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Published: October 26th 2005
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4am Noodles
Our friend here in the starsky & hutch shirt woke his wife up to cook noodles for us. It was his idea...worked for us! Mui Ne is a quaint little town along the coast of Vietnam, well known for its numerous tailor shops, beautiful narrow streets, and white sand beaches.
We had a 12 hour bus ride from Nah Trang to Mui Ne. It was crazy, but went by in a flash because we are so used to these bus rides now. The road was extreemly narrow and windy, about 1.5 lanes wide, and on the side of a cliff that fell (a really really long way) down to the ocean. It was dark out, and the driver used the typical technique of roaring around blind corners while laying on the horn. As the g-force throws us to one side of the bus around the blind corner, the only thing we can think about is the potential outcome if a bus was coming the other way.
The bus would often overtake other vehicles when oncoming traffic was just seconds away, veering over to cut into our lane at the LAST second. One attempt was aborted, resulting in our bus slamming on the breaks and a very lucky motorcycle driver.
We arrived in Mui Ne, and were blown away by the amout of
Sewing Machine
Used to make my 2 jackets and shorts! The girl was able to finish them in just a couple of hours. tailors. There are hundreds of tailor shops in the town, and many streets have 5-10 shops in a row. As you walk by the store, the employees call at you to come in and take a look. There are racks upon racks of different fabrics, and many examples to choose from.
I decided to have a cashmere wool suit made, a wool coat, a courdoroy jacket, 2 shirts, and a pair of shorts for less than $150 bucks. What a Bargain! The best thing is that all the clothing is tailor made to my measurments!
We spent a couple days in Mui Ne having clothes made and sipping on 10 cent beers. For 2 days, all we ate were 25 cent sandwhiches from stands on the street... as well as fruits and vegetables (Im still eating healthy mom).
One night as we were sitting on a patio outside a restaurant, we watched the tide rise into the streets! They haven't bothered building some sort of a wall to prevent this - driving your motorcycle every night through 1.5 feet of water is no big deal in Mui Ne.
After the restaurant, we made our way to
Tailor Shop
Some roads had 10-15 of these in a row. Everytime you walk by a store, they call you to come in. It's funny walking down 1 street and have about 15 tailors, 10 motorbike drivers, and 8 food stands harrass you! the "Full Moon Bar" out in the country side. We stayed for a few hours meeting other travellers, playing pool, and listening to music. When we wanted to leave, the motorcycle drivers were requesting 6 times more money than we originally paid to get there. (Vietnemese rip us off as often as they can). We told them to forget it and started a looong trek home.
About 20 mins into our trek, 2 locals stopped on a motorcycle and offered us a ride for 15,000 Dong. That sounded great....but how are they going to fit 2 more grown men onto one little motorcycle? Easy....you have to squish. It was a cramped ride, I burnt my feet on the exhaust a few times - but the most important thing is that we got home for cheap.
Mui Ne does not have Tuk Tuk drivers, instead it has motorcycle drivers who are just as bad at harrassing us. The only words that you hear coming out of their mouthes are "motorcycle!" "where you go!" "You smoke marijuana?" and "soapy massage!". As you walk down the street, they will all holler at you and smile, several of them a block. If
Tailor Shop
This is the girl that made some of my clothing. they cant offer you a ride, they will try to offer a service where they recieve a commission, and get to drive you there. Sometimes I answer "maybe later" hoping that they will leave. They wont. They will follow you forever.
On our last night in Mui Ne, we were coming back from the bar at about 4am and a local man wearing a Starsky & Hutch shirt offered to take us into his place for noodles. We were very skeptical, but we had lots of people with us and he seemed very nice. When we went into his place, he woke his wife up and told her to cook 6 bowls of noodles!! As he lay back on his hammok (this is what most vietnemese men do all day and night) his wife cooked up a big meal and served us a bowl each, followed by bananas and tea. They were so hospitable, a very nice change from all of the people trying to rip us off.
At the end of our stay I found a hotel that we could sneak into for a free pool and all you can eat buffet breakfasts. It was quite nice
Enjoying the 20 cent beers
The tide was a little high this evening... - orange juice, coffee, muffins, jam, eggs, bacon, noodles, all kinds of fruit, baguettes, and croissants. I certainly took advantage of not having to eat cheap sandwhiches and stuffed myself.
After Mui Ne, we did a marathon 17 hour bus ride to Hanoi. On our way, we stopped in a city called Hue for lunch. As we walked off the bus, a lady called for us to go into her restaurant. She sold me in seconds and figured I must be some sort of a sucker, so then she tried to sell me everything she could think of. After finding out that we didnt have enough time in Hue to do a tour with her, and that we had already bought a bus ticket to our next destination, she sent her husband out to sell us paintings. We werent interested, so she offered us cigarettes. Still not interested, so she asked if I was still hungry and tried to sell me water and a fruit shake. Still not interested, so her husband tried to sell me a motorcycle ride back to the bus stop (it was only 2 mins away). After hearing nothing but no from us, we were
useless to her and she kicked us out of her shop.
We are nothing but walking dollar bills to many of the people here.
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Ann -Chicago Il
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Hello young Tim, your Mum told me about your blog site and I am enjoying reading about your exploits. I intend to read all of them and gave Michael your blogsite address.I love the pictures, it makes it jusy enthralling! Keep safe and have a good trip home. Geri said that you might go to Australia. My sister Maggie lived there for about 2 years and travelled in Thailand, Hong kong and other places i expect. Ed and I just got back from a great trip to Missouri, Hannibal, Lake of the Ozarks and Branson. Bye, Ann Phillips