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Published: October 31st 2005
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Zen
Feeling a little Buddhist? Dalat/Mui Ne/Nha Trang
Dalat is the "kitsch capital" of Vietnam, a European-style city founded by frenchmen up in the mountains. Although going somewhere cold (or at least somewhere where I could maybe put my fleece to use) seemed like a quaint idea, the novelty quickly wore off as along with the cooler temperatures came rain. The city itself was also nothing particularly special; it did have winding, Spanish-feeling streets, and some amusing kitsch crap, but really it was a city much like any other, and I definately did not fall in love with it. Outside the city, however, was some of the most stunning natural scenery I've seen thus far, which we got to explore on a jeep tour out into the countryside. We went to a Buddhist meditation centre on a lake with the most stunning mountains views and flowered gardens, two waterfalls (I'm still reeling from the hike to get to them), a coffee plantation, and the "Valley
of Love" - how romantic. Although the mountains and views were absolutely gorgeous, we didn't see much reason to stay too long in Dalat, so quickly headed off to the beach... A little ansy to get to the backpacker party town of Nha Trang, hoping to meet up with the Irish boys we'd partied with in Saigon.
Mui Ne, the first beach stop on my Vietnam itinerary, was gorgeous, but definately had a coupley/romantic vibe. There are entirely too many cutesey happy couples traveling around, I feel left out. The weather wasn't the best, but I did manage to spend a couple of hours on the beach and pick up a little colour before the rain set in! Highlights of Mui Ne include a fantastic fish BBQ we had at a local restaurant, where our server was the cutest little girl I've ever seen, with flawless English and impeccable manners. Even if the food hadn't been delish I would have gone back just to "awww" over the girl. The next day Marlo and I rented bicycles to go check out the rolling sand dunes for which Mui Ne is famous, but unfortunately the way was not clearly marked
Happy couple
Avoiding the infamous "Dalat cowboys" and although we ended up exhaustedly pushing our bikes through a sand dune, THE sand dunes that grace all the postcards were nowhere to be seen. It was nice to get exercise though and the expression on the faces of the locals when we appeared out of nowhere behind a bunch of homes, stumbling down off a dune in the middle of nowhere to get back to the main road, was priceless. Quickly fed up with the weather and just not overly enamoured of tiny Mui Ne, we decided to hightail it to Nha Trang, which actually proved to be more difficult than expected as our hotel wrongly told the bus company we were headed to Saigon! We clarified and the bus turned around and came back for us... Oops!
I knew that Nha Trang was going to be a bit of a debauchery-fest, but I had no idea of the extent of it! Running into two of the Irish as we literally stepped off the bus, we were invited into a social circle of about a dozen backpackers, and a dozen sort-of-backpackers who'd come to Nha Trang weeks or months ago and gotten stuck - most were
Moments of sun at 8 am
I really shouldn't complain working for dive companies. The next few nights are a blur - start off at one bar for its happy hour, head to the later happy hour, keep on working your way down the street until all the little joints close and then it's off to the Sailing Club, the place to dance, after that it's to Why Not?, the only bar which stays open past 2, and then when the staff there finally kick you out it's off to refuel at a 24-hour baguette stand to wait until 6 am, when the smaller places open up again... Let's just say it was fun, and my liver still hurts. The weather was rubbish for the entire duration so I had no chance to laze on the beach, but did manage to capitalize on a day without rain (just a whole lot of clouds) to take a boat trip to the nearby islands.
- Robin.
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