We opted for the more interesting method of transport to take us out of Saigon, the hydrofoil.
Our destination was Vung Tau which our guidebook reliably informed us was 'a popular escape from the city, sitting on a peninsula jutting into the South China Sea. It remains blissfully quiet during the week as it has long been overlooked by travellers'. The views of the Saigon river weren't particularly picturesque as we sped towards the coast and things only got interesting when we hit the open ocean and the waves knocked our hydrofoil all over the place making for a nervous last 10 minutes of the journey. Alighted from our boat and decided to try and walk to 'Back beach' which is where all the guest houses are located in Vung Tau according to the trusty Lonely Planet. Unfortunately it failed to inform us that you really do need to take a taxi as the walk is quite a long one, especially in the midday sun with our bags on our backs! We finally gave in and hopped into one of the vulture-esque taxis waiting to scoop up flagging backpackers and arrived amongst the guesthouses 5 minutes later. We soon realised that Vung Tau wasn't going to be somewhere we wanted to spend much time after a walk on the dirty beach and the realisation that there was very little else to do. We soon realised why this place has long been overlooked by travellers, thanks Lonely Planet! Spent the next day trying to find the bus station, looking at a couple of the pagodas scattered around the town and eventually having a dip in a posh hotel's swimming pool in the afternoon.
All these activities were made more difficult due to the vast majority of the population in Vung Tau possessing no English whatsoever, something that we haven't had to deal with anywhere else in our South East Asia travels. This lack of English was particularly highlighted when Dave attempted to pay our bill at the guest house and even after wafting his Dong in front of our host's face she still couldn't comprehend his intentions!!! The next morning we thought we would never escape the place when having risen at 4.30am to catch a 5.30am bus we found ourselves locked inside the hotel with a dirty great padlock blocking our exit. We considered going back to bed and catching a later bus but we really wanted to leave so resorted to knocking on the owners bedroom door so she could let us out. As we boarded our bus bound for Mui Ne we breathed a sigh of relief and hoped for an improvement in our fortunes further north. 5 hours later we stepped off the bus in Mui Ne. We had already passed several gorgeous looking resorts on the last minutes of the bus journey and so set off in the opposite direction to try and locate something that didn't look like it would bust our budget completely. We always seem to manage to be walking vast distances in search of accommodation in the hottest part of the day and our arrival in Mui Ne was no different. After half an hours unsuccessful search we collapsed into a bar and got the laptop out to book ourselves into one of the resorts which lined the beach. We stretched our budget slightly and booked into Sunny Beach resort which turned out to be fantastic and even better they upgraded us to a beach front bungalow - result!
We spent the next couple of days soaking up the sun, splashing around in the resorts multiple pools, watching the kitesurfers on the beach and, just one negative, being eaten alive by the stealth sand flies of Mui Ne. Having spent far too much time lounging about we managed to separate ourselves from our sun beds and hired a moped to go and check out the sand dunes which sit on the outskirts of the town.
We took a fleeting glance at the 'red' dunes as we passed and dodged the kamikaze restaurant owners trying to flag us down as we sped by. These dunes didn't look impressive so we powered on towards the further afield 'white' dunes which promised Sahara like landscapes. We left the main road and then bounced our way to the dunes which were pretty spectacular, although Sahara-esque might be pushing it.
We rode back through the original fishing village of Mui Ne which is somewhat different to the glistening resorts which fill the 'new' Mui Ne. The fishermen here still use the traditional Coracles to take to the waters and haul in their catch, many of these unusual boats can be seen bobbing around just off the coast creating quite a spectacle.
Having navigated our way through the maze of streets in the old town i.e we got lost again we returned to Sunny Beach and enjoyed a last couple of hours around the pool. We headed out for dinner on our last night in Mui Ne and not only got a very tasty Vietnamese meal but also got to play with possibly the cutest puppy of our travels so far.
Our destination was Vung Tau which our guidebook reliably informed us was 'a popular escape from the city, sitting on a peninsula jutting into the South China Sea. It remains blissfully quiet during the week as it has long been overlooked by travellers'. The views of the Saigon river weren't particularly picturesque as we sped towards the coast and things only got interesting when we hit the open ocean and the waves knocked our hydrofoil all over the place making for a nervous last 10 minutes of the journey. Alighted from our boat and decided to try and walk to 'Back beach' which is where all the guest houses are located in Vung Tau according to the trusty Lonely Planet. Unfortunately it failed to inform us that you really do need to take a taxi as the walk is quite a long one, especially in the midday sun with our bags on our backs! We finally gave in and hopped into one of the vulture-esque taxis waiting to scoop up flagging backpackers and arrived amongst the guesthouses 5 minutes later. We soon realised that Vung Tau wasn't going to be somewhere we wanted to spend much time after a walk on the dirty beach and the realisation that there was very little else to do. We soon realised why this place has long been overlooked by travellers, thanks Lonely Planet! Spent the next day trying to find the bus station, looking at a couple of the pagodas scattered around the town and eventually having a dip in a posh hotel's swimming pool in the afternoon.
All these activities were made more difficult due to the vast majority of the population in Vung Tau possessing no English whatsoever, something that we haven't had to deal with anywhere else in our South East Asia travels. This lack of English was particularly highlighted when Dave attempted to pay our bill at the guest house and even after wafting his Dong in front of our host's face she still couldn't comprehend his intentions!!! The next morning we thought we would never escape the place when having risen at 4.30am to catch a 5.30am bus we found ourselves locked inside the hotel with a dirty great padlock blocking our exit. We considered going back to bed and catching a later bus but we really wanted to leave so resorted to knocking on the owners bedroom door so she could let us out. As we boarded our bus bound for Mui Ne we breathed a sigh of relief and hoped for an improvement in our fortunes further north. 5 hours later we stepped off the bus in Mui Ne. We had already passed several gorgeous looking resorts on the last minutes of the bus journey and so set off in the opposite direction to try and locate something that didn't look like it would bust our budget completely. We always seem to manage to be walking vast distances in search of accommodation in the hottest part of the day and our arrival in Mui Ne was no different. After half an hours unsuccessful search we collapsed into a bar and got the laptop out to book ourselves into one of the resorts which lined the beach. We stretched our budget slightly and booked into Sunny Beach resort which turned out to be fantastic and even better they upgraded us to a beach front bungalow - result!
We spent the next couple of days soaking up the sun, splashing around in the resorts multiple pools, watching the kitesurfers on the beach and, just one negative, being eaten alive by the stealth sand flies of Mui Ne. Having spent far too much time lounging about we managed to separate ourselves from our sun beds and hired a moped to go and check out the sand dunes which sit on the outskirts of the town.
We took a fleeting glance at the 'red' dunes as we passed and dodged the kamikaze restaurant owners trying to flag us down as we sped by. These dunes didn't look impressive so we powered on towards the further afield 'white' dunes which promised Sahara like landscapes. We left the main road and then bounced our way to the dunes which were pretty spectacular, although Sahara-esque might be pushing it.
We rode back through the original fishing village of Mui Ne which is somewhat different to the glistening resorts which fill the 'new' Mui Ne. The fishermen here still use the traditional Coracles to take to the waters and haul in their catch, many of these unusual boats can be seen bobbing around just off the coast creating quite a spectacle.
Having navigated our way through the maze of streets in the old town i.e we got lost again we returned to Sunny Beach and enjoyed a last couple of hours around the pool. We headed out for dinner on our last night in Mui Ne and not only got a very tasty Vietnamese meal but also got to play with possibly the cutest puppy of our travels so far.
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