Mui Ne, Dalat & Nha Trang - takin it easy

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Ok i'm gonna make this blog short as there hasnt really been much goin on in all honesty. Mui Ne is a one road town that hugs a never ending strip of beach, an average one at that, with a sea full of jellyfish. i spent my first day takin it really easy at my hotel on the beach, met up with an English guy and girl that i spent a bit of time with, mainly Gav the guy. he had spent the last 3 months in the Shaolin Academy which was interestin to hear about. we spent the first night at a bar/club and had a few drinks where i reaffirmed the fact that beer gives me a killer headache the next day.

the next day was spent pretty much the same chillin, readin, talkin, just takin some time out to do nothin.
on the last day me and Gav rented motorbikes and went to see the sand dunes. around 30k out of town there is a big lake with massive sand dunes that sit behind it in the middle of an otherwise fertile landscape. its pretty strange that they are there really. on the way we went for a walk up a spring water stream that lead to a little waterfall. it had mostly sand at its base with the odd rock that stabbed u unexpectadly and was very warm, it was baking hot that day and we came across someone on the way that had passed out from heat stroke. we got to the waterfall and i climbed to the top while gav chilled at the bottom when a massive (6ft) snake came gushing down the falls and landd right next to G we trekked over them for a while haggling with the little kids who try to rent u little plastic sheets to go sledging down the dunes, despite the fact that from what we could see the Vietnemese were able to just obtain one without paying. in the end this little kid followed us the whole way badgerin us until he finally agreed to a reasonable price. Gav had done it the day before and almost ripped his little toe off so he opted out. i climbed to the highest dune and went shootin down on this little plastic sheet and fell off pretty quickly, climbed back up to the top and tried again head first this time, i made it to the bottom before i flew off where sand was forced into every orofice. i then went over to the second highest and lept off head first and managed to stay on the whole time but ended up with a couple of friction burns from the sand when i flew off at the bottom. a couple more slides and it was time to pay the kid who despite tellin me he had change suddenly didnt, i wasnt willing to let this one go and told him to come bk to the shop with me to get some, and after much sulky face and walking after me saying "money" repeatedly, i got some change off of a Vietnemese familly and payed him what we had agreed. he then had the ordasity to tell me "u no good" to which i replied (still smiling) "your no good".......... "F*ck u" was his reply and as i pretended to chase after him expecting him to run, he ran straight at me like he was ready to kick off (he was brave i give him that). so now with the only option of gettin physical with this kid i had to just walk away while he continued the verbals, wanting to teach this kid a lesson but not quite knowing how i ended up givin him the finger in frustration, it sounds slightly pathetic when i right it back but what do u do with a 10 year old thats givin u this type of shit. we laughed it off and went for some food and headed to the red sand dunes that are back nearer town. there were tonnes of kids there aswell, doin the same, when we had stopped there earlier they all lept onto our bikes like wild monkeys and started reving our engines, 4 of them on each bike with more trying to clamber on. luckily it had quietened down when we got there but it was too cloudy for a sunset so we headed back and took it easy as my bus was collecting me early the next morning.

5 hours to Dalat in the Central Highlands 2000m above sea level and markedly colder, i had for the first time to wear my fleece to keep warm. i had read that this was a very quaint little town in the mountains and was expecting something similar to Luang Prabang however it was just a normal town with all the usuall stuff. the surrounding scenery however was beautiful and on the second day me and a couple of lads from Essex did a tour where we visited a coffee plantation, silk making factory (we actually saw how the silk is extracted from the worms), rice wine factory, vegetable plantation, flower gardens and the most impressive waterfall i think i've seen all trip. lastly we took a trip on a cable car over the forest for some panoramic views of the countryside and headed back to the hotel. we got some food that evening from a little street vendor and sat on plastic chairs in a spot that smelt of piss. we then headed over to one of the only places left open and had a few beers and watched Man U Newcastle with a couple of locals.

Dalat had nothing much else worth staying for so we got the bus the next mornin to Nha Trang (another beach resort type place). checked into a nice hotel with 3 beds for $5 each with a view of the sea and went for a jog with Andy along the beach promonade to remind myself to start gettin back into a fitness routine. we booked some diving for the next day, then managed to loose them both and went in search of food. i found a restaurant that did 'black Beer', ate the most amazin steamed fish with ginger, and what turned out to be a pint of stout (nice!), for less than 2 quid all in, and carried on my exploring. i stumbled upon a place that does ipod uploads and had a interesting convo with the English guy who runs it that filled my ipod with documentaries on various things from Egypt to 911 for free when i ordered a few movies.
i ended up bumpin into Andy and Duncan and headed over to a club on the beach that serve 'jam jars' (an oversized plastic jam jar full of alcohol) instead of buckets and ended up with some kind of allergic reaction to it that covered my face in a rash. luckily Andy happened to have an anti histamine on him and within 20 odd minutes i was back to normal, for a while it wasnt pretty tho.

after a late night we dragged our arses out of bed to go diving and was pleasently surprised by what we found, it was no Great Barrier Reef but for $50 or 12pound50 a dive it was definately worth every penny. there were Moray eel, lobster, a huge jellyfish being attacked by a load of needle fishand a few other things that i forget the names of now, the coral was also pretty good. we got back to shore and an Ozzie guy on his honeymoon that we mwt diving bought us all a beer before we headed back to the room and had a nap to catch up on the lack of sleep from the previous night. that night ended up bein a late one where much rum was consumed, 30p for a double is dangerous! at one point we were playing twister outside one of the bars, i lost Duncan (Andy wasnt feelin well and didnt come out) and as the sun came up i stumbled home with grazes on my knees from falling over (the pavement was bad, although i had no problem when i was sober 😊

we checked out and booked our buses ro Hoi An chilled on the beach for a bit and me and Andy spent the Afternoon in a resaurant after gettin some lunch there before it started raining, so the beach got exchanged for an hour or so on the net, until it was time to catch our bus.

so 10/11 hours after a night of broken sleep (at least i saved on a nights accomodation) i'm now in Hoi An the land of tailors and i'm not quite sure what else yet. i only know that so far at least half the shops i've seen have been tailors, how they all stay in business is a mystery but hey.

until next time there's nothin more to say than MUCH LOVE and i'll catch u on the wire!

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Photos

Dalat!
the landscape in Dalat was breathtakin

Monkey at sand dunes
for a small monkey he swigged a fair amount of 7up and green tea, although a lot did just pour all over him

Mui Ne
There be a storm brewin

massive jelly fish
this mother was washed up on the beach u cant really see in this pic but its the size of a car tyre!

millions of tiny balls of silk
apparently one worm produces a km of silk

Amazin waterfall
u could feel the spray from this distance