Jamie Does Vietnam - Drink! Drink! Drink!!

Asia » Vietnam » South Central Coast » Binh Thuan » Mui Ne
October 31st 2011

Published: November 11th 2011

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Jamie squeezing into his sleeper bunk

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 the midday mass even though there hasn’t been a Cao Dai pope since 1933. We then went for a decent lunch where we weren’t ripped off as we expected to be (cynical, us?!) before making our way to Cuchi.

The tunnels are an impressive feat and show the determination and resilience of a small group of agricultural villagers to fight for their land

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and freedom. In the 1960’s they stretched for 250kms almost from Saigon to the Cambodian border but nowadays you can only access about 200 metres of them. Originally they were built by the Viet Minh to provide shelter and a means of communication against the French in the 1940’s. The Viet Cong then developed them during the 1960’s to fight against the US and used them as living areas, storage facilities, trapdoors, weapons factories, hospital facilities and command centres. We got shown around by our fantastically-funny in an extremely dry-way guide Hai, and then ventured down into the tunnels, which have been widened and heightened to twice their original size to allow people like us down them. For someone like Jamie, at 6’3”, it was near on impossible to get through all the way and it made you realise quite how these people had been living all those years. It was an eye-opener and an interesting day and knackered from all the adventure, Saturday night involved movies and sofa action. Sunday however was a totally different story....

...Bloody Marys, beer, Jagerbombs, White Russians, beer, Gin Slings, Martinis, beer, Jagerbombs, beer, White Russians...

...So after a good old 12

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The sleeper bus

hour drinking session on Sunday involving the aforementioned list (justified by the rugby final and Jess and Chris’s birthday celebrations though I hasten to add) and 3 alarms through which Lisa slept, we managed to get to the bus on time, which of course turned up half an hour late. Typical. Anyway, the sleeper bus the lady had persuaded us to book turned out not to be the best option, for Jamie at least, who couldn’t even squeeze his legs into the allotted space, resulting in an uncomfortable 5 hour journey as opposed to the restful and relaxing one he was expecting. You must remember that most Vietnamese are about a foot shorter than him though and the likes of them and me slept soundly all the way there. There was the obligatory stop for the driver to fill his face and while waiting we were entertained by a little girl who looked like she had stuck her fingers in the plug socket. Cutie.

So the bus dropped us off in the “centre” of town (Mui Ne runs along a 12kilometere stretch of the beach so it doesn’t exactly have a centre. In fact, Mui Ne centre proper is

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The Royal Suite!

right at the end of the peninsula and is where the fishing village still remains) and we then had to get a taxi back the way we came a few kilometres to our abode for the next few days. The helpful taxi driver dropped us off on the main (and only) street and pointed us to a side road leading up a hill so poor old Ian had to lug our bag up to the top of a sand dune basically, sweating and tired.

But it was worth the effort as we walked through the front gate into a green and peaceful idyll. We were greeted by Jake and a refreshing glass of passion fruit smoothie, a menu to order lunch from that would be delivered from their sister restaurant, Red and Blue, and the news that we had all been upgraded – Jamie from a standard to junior suite and Ian and Lisa to the royal suite (which was huge, the open plan bathroom taking up half the space and the bedroom and karaoke machine the other, plus a big balcony looking out down the hill to the beach and beyond). Nice! It was a good sign of

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things to come.

So fed (delicious salads for Lisa and Jamie, yummy curry for Ian), watered and showered, we thought it would be rude not to have a beer to celebrate the beginning of our holiday. John (one of Ian’s workmate’s brother’s boyfriend) came and met us as planned and we chilled on the balcony, drinking, chatting and recovering from the night before, in preparation for the dinner being held at Red and Blue that night.

Still feeling pretty ropey but a little more up for it after a few bevvies, we mosied on down to Red and Blue to find everyone already there waiting for us. Oooops! We ended up sat at the end of the table next to a nice older couple from the States who were leaving the following day and Eric and Long, the owners of the guesthouse and restaurant, who we got chatting too, and lovely people they turned out to be too. Eric is from Belgium but has been living in Asia for a long time, and Long is his Vietnamese hubby. So we got to know each other, finding out about past lives and future hopes while supping away on some

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of the most delicious Mojitos any of us had tasted. The food was excellent – proper Vietnamese dishes, of which we can’t remember any of the names – but they tasted fantastic – some kind of salad, followed by spiced pork wrapped in leaves and BBQ’ed, fresh prawn salad wraps, then a soup/broth with the most succulent beef wrapped around cheese and quails eggs and some yum fruit to finish it off. Mmmmmmm, mmmmmmmm!! We then headed to the bar and pumping techno tunes (?) for more drinks. By midnight though, Lisa was starting to flag so got a free bike ride home while Ian and Jamie stayed, drinking shots and having a long overdue catch up.

The next day, Ian didn’t surface till the afternoon, so after a great brekko of eggs, toast, jam, peanut butter, a mound of fruit, smoothie and coffee (diet was on hold this week!!), Jamie, Lisa and John wandered down the hill to check out what Mui Ne had to offer. Turns out not much apart from places to eat, drink and people watch – perfect. We walked to C2Sky, a kitesurf school, where we met up with Olivia, one of the peeps

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staying at the guesthouse, and got chatting to folks there, contemplated doing their cooking course (never did!), watched some kiters and then all decided it was time to eat again. So on the recommendation of the guys at C2Sky, we walked down the beach to Lam Tong, a beachside restaurant serving cheap but tasty delights. The service however was not so delightful, as the waiting staff all seemed to have had personality lobotomies as well as their hearing and eyesight removed. No tip for those boys. Ian came and met us there for some food and then we cruised slowly back along the beach to the guesthouse, glad to be there in low season as the beach is pretty narrow and you could only imagine what it would be like high season, packed full of people.

The evening was spent sitting around, chatting, drinking and chilling, as the sun went down and the stars came out. Being on top of the hill means you get a lovely breeze so it never feels stiflingly hot as it can do down on the beach road. The vibe at the guesthouse was great as everyone staying there was on the same wave

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length and we all got on great. In fact, Eric said he’d never had a group of people staying there who got on so well, instantly. So there was the 3 of us, Olivia the English chick I mentioned before who was in Mui Ne for 3 months to kitesurf, Fred and Chanty, a lovely coupe from Holland who have been living in Oz for a few years and TJ and Julie, an American couple who are travelling the world for who knows how long. Other people came and went but this was the core group for the week and we settled in nicely. The staff were also very sweet and the whole place just had a real homely charm that made most people extend their stays by at least a day or two. John became a guest by proxy as he refused to pay more than $7 a night for accommodation, so slept in a hole down the road while spending the days and evenings lapping it up at the guesthouse. Cheapskate indeed.

The rest of the week followed this pattern pretty much – yummy food, relaxing, reading, chilling, chatting, sunbaking, swimming, drinking, sleeping – not in any

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View from our room over the bay

particular order, just as and when you fancied it. It’s probably the laziest holiday Lisa’s ever been on (she didn’t even make it to the sand dunes, the only real thing to see in Mui Ne, but she is going back for sure so can do it all next time) but both Ian and Jamie needed some relaxation time after working/studying so hard the last few months and relax they did.

The time came to leave and we all ended up staying an extra day, with Ian (much more well slept) leaving on the Friday, Lisa (much browner) on the Saturday and Jamie (much more hungover – so much so that he couldn’t even make it out on his last night in Saigon) on the Sunday.

Since we’ve left however, we’ve seen that part of the guesthouse has collapsed where they had been doing construction work below so it looks like we left at the right time. Luckily no one was hurt but it’s scary to think what could have happened had we all been there sitting around the pool as we had been a few days before. Even so, we will return for sure, probably when the

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Guesthouse Number 2 on the rise

high season ends in February so we can avoid the masses again. We fear that it’s one of those places, like Bali or Goa, which will have completely changed in 10 years time so we should get our fill in while we can.

Thanks Mui Ne Guesthouse, we had an awesome time!! And thank you Jamie for a fun-filled two weeks. It was lovely getting to know you and remember there's always a room here for you x

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