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Published: October 27th 2009
Welcome back blog fans,
So last time we wrote the blog we were just about to go to the Mud Spa in Nha Trang. We rented a Moped from the hotel and I drove us to the Mud Spa which was a really interesting experience driving on the Vietnamese roads, particularly as they drive on the right, I’ve only driven a moped once before and I had Kate on the back! We got to the Mud spa in one piece with no close calls, apart from…….no we were fine, just a few shouts from me to Kate such as “stop wobbling back there” and “are we clear to go”.
The mud spa was great. It was very much like an entrance to a water park, you pay, walk through the gates, grab a towel, put your belongings into a locker and put on your swimming shorts/bikini. After that we were set and itching to jump into the mud. We found our way to the mud area where a guy filled a large bath (see pic) with mud, we waited until it was half full and jumped in. It was a really hot day but we were luckily under a
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THe "Hog"tree in the shade. It smelt a bit suspect (the same as the mineral water in Bath Pump rooms for anyone who has experienced that before) but it felt lovely. We spent about 30 minutes like pigs in the mud until it was our time to move onto the sunbathing area where we lay in the sun in order for the mud to have time to bake to our bodies, I choose to sit in the shade as I just get so hot in the sun but the mud still baked on. We then jumped into the hot mineral shower (basically a hot outdoor shower) to wash off all of the mud, then onto the hot mineral jets (see pics) and then finally into a VERY hot bath, and for those who know me, I’m not really a hot bath kinda guy, more of a cold shower. Kate really loved the hot bath and we stayed in it for around 25. We then went to the swimming pool which was a staggering 38 degrees. A great time was had by all and we loved our morning pampering our bodies!
We drove the hog (see pic) around the local area
to explore a little and then retired back to the hotel to chill out for a while before heading out for the evening into Nha Trang. We felt like something a bit less Vietnamese tasting so we headed to a great Indian restaurant, which on the face of it looked a bit dingy, but it was the best Indian I think we have ever had, Omar’s Indian restaurant and definitely worth a visit if you ever come to Nha Trang. Dave you would have loved it, particularly as the beer was a mere 30p for a large bottle.
The next day we got the bus from Nha Trang to Mui Ne. Mui Ne is a much smaller beach resort to that of Nha Trang, it is more laid back and a lot less “touristy”. The Journey took 6 hours (including a stop at the services) which is now a breeze in comparison to the 12 hour marathons we are now used to. The sick bands again worked great for me, however someone else on the bus could have done with a pair. The reason I know this is that I was quietly minding my own business having a sleep
in my reclined chair, with my inflatable head pillow around my neck when I felt a something on my leg. I woke up and saw the young German boy sitting in front of me vomiting onto his seat which in turn seeped through the gap at the bottom of the chair onto my leg. Now that was a test for the bands!!! We offered him my spare bands but the mother declined….
We got into Mui Ne and hired another moped to check out the area and the hotels. We went into a few and they were all great but somewhat over our budget. We had almost succumbed to choosing a more expensive hotel when I saw one that looked great. We pulled the hog up and Kate jumped off the back to enquire of the cost and it was just in budget so we checked out the rooms before we agreed to stay. The receptionist took us through to the back of the hotel to show us our room, as we were walking though we saw none other that, yes you have guessed it, Paddy and Dee our favourite friendly Irish couple. Be Jesus I thought, what are
the chances of seeing those guys again (Hi Dee and Paddy, I hope you got back safe and sound), so with that we signed on the dotted line and check in for 3 nights. This place was great, rather than describe it just check out the pics. We spent the day chilling around the pool with P & D, it was a great “crack” (in my best Irish accent again!).
The next day we again chilled, after all this moving around it was nice just to relax, it began to feel like we were on a 2 week holiday as it was sooooo nice. That evening it was P & D’s last night in Mui Ne/with us so we all went out for a slap up dinner. Dee knew of a great little fish restaurant close to the hotel, so we headed over to it. For those of you that know Kate you will know that in the past she has not been the biggest seafood fan, however in the past few weeks things have started to change and sea food is becoming a more regular feature in her diet. So anyhow we sat down and ordered a real
feast, Tiger prawn, Squid and one whole lobster (see pic). Paddy and I took the mans role and “hunted” the food, well we were given the task by the girls of taking all the meat out of the lobster, I think they will agree that we did a “grand job” (Irish accent). Kate really enjoyed the Lobster, but I have told her not to become to accustom to it once we leave Asia. We had lots to drink that evening and had sore heads in the morning…. So, as we were feeling a bit tired with sore heads we decided we “needed” another tough day relaxing on the beach for the most part, however in the morning we went to the sand dunes. Basically there are a number of sand dunes about 3 miles outside Mui Ne. We took the hog to the sand dunes, I pulled up and we were immediately accosted by around 10 young children offering for us to rent their plastic sand boards, they were thin plastic sheets about 1.5m x ½ m x 4mm with rope tied onto one end (see pic). We were offered to rent the boards for $10 (an evening meal including
beers is generally $6) which was very steep, the kids had obviously been trained in the art of ripping off a tourist so we haggled as best as we could and with Kate’s winning line of “who wants to earn a dollar” not working we eventually got it down to $2 each, which was still way over the odds but after a while you just want to get on with it. So, we had our boards and our two assistants, mine was named “John” (really?) 10 yrs old and Kate’s was named Tou 7 yrs old. They carried our boards to the top of the dunes and asked us to take our shoes off, sit on the board and then they pushed us and we went flying down the dune, we did this a couple of times which was a real laugh (see pics) and then eventually could not be bothered to walk back up the dune as it was so tiring to do in the hot sun. We gave the kids an extra dollar each for their troubles but the little boy “John” still wanted more but the girl told Kate he was a snake in the grass and
not to trust him as he spent all his money on cigarettes and that was why he had black teeth already! So with that we made our way back to the bike. On approaching the bike about 5 kids decided to stand near it/sit on it, when I approached they asked for more cash for looking after the bike whilst we were on the dunes,. This time we stayed strong and only gave them ………..no we actually managed to stand up to these 10 year olds and got away with not paying, now that has got to be a first for us in Asia. Chilled around the pool for the rest of the day. In the evening we drove up and down, up and down, up and down the main street trying to decide on a restaurant for that evening - still need to work on our decision making skills!
In the morning we took a 4 hour bus journey to Saigon/HCMC and checked in to our slightly less luxurious hotel, it’s nice, but not nice like having a pool and on the beach front. We went straight out (2:00pm) to visit the American war museum. It was very
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View from room in Mui Ne interesting in many ways but depicted a totally biased view of the war and to be fair I thought a lot of it was complete fiction. (see pics) Whilst at the museum we ran into our American friends, Nate and Becca (Hi Guys, I hope Y’all are doing swell) of which we originally met on the dive trip. We got chatting and decided to go out for an evening meal and some drinks, so we set a time to meet at the “buffalo” bar near both of our hotels. We explored the city a bit more and have decided that we like Saigon more than any other large Asian city we have visited such as Hanoi and Bangkok, it is a great city with lots going on, the pavements are a lot bigger so you don’t have to walk on the road like in Hanoi and it just seems a lot more modern.
We met Nate and Becca and went out for a Mexican which was mentioned in our bible (lonleyplanet book) and it was really tasty, we also had cocktails which were “awesome”. We came back to the hotel and slept straight through till morning. Got up at
8:00 to make our way on our pre arranged tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. These tunnels are the tunnels built by the Viet Com in the Vietnam war. We took a bus for 2 hours (again it felt like only a 30 minute journey) with the rest of our tour group to the tunnels which are based about 50k out side HCMC, the reason it takes 2 hours is due to the traffic in the city. On route we stopped at a handcraft service station, which is a place where disabled Vietnamese people make anything ranging from vases to chopsticks (see pic). Most of these people were disabled or deformed because of Agent Orange dropped during the war, so it was extremely hard to see evidence of how 36 years on people are still battling from the after effects.
We had a guide for the tunnels who was very entertaining and called himself John Wayne. He took us around showing the different kind of tunnels and booby traps the Viet Com set. I tried to get down one tunnel but as you can see by the picture I wouldn’t fit. I was actually quite surprised that my legs,
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The Diving Gang bum and stomach made it down, but it was my chest that got stuck so I had to come back up. Kate managed to get her shoulders down but then popped back up (See pics). Half way around the tour we had the opportunity to shoot a gun, yes I repeat, shoot a gun. So, there was a choice, AK47, M16, hand guns, big machine guns, small machine guns etc, I chose to fire the AK47. I bought my bullets and headed down to the range with an American lad of a similar age. The noise was unbelievable so they were giving out ear protectors to those whom were actually shooting the gun. I loaded the gun and shot a few singles and then went for it with the automatic setting, it was an experience unlike any other I had before, the power of the gun was truly unbelievable (see pic). Kate opted not to shoot the gun along with most of the girls on the tour, strangely most of the guys were having the best time shooting the guns.
The tunnels are in 3 depths, 2 metres down, 6 meters down and 12 meters down. All were very
small and to go through then you needed to do a walk of which I have named the duck walk (see pics). We took the bus back to HCMC and headed out for a spot of lunch. We went to a Pho café, which is a traditional Vietnamese broth/noodle soup with beef in. Very tasty. On the way back to the hotel found a great patisserie and had another snack.
So that’s it for the first country on our trip, our time in Vietnam has come to an end, we have both really enjoyed this country and had some fantastic experiences here. Below is a brief run down of our time here……..
Our trip and facts.
Miles covered from Hanoi to HCMC:1800km
Beds slept in: 10 (including a sleeper train and sleeper bus)
Bus trips taken: 8
Train taken: 1
Nights eaten out: 21 out of 21
Cockroaches seen: 3
Rats seen: 1
Scammed: 1 time
Matt’s Sickness Count: 1
Matt Kate
Best location Mui Ne Nha Trang
Best hotel Sunrise Mui Ne Sunrise Mui Ne
Best experience Kayaking in Halong Bay Kayaking in Halong Bay
Worst experience Diving Boat Toilet in Hoi An
Mossy
bites so far 5 7
Expectation most exceeded Ha Long Bay Saigon
Next stop Singapore……….
Matt & Kate x
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John & Margy
non-member comment
We are amazed what you have seen and done in 3 weeks, Vietman looks fantastic, and I am certain your epic will inspire others to go there, safe flights, and we look forward to speaking to you in Singapore. All our love M and D xx