China and Beyond XVII - Nha Trang and Mui Né - Vietnam

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It was tough to leave Hoi An so quickly. It had become a very restful city...the weather was predictable...each day around 1:00 pm, it would rain like Hell for awhile then stop. It was a way to tell time so you didn't have to carry your watch. But as comes with travel, the time to move on was at hand. It was surprisingly easy...taxi to DaNang then fly down the coast to Nha Trang and a whole new area and mentality. The flight down the coast was routine and uneventful until the approach to the city when turbulence seemed a little excessive but the air over the jungle immediately next to the cooler air over the ocean created a bumpy ride that everyone else seemed unconcerned with...so I tried to ignore it but was extremely happy to touch down. The taxi ride from the airport is long...it cost about 90,000 dong to my hotel. The Golden Hotel in Nha Trang is one block off the beach and on a strip with many restaurants and a couple of clubs in the neighbourhood. The hotel included a very passable breakfast and free internet but also a stairwell that not only echoed but seemed to amplify sound....AND children from all countries seem to love a fun stairwell. The beach is sparsely used and fairly clean and the waves are manageable for swimmers. I had only two days here but think, like Hué, it deserves much more...in Nha Trang there seems to be much more than first meets the eye...from great scuba and snorkelling to historical sites and attractions...besides the restaurants and clubs. My next trip to Vietnam will include a week in Nha Trang. The bus trip to Mui Né is about six hours. There is some scenery but the drive from Hué to Hoi An was the highlight of my coastal trip by land. When I first arrived in Mui Né I was not happy. It had just rained heavily and I could not get a taxi and my only option remained a motorcycle taxi. With a heavy backpack pulling me backwards every time the driver shifted gears, we pulled into a modest resort called Hoang Kim Golden Resort. It is a cool little, family run business with decent food in a large, open restaurant/check-in area. For twenty-two dollars, I got a great room with lots of hot water and satellite TV in a nice, quiet corner of the resort. It has a small heated pool and there is free internet and a free pool table in the restaurant as well. The easiest way to get around the area is..of course..to rent a motorbike. I did that and soon discovered that it is not Mui Né that is a highlight..it is the small things around it. The Sand Dunes, both red and white are worth a look but no one even suggested to me how many kids can hit on you at once so you buy your plastic sheet from them. I pulled in at the Red Dunes and was immediately swamped by children so I said I was going for gas and would come back...fat chance...it was a zoo. The White Dunes, on the other hand are a little more remote and so the perpetual sales ploys are not quite as bothersome. I ended up with an over-priced plastic sheet with a short rope for steering and two escorts I didn't ask for. Two little girls..sisters I would guess..followed me out into the dunes...it is quite a sight. If you look ahead, you will think you are in the Sahara. There is even a tree-ringed lake in a typical oasis setting. The walk to the top was tedious...the sliding was slow ...and the bottom ended abruptly...it was fun going down but there is no chairlift or rope tow to get back to the top. Aha...hence the two little girls..they come to the bottom and roll up your plastic and drag you back up to the top...the more rides they get you to do..the bigger their tip. I was happy to have them there..even if I didn't ask for them or even know why they went out to the dunes with me. Even with that, I only did two runs...the heat and humidity combined with the heat from the sand and effort to go back up the hill were too much for me. After running the child-guanlet back to my motorbike, I headed back to Mui Né. The city itself is very non-descript...it was like an old Wild West type town, Vietnamese style. There was not much there to stop me...it looked like a tough town. Phan Thiet, on the other hand is a regular city..many sites...riverside docks....fishing fleet...city market...it has heart...when I return to this area, I will stay in Phan Thiet and not Mui Né...the evenings in the resort were dull with limited things to do except eat...and the city seemed to lack amenities like bars and clubs. Not so Phan Thiet...it even has a beautiful golf course...and the beach is broad and the water warm. The coast along the way from Mui Né to Phan Thiet is unfortunately, like most of the coast of Vietnam. Big resorts muscling in side by side leaving not much to be desired of the natural flora and fauna...it is the way of the future. In the end, I liked Mui Né for the things I could do with a small motorbike...the villages in the mountains are interesting and prosperous, the people friendly and go out of their way to wave as you go by. I found a really cool bar next to a small creek with a soft, sandy bed...easy for walking. The creek led to a small waterfall...great place to meditate awhile then have a beer on your way back...apparently down the creek some ways, you can swim in a small pool but I didn't want to leave the motorbike. There's a fantastic beach on the way to the White Dunes...no people...nice waves...no shade but beats the unswimmable beaches in Mui Né. After four nights, I boarded a bus for Ho Chi Minh City...I still call it Saigon, as do many people that live there...it was a four hour bus ride that turned into at least eight...the traffic jam for HCMC seemed to start on the other side of Phan Thiet...the driver did a good job working his way through but it was futile. But it had to be done.

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