailor made clothing. We'd heard that you can get pretty much any item of clothing custom made at one of the many shops and have it ready in only a few days. Scott and I went to one of the bigger and more well known shops and were persuaded into having coats made (even though we're missing most of winter back home!). I settled on a green peacoat, while Scott designed himself a snazzy corduroy jacket. He also ended up getting some linen shirts made to help beat the heat, and I decided to have them create a duplicate of my ruined skirt. Watching Scott bargain with the ladies about the cost of our items was hysterical; I definitely didn't help him in the process because I couldn't help but laugh and joke around with them. I've noticed the shop owners/workers are pretty easygoing and friendy, but they're tough to bargain with! Hopefully everything turns out to our liking and we get a good price. We'll see when we go back for our fitting tomorrow!

After dinner last night, we wandered around the city, which was beautifully lit up by tons of lanterns in the trees. We're not sure if it's decorated like this all the time or if it has something to do with the Full Moon Festival happening tomorrow night. In any case, it makes the city quite lovely and romantic. Apparently this festival takes place once every month, but we have yet to discover what it's really all about. I'll keep you posted!

It's hard to believe on this day last month Scott and I were getting married...time sure does fly by! 😊

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