Slept through a Typhoon!

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We met an old man on the bus from the USA, who didn't stop talking for the 5 hours it took to get there. He was pretty interesting though, and it made the ride go faster a little bit. He's been living in Viet Nam for 10 years and he loves to complain about them. It's funny cause he feels he can change the slowly but surely!

Mui Ne is a beautiful stretch of beach. Very touristy and not so very Vietnamese, I was kind of dissapointed about this part. The scenery was beautiful but the waves were gigantic making it impossible to swim in. I wondered why they would build a beach resort community in such an area.

What makes Mui Ne famous is the sandunes that are nearby. It's strange because they look like they've been imported straight from Egypt. We were lucky enough to find some moto drivers for a full day tour of the dunes and canyons for $6.00 each. That equals to less than a dollar and hour, and gas is the same price here as it is at home. It feels weird paying them at the end, I also feel I'm ripping them off. But I guess thats a days pay here.

The Sandunes were really cool. We rented some "sandboards" to slide down the dunes and went nuts for a while. Lots of fun.....actually not as fun as it sounds but still pretty cool.

Mui Ne is actually pretty boring. After seeing the Sandunes there's not much to do except sit on the beach where you can't swim or eat at one of the many overpriced restaraunts. We went to a really nice restaraunt and had BBQ Seafood. We've learned that at the beach communities the seafood is unbelievable.

We stayed here for 2 days in a little beach hut. At the end of an uneventful night we did a bit of reading and went to bed. A few hours later we heard crashing of coconuts hitting the roof, our bathroom door was slamming shut, reopening and then slamming shut. The shutters on our window were doing the same. Branches were breaking. The sound of the rain pouring on the roof. The worst sound was the waves from the ocean coming crashing to shore in a thunderous boom and the wind howling. Finally the power went out.

We've been travelling for 2 months now and it has really only rained twice on us for like 10 minutes each time. I thought to myself this is just our first storm. I knew storms out here were pretty intense at the best of times so I figured it was no big deal. Something did seem wrong though so I told Jasmine to keep some clothes nearby in case the roof of the place blew off and we had to leave right away. For about 20 minutes we lyed awake in bed, it sounded terrible out there. I was pretty nervous but somehow convinced myself to go back to sleep.

The next morning we awoke we saw the destruction it left. It wasn't so bad but there were branches and coconuts everwhere. Flipped over signs. A roof had blown off a beach hut. And the road somehow transformed into a beach, I guess from all the sand blowing onto it.

There was talk all around town of Typhoon Durian. A typhoon is the same as a Hurricane. This is the first time anyone has told us about it. We really had no idea that the waves were that big because of the storm aproaching or that people were being evacuated. Our guesthouse just must have forgot to tell us *shrug*

Appearantly Typoon Durian has killed 1500 people in the Philipines. And a few hundred in Viet Nam. Particularly in a village right by us. It's destroyed 40 000 homes in the Mekong Delta. I guess we were luckier than we thought to just sleep through it!

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Photos

At one of Mui Ne's canyons
It's a strange lunar landscape that I would've never guessed would be in Viet Nam

Jazzy & I
@ the Sandunes

The road after the Typhoon
We woke up and the beach whole had moved!

The road after the Typhoon
Different view

On the road again!
Stopped for a pic on the ocean

Comments

[yo mama]

hi kids
the beach looks beautiful