Blogs from Binh Thuan, South Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 3

Geo: 17.0849, 107.111I feel a sense of space and contentment. Warm breezes, a beach side hut, swimming in big waves, and delicious food everywhere we eat. Pho is the national soup, eaten at breakfast and other times of the day. The stock is the key. I've tried pho many times and had the best pho stock at a local, sand-floored restaurant here. It was absolutely amazingly delicious! Food in Vietnam is the best....We share laughter daily with the Vietnamese people - from our favourite corn vendor to the very friendly guy who works at the clothing store next door to us. Mui Ne is becoming the kite-surfing center in the world and we were mesmerized by the activity.Exhilaration.Above - colourful half moons dancing in the windBelow - speed, rooster tails of ocean sprayA graceful collection of ... read more

The bus journey from Da Lat seemed straight forward enough and we were just outside of Mui Ne when the driver lost control of the bus as he was texting, clipping the kerb hard which sent the left wheels of the bus over the central reservation, so just the right side wheels were on the road. Everything on the left side of the bus (including above the seats) came hurtling over to the right side (including people), luggage which had been stacked up at the back came flying forward hitting people while we all ducked and held on tightly, we thought the bus was going to topple over but it swerved and spun until it finally braked to a sharp stop in the middle of the road. The engine was smoking and everyone was a bit ... read more

We left the luxury and quiet of our resort and began our first leg on Highway 1, the long stretch of coastal road road, home to all the dreade open-tour buses. What we didn't know was that the road was in great condition, and was mostly flat, wide and empty. After buring through 40 km in an hour, we were feeling pretty confident until for no apparent reason, Sadie's chain came loose on the middle of a bridge. We wheeled it to the roadside, and before we had a chance to look at it ourselves, there was a small army of young guys on their way to go fishing pulling Sadie's bike appart. They sent a guy off to get some tools, took the chain aprt and had us going again in no time. We convinced ... read more

When we left the resort in Phan Thiet on November 22, we took a taxi a few miles north to the adjacent beach town of Mui Ne. We'd booked two nights at the beachfront Mui Ne Backpackers Guest House to give us a few days to regroup and plan our next move, while still enjoying the beach. We arrived and were greeted by John Jenkins, a delightfully enthusiastic ex pat from Australia who ran the guest house with his wife, a native of Vietnam. He was skyping with his grandkids in San Fransisco at the time of our arrival, but said "no worries," he could call them back later. He was thrilled to see that we shared a name when he looked at my passport, but I had to woefully inform him that Jenkins was no ... read more

The wrong kind of break Going to begin out of sequence, as something quite dramatic happened. We had just arrived in Mui Ne, which is a beach town in Vietnam. Our room wasn’t ready at the guest house, so we popped over the road for lunch. On our way back Louise slipped off a step and tumbled heavily, after which she couldn’t straighten her arms. So we pop down to the medical clinic where x-rays show two broken elbows. Bugger! Lou has to wear slings for at least three weeks, which means we can’t move on in that time – I can’t carry all the bags and Lou is still in a bit of pain. After the three weeks Lou has to have more x-rays to see how well they’ve healed. If it’s bad news we ... read more