Blogs from Mui Ne, Binh Thuan, South Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 5

Well, not quite deserts but vast collections of sand, which when encountered from their respective centres, give the distinct feeling of what it would be like to be stranded in the middle of an arid abyss; tiny grains of sand whipping into your eyes, nose and mouth at speeds fast enough to inflict a decent amount of pain on your skin! And then of course there’s the heat! But, I’m getting ahead of myself in this tale... A few days earlier We left Cambodia with torn feelings; sadness at saying goodbye to friends, co-workers and students who we had grown very fond of over the previous three months – but also excitement, not just with the prospect of entering a new country on our horizon after months of relative standstill, but also with Amy’s father again ... read more

As a solo traveller you experience the most tremendous highs and roughest lows. The places you go to can feed the soul with beautiful sceneries and fascinating culture but certain events can destroy your confidence and the people you meet can tarnish those moments or enrich them. Muine was one of those good experiences, the people I met have contributed greatly to that enjoyment. The experiences we share with others clearly impact our perceptions of places and the way we choose to deal with them, either negative or positive, alter the way we remember them. Travelling alone is still scary, still daunting and leaves a female solo traveller vulnerable. I have met people who have been so affected by negative events, such as muggings, they become a shadow of their former self. One such example is ... read more

The trip to Mui Ne was… scary. The bus driver was a raving lunatic and I’d bet £1,000 that he’s never passed any sort of driving test or that he was auditioning for Speed 3. The bus spent most of the journey on two wheels bombing through small villages, past schools, disabled kids and animal sanctuary’s. The only respite was a very unnecessary stop at a restaurant in Mui Ne village, clearly a friend of the bus driver. Once the bus arrived to the main strip in Mui Ne we disembarked to the usual rabble of moto taxi’s trying to scab a dollar here and there. I met Cass again in Mui Ne, who had travelled on another bus and we set off rather ambitiously in search of suitable accommodation with our backpacks on in midday ... read more

It was time for Lisa to finally meet Jamie, one of Ian’s friends from their younger days, who was stopping by in Vietnam on the way back from the UK to Oz. From the title of this blog you can probably tell what we did for most of the time he spent with us, but we did manage to fit in a few other things too. Lisa and Jamie got their cultural fix by going on a day-trip to see the Cao Dai Great Temple and Cuchi Tunnels while Ian had to earn our drinking money. Cao Daism is a Vietnamese religious group that fuses aspects of both Eastern and Western philosophies, with influences from Chinese mythology, Buddhism, Christianity and Taoism. Guess they just couldn’t make up their minds. The temple is huge and we saw ... read more

We got the bus really early this morning, we had arranged for a 8.15 pick up and we were there on time but after waiting 10 mins the guy was like you were late you will have to walk to the bus station it is just around the corner! Needles to say that was like a red flag to a bull as we were all there on time, ad we each had 20kg on our backs! After some words the guy arranged for a taxi to bring us around. So we got on the bus and off we went it was a five or six hour drive very uneventful. When we got to Mui Ne we were left at the hotel that belonged to the agency that we booked through and obviously it was really expensive ... read more