Day 43-45 Mui Ne

"Same same, but different." Said by 70% of South East Asian retailers.*

For the next part of our journey, we were heading further South to the cosmopolitan beachy town of Mui Ne.

Some minor miracle must have taken place because our bus was actually fine! 

It had working aircon and seats.. and we didn't see one cockroach! HOORAH!

Mui Ne is known for it's beaches and lovely seafood. But other than that, there's not a massive deal going on.

It can get quite pricey here (for backpackers) but we managed to find a cheap room for $4 each. Which is around £2.50.

Opposite where we were staying, there's a beautiful place called Sankara. It's expensive for drinks but they said we could use their pool and the sun loungers.

We walked along a big stretch of the beach, which was beautiful!

Around sunset, all of the locals come out and dig in the sand. We assumed it was for shell fish but we're not entirely sure!

For dinner we ate at Bo Ke. The original Bo Ke is known to be the best place for seafood. So all of the othet seafood resturants named theres Bo Ke too. 

But a bit of research and the amount of locals eating there assured us that that was the right one.

We went for cheap options, which were lovely! But for the best stuff you just choose your seafood, they weigh it and tell you how much.

They have a pretty strong stomach when it comes to food in vietnam and it's pretty normal to see animals on a spit roast or prepared on the streets. 

You see 'Morning Glory' on all of the menus in Vietnam too. It's water spinach, cooked in garlic. It's really lovely and good for if you're skint as it's normally cheap.

In the evening we went back to Sankara for 2 for 1 cocktails. It's 100,000 dong (about £2.90) for two but they were really nice and pretty strong.

I made a cocktail behind the bar too!

Then, the two Irish guys behind the bar said they understand how much backpackers have to budget and they told us to go and buy a bottle of rum from the local shop.

They put it behind the bar for us and just made us a rum and coke each whenever we asked.

We got in the pool again which was lovely, then went to a couple more bars too.

The next day, we went on a trip to the sand dunes.

We went in a slightly scary open roofed jeep, with a huge crack in the screen .. and a driver who wasn't afraid of high speeds of bumps.

It was good fun though and it's absolutely boiling here so it kept us cool.

We started off at the 'Fairy Stream' where you basically walk along a stream for 2km. 

You can't always see the floor and we did see this dead snake which was a bit disconcerting but fortunately there were no fatalities!

The scenery was awesome too!

You see a lot of ostrich riding here, which is a bit crazy. We opted out of that part!

We stopped off at a fishing village..

Then we went to the white sand dunes..

We could have got jeeps but they were really expensive.

Then we went to the red ones..

Then for the second night and the following morning we just ate and chilled out (and nursed small hangovers).

Marie decided to become a pescetarian in Thailand and unfortunately meat is often all you see. Particularly at street food stands!

Oh and Jack had "one of the best hair cuts he's ever had" off a lady inside a tiny house / barbers. She would not have let him leave until she was happy with it!

*Many locals use the term "same same, but different." Its used in bars, restaurants, markets, barbers, clothes shops ...and it basically means you can go along comparing everything but it is all the same but slightly different. 

I can't see that being a selling method that would catch on in the UK though?


*In Vietnam, they tell you a lot of the prices in US Dollars. So we have to convert the cost to pounds to figure out how much it really is, then convert it to Dong, to see how much we actually have to pay!

Bus journeys are not at all bad when your view is this beautiful..

Next stop...Ho Chi Minh City!