Mui Ne & Saigon

This post won't be as long as the others because there's not a lot to say really. We were only in Mui Ne for two nights and Saigon for one as Nick's visa is running out and I need to get through Cambodia before I fly home.


Mui Ne is a really nice spot. It's a lot more relaxed than Nha Trang (we didn't get hassled once by hawkers, however bikes were ever-present as always) and it has one of the best beaches I've ever seen. Joe and I didn't find the others till the evening so we just sat on the beach and went sand-boarding on the closer 'red dunes'. Sand-boarding wasn't as great as it sounds. We were lead to the largest dune by a local kid and told how to do it so we gave him a quid/30000 dong for his trouble, which í a fair amount here for ten minutes work -I gave him 60p, Joe gave him 30.Unhappy with Joe's smaller cỏtribution he started swearing at us and crying and sulking in the hope that we'd give him more! The greedy little git deserved an oscar for his performance! Even the kids here are con-artists.
The major drawback to Mui Ne is the serious lack of nightlife. We headed out with Jake and Sam, two guys we'd met along the way, but between the two late bars there were about 15-20 people out, most of whom were couples so the night was nothing to write home about... even though I am in a way.

The next day we got scooters out and heading 30km inland to the larger 'white dunes' which were a lot more impressive. We were hoping to drive some quad-bikes but you could walk faster than the ones they were renting so we got some boards out and had another go at sand-boarding which was slightly better due to the higher dunes, but nothing special.
The best thing was undoubtedly the drive, despite having a bike that should be used for spare parts. The scenery was stunning, especially the stretch of motorway running parallel to the beach. We alighted at a random beach we found that had some really good waves and chilled out there until it started to get dark. All in all, a top-drawer day.

The next day we headed down to Saigon which is a huge, dirty, disorganized city but you can tell its the center of the Vietnamese economy. It's like an uglier Hanoi, which at least had an impressive lake in the middle of it. We headed out in the night to Apocalypse after an expensive but worth-it meal at Wayne's Texan BBQ, where we met the owner, who was a bit of a legend/alcoholic. Despite its shortcomings Saigon has better nightlife and food than anywhere else in Vietnam.

And thats it really. I'm feeling a bit ropey today but we're off to Cambodia tonight via a boat up the Mekong which should be pretty good fun as long as it doesn't rain the whole way.