Beach time

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Enjoyed Saigon, went to the tunnels just outside of the city that the Vietnamese lived in during the war - was fascinating, couldn't believe how small they were and how clever the Vietnamese had been building them. I couldn't go down them without feeling too claustrophobic, had a look down but left the crawling along tiny tunnels in the dark to braver people!

We also went to the Mekong Delta for the day which was great, quite touristy but did give you a glimpse into Vietnamese culture. Got to see the fishing villages and the people who live on the islands in the delta. Found the culture here very interesting so far, the women here wear what look like pajamas all day - it reminds me of Lucie my sister who would happily wear pajamas all day.

Was glad to leave Saigon, was a little bit too mad with the constant noise from traffic. The city is very 24/7 and feels safer than we expected it to which is nice. What I found different was in our hotel which they call a 'mini-hotel' here, most shops/restaurants in the main touristy areas have a hotel above them and they call it a mini-hotel. Either way when we came in past midnight, the front of our hotel (which was a restaurant) had it's shutters down and you had a ring a door bell. A few minutes later someone (who inevitably looked half asleep) would open up, and inside the restaurant they would have moved all the chairs and would have about 5 people asleep on the chairs and floors. Was quite strange but apparently is the case for everywhere in Saigon.

So headed to Mui Ne from Saigon, it's a relatively quiet beach resort, famous for being perfect for kite surfing. We're staying in a place that has little bungalows on the beach which is lovely! The beach is nice, but the currant is very strong and you can't really swim and it's very windy during the day (hence it being perfect for kite surfers) so makes reading onto the beach a bit of an extreme sport. Just taken some time out here, the Vietnamese love hammocks and they have them everywhere, so spent the last few days reading in the shade - looking very lazy compared to the hoards of kite surfers!

Got up this morning and got a motorbike taxi at 4am to go and see the sand-dunes in the surrounding area during the sunrise before the winds pick up and the tourists move in. Was pretty cool driving along with beautiful scenery and it being nice and cool. The first dunes we went to were 'white' dunes and it was nice, although not amazingly mind altering or anything, nice to watch the sunrise. We then went to the 'red' dunes, by this point it was about 6.30am and there were literally thousands of Asian tourists there so didn't really have the same calm desert feel to the last dunes!

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