We used again our open bus ticket and went by bus to Mui Ne. Mui Ne is so small that eventhough it has plenty of hotels... none of them are mentioned on hostelworld.com... Fortunately the Lonely Planet has always some suggestions. We booked a bungalow in a resort... sounds really fancy and it was also kind of fancy. Private bungalow close to the seaside, private resort beach and pool with pool bar. All that including breakfast for 12,5 USD per person.... not to bad is it?
We arrived at 2 in the afternoon so we decided to spend the rest of the day at the beach. In the evening we went to a small restaurant and had a splendid dinner for less than 3 Euros per person... this is the way I like it. During that time we got to know that this seems to be a major holiday destination for Russian tourist... again!!! Wherever you go, you ll find Russian menus and adverts!!! Hmmm not exactly my favorite tourist group ... but okay.
The next day we hired again a scooter and went to see the red dunes. There lots of kids offer you a plastic sheet to slide down the dunes. I thought that it might be fun, but Fabi was rather skeptic... It turned out that he was right... it is absolutely impossible to really slide down the dunes!! Damn it...
After this disappointment we went to see the white dunes which are a little further away and by far not so touristic. The landscape was just amazing... everything around you was red and suddenly a small lake with white dunes behind appeared.
Of course the Vietnamese tried to make some business out of it and offered either ostrich quad bike rides... we rode neither.
Mui Ne is really small, so after we had seen the dunes and the center of Mui Ne, we had seen everything. Therefore back to the beach. As I told you Lonely Planet spread the rumour that Mui Ne has the nicest beaches in Vietnam... maybe in theory but in practice they are quite dirty and full of disgusting things.
But this is still a nix picture
The next day we left Mui Ne and its dirty beaches and went by bus to Saigon (I know now it is called Ho Chi Minh City). I had booked a room in a guest house called "MyMy Art House". To get there you had to enter a block of houses and a tiny road, badly lit, led to the hostel. Actually the street looked like those in some murderer movies, where you know already if "she" enters now she will be killed. CHARMING!!! ;-)
But the guest house and its owner (a lady) were very nice and actually charming! We went for some food and met an English and a Finnish guy and we got stuck there chatting and making plans. Eventually we left and went for a walk in Saigon. Saigon is much richer than Hanoi ans has already a small western touch. Fabi prefers Saigon to Hanoi, I don t! Well I know.. I am more for the shabby and slightly dirty places... but don t expect now Saigon to be clean... rubbish is disposed always on the floor/street! Wherever you go, nobody cares!!
While we were sitting in a street bar in Saigon, we unexpectedly met two Norweagans that we had met in Nah Trang... Yeah party.. good to see you... more beer!!! We decided that tomorrow all of us would go to see the Cu Chi Tunnels close to Saigon. For those of you, who don t know: these tunnels were used by the Vietcong during the Vietnam war. Their extention is around 200 km and approximately 18000 people lived in there over the period of 26 years (they were already used during the French occupation)
There you could enter the tunnels, see the traps they had built for the Americans and their facilities to survive (kitchen, hospital, etc..) We had a guided tour which was really interesting and totally worth its money even though given in Vietnamese-English (hard to understand)!!! After the tour the four of us went to the museum of war. That s quite rough stuff, which is shown there. Maybe though a little bit one-sided but still.... photos of deformed kids due to the used of the chemicals "Agent Orange" by the Americans ... and the prison that they kept people in (torture tools etc....) Puhhhh
It takes a while to digest these things... and it makes you think. I ll really need to find a book about the Vietnam War, to get some more details... If anybody has a suggestion.. pls let me know!
In the evening we arrange our bus ticket to Phnom Penh for the next day, some street food and a visit in the pharmacy. I started to get nervous about Malaria cause I get bitten all the time (also here) by mosquitos. Therefore I decided it might be wise to actually take medication. When I prepared my trip, my doctor even prescribed some Malaria meds BUT I got only 12 pills and I am supposed to take them everyday while in a Malaria-risk area + 2 weeks more.... so what to do with 12 pills????
Furthermore they are crazy expensive in Austria = 60 Euros for 12 pills! Here I got 100 pills for 3,5 Euros!!!! If I had know that!!!!!! Well the financial harm is already done!!
Greetings from Saigon
Astrid+Fabi
PS: This is for my mum. We went to change Euros to USD for Cambodia to a bank. Bank clerks in Vietnam have a very different life than in Austria. The lady was so bored she offered to paint my nails (she is a bank clerk!!). We exchanged 100 Euros and she did not have enough money (by 50 cent or so), therefore she offered us the rest of her lunch (pizza)!!! Maybe you can share this story at work :-)
Nette Fotos! Gruss aus Vienna
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