We're on a beach....in Vietnam!

Local fishing boats scattered the beaches

     After being holed up in in Saigon for more than a week in the sweltering heat, it was rather pleasant to get into the beachside town of Mui Ne. Just a four hour bus ride (in upright seats) Northeast to the coast, we were ready to get some peace and quiet for a few days. We rolled into town on the main road off the highway, past some stunning resorts with grand entrances, tennis courts and even a golf course. It just seemed like there was really nobody around. Kinda sleepy.....no complaints. We checked into our place; a pretty nice little spot, tucked right in the middle of the resorts. With a little exploration, we found that there was a working fishing village within a few Km; so we checked it out, saw some boats, rode back to our spot and hit the beach.

Village shores

     Seeing the main drag littered with fresh seafood restaurants, I figured that this might be a fairly safe place get in on some shellfish or fish ( my belly got burned in Cambodia). In the company of an American solo-traveler that we met, we sat down to dinner at one of these palces, for a bit of a disappointment. The fish and shellfish of all kinds looked really good and fresh in the live tanks up front, but they were getting really high prices for them. It turns out that these resorts fill up with Russian tourists, and they fork over tons of money for anything. So, as the budget travellers that we are learning to be, we ordered what we could, and it was not so great.

   Needing to see some sights, we decided to rent our own moto for a day and brave the roads here. There was supposed to be a stream up the road from us called the "Fairy Stream". Kind of a nice stroll through some low canyons with red dirt walls, and a waterfall at the end. Well, didn't make that one. We got to the bridge, which was to be our entry point, found it littered with garbage, and not really a trail alongside. It looked as one was supposed to just walk up the shallow streambed to the end; but with the conditions, Katie and I decided that the skin on our feet was not going to touch the water we found flowing downstream. Oh, and the overwhelming stench of  giant tubs of fish sauce fermenting in the yard of an adjacent property was enough to create a 500' perimeter that I was unwilling to breach.

Katie's beach handstand

     We ventured to a tower outside of town, that had been built a long time ago,( how long ago? I don't remember. It's old) by some hindu people that used to live in the region. It made for a cool vantage point for some views of Phan Theit, the next door village. Then we went back to the beach because it was hot. Our evening moto trip took us to the sand dunes, which made for nice sunset viewing.
   
     My highlight was a place we found called Hoa Vien, which was a Czech brewery and restaurant at the north end of the beach. They had two lagers that they brewed on site, a light and a dark. I of course would've done a lot of things for a micro from home by now, so was very excited to have a beer with some color. It was okay, the amber lager was better. Their food looked great, but priced us out of the building. I think that night was capped with some pho from the stall across the street from our palce. The best we have had to this point. And I think was the beginning of us feeling comfortable eating at those kinds of establishments. Now they are a staple of our day, and a life saver to the wallet. I'm just to big for the chairs. One of these days I'm probably gonna break one. 

Mmmmm....beer

     With the heat of these days continuing to beat us down, we were ready for the next destination, the mountain town of Da Lat.

Rockin' the moto

Rockin' the fanny pack

Red dunes at sunset

The benchmark Pho so far