Vietnam: South, Na Trang, Mui Ne & Saigon 1-8 May 12

Na Trang & Mui Ne 1-6 May

We wanted to go straight to Mui Ne from Hoi An and miss out Na Trang completely. It has a really big beautiful beach there and for this reason hordes of holidaymaker from far and wide come to sunbathe, drink and ponce about. Its a really popular party stop for SE Asia gap year yar yars so if that’s your thing then you’d love it there. With the open bus ticket I had you could only book your next leg from the actual office in the town where its leaving from. So to book Hoi An to Na Trang (the next stop on the open tour bus) I had to do it from the office in Hoi An. I couldn’t book Na Trang to Mui Ne other than at the office in Na Trang, which was really frustrating. We were told to get off the night bus at around 5.30am and go straight to the office in Na Trang to book the Mui Ne Bus leaving at 7am. But when we got there we were told that we had to book a day in advance, and couldn’t get on that morning’s bus, so staying one night in Na Trang it had to be. The bus company can sometimes not interested in helping you out at all, but it is really the cheapest way to get through Vietnam.

We found a hotel near the beach, $10 for a room for two people, and I set off to explore the party town. It’s a big city with not much to distinguish itself other than the main Western tourist drag with hotels and hostels, Western food places of all description and a lot of bars and a lot of pissed people. If you’re in the mood for this, its brilliant. When you’re not, its annoying. I found the beach which was huge and quite nice, and watched the sun go down as the crowds went off to eat in Lonely Planet recommended eateries. And that was the extent of my stay in Na Trang, and it was more than enough for me. We went back to the same bus office early next morning and waited on the same benches for the bus, and finally and thankfully got going to Mui Ne.

Chillaxing Vietnam style in Na Trang

Na Trang beach, after the hordes have gone home

Something colourful for the beach anyone?

Mui Ne is another beach town, but is completely different to Na Trang. Its famous for kite surfing, and there are tons of courses and kite surfing schools although they are hideously expensive, around $60 an hour for a lesson and you need hours to even stand up on a board and get the kite in the air. Its laid out on one really, really long stretch of one road. Here I found more of a backpacker atmosphere minus the hordes of annoying party drunkards. There is also a backpacker hostel here, Mui Ne Backpackers for $6 a night in a shared dorm, and they have private rooms too with two beds for around $15 facing the beach if you want something slightly more luxurious. There are some cute beach restaurants around, one next to the backpackers called Joe’s Bar had live music every night (mainly acoustic covers, but cute) and great breakfasts, and also real wine. It was $3 a glass but its so rare out here I couldn’t help but treat myself.

Mui Ne Backpackers - Flashpacking

The one long street in Mui Ne

Down the south side of the one long beach road, are tons of posh resorts for Russians. Russians in their hundreds, apparently this is the place to come if you’re Russian and on holiday and want some beach and kitesurfing. All the shops and menus were written in Russian in this area, even the Vietnamese spoke to you in Russian. It was bizarre. Down the North end of the street was everyone else other than Russians. I met some fun people in the hostel; two English guys who had been there for a month becoming kitesurfing instructors, some Swedish guys who had just done their course and an older Austrain lady who seemed very demure, but when we went out that night she partied like there was no tomorrow! We did a run of the bars in town after eating some delicious Vietnamese sea food barbecue, and it was such a funny mix of overly made up Russian girls with their butch boyfriends, Asian holidaymakers and European backpackers dancing around being idiots, and I had a lot of fun. I also met two 19 year old Canadian guys who had their own business and only worked six months of the year and were rich enough to travel the rest of the time from the money they made. They had developed their own lemonade (bless!) and now had stalls in all the major festivals in Canada selling it. They had people working for them and everything, how cool is that.

DJ rocking out in Mui Ne

Night out with the Swedes in Mui Ne

The other thing to do in Mui Ne other than kitesurfing is to see some amazing sand dunes. They are huge and expansive and multicoloured. We took a tour with the hostel, Mui Ne Backpackers, it was only $8 and they drive you to some great spots over four hours (bring a hat if you do this, its four hours outside in the scorching heat.) You can hire dune buggies for the extortionate cost of $20 but its easy enough to walk to the top of the white dunes. Around these parts it didn’t feel like Vietnam at all, really dry and desert-like with sand, with the occasional shock of green farm or blue lake. You can watch the sunset from the red dunes which is the last stop, an incredible spot to watch those ever dazzling and humbling skies of SE Asia. Also some advice for the ladies... beware! I had the scariest leg wax in the entire world at a place called Good Spa. I was led to the back by no less than five women, with only a curtain to shield me from the men of the house. They all stood over me and proceeded to scald me to death with extremely hot wax, and then pull it off very, very slowly with excruciating pain. The worst part is, they only waxed about 10% of it, the rest of the time they ran a blade (not razor, a unprotected blade) over my legs to ‘clean’ the skin and in the process diced me a few times. It was extremely painful and traumatic, and when I eventually leapt from the table at the end I saw that I had some cuts. I only paid them $18 out of the promised $25, although that was essentially $18 to shave my legs. Worst wax experience ever, go to a recommended place if at all.

Dune walk

Quick sand

VERY hot

Road to the sand dunes

White dunes

Amazing sunset on red dunes

We stayed three nights in Mui Ne Backpackers and that was more than enough to get the flavour of the place. It was time to head to final destination of Vietnam, and not a day too soon. I was itching to leave and find Cambodia.

Saigon 6-8 May

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) is the capital of Vietnam, and is a huge sprawling city with lots of traffic and motorbikes. People say its more intense in that sense than Ha Noi in the North, but I found the opposite. The streets are bigger and there are pavements to walk on, whereas in Ha Noi everything and everyone is piled onto the streets and there is nowhere at all to walk except in the thick of traffic. I was mainly stopping here as a place to cross the border by bus to Cambodia so I only spent two nights and one day there. Emily was waiting for us there and so we shared a hotel room in the main tourist drag, you can get a pretty descent hotel for around $21 a night sharing with three people. The street has tons of places to eat and of course the life blood for travellers which is the cheaper than chips Bia Hoi for a thrifty $30c a glass. We met some people and sat on the tiny red plastic chairs and had some cheery rounds. At one point Emily disappeared into one of the bars to use the loo and ended up doing an impromptu open mic set with the guitar they had set up there. We went to a late night club with some friends where someone had a laptop set up so you could choose the songs like a jukebox, and danced the night away. I didn’t explore the city much at night, but kept on getting warned about people driving by on scooters and snatching bags, and this happened a lot so beware! During the day we went to the war museum and looked at some American war machines and the photography exhibition, and although the displays had a distinctly propagandist edge its a must see if not to remind us all how horrible and pointless war is (if you need any reminding).  We all caught the early morning bus to Sihanoukville in Cambodia the next day, as I really wanted some island beach time before heading into central Cambodia. The visa on the border is supposed to cost $20 but we were charged $25 although I hear people get scammed a few extra dollars than that at times so it was shrugged off. But it was a pretty smooth bus ride, only getting off at the border to walk through the gates into the next country and then straight back on the bus. It cost around $15.

Bia Hoi life blood

Emily playing out

Why are all buildings in Vietnam so long and thin?

War museum - Farigo hates war

Avocado shake in the market - yum

I spent 25 days in Vietnam which was around 10 days more than planned. Everyone who goes there does the same route, starting in the North. Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa, Phong Nha (although this is very much off the main beaten traveller track, and isn’t a stop on the open bus ticket) Na Trang, Mui Ne, Saigon. Or vice versa, starting in Saigon. I really didn’t like that you had to do the same route and stops as everyone else, top to bottom, but it’s hard to avoid that really unless you hire a motorbike and do the country that way. I actually found it much touristier and processed travelling than Thailand, which is surprising because Thailand is such a tourist hub. Maybe its because you can hop around in Thailand, make your own itinerary up as you go along, and avoid the busiest hubs if you want and find the road less travelled easier there.

Vietnam wrapped up... If I could have my time back again, I would only spend two weeks in Vietnam and only do one night in Halong Bay, two days in Hoi An unless you want clothes made, and miss out Na Trang completely. Definitely visit Phong Nha/Dong Hoi and Sapa, and try hire a motorbike at least once in the northern hills or around Phong Nha and go off into the unknown. But this is only if you want a slightly more alternative travelling experience and want to miss out the hordes and pissheads! Vietnamese people in rural areas are very lovely and friendly even though they can’t speak English, but in the cities and main tourist hubs they don’t seem as interested in interacting with you, rather wanting just to hastily finish whatever transaction you are making with them (although of course there were some friendly, very helpful people everywhere, especially if they felt confident in speaking English) so I really missed the friendly, broken exchanges with people that I’ve found elsewhere in SE Asia. There always seems to be five people working in one quiet shop. I love though how in every business, shop or restaurant the whole family seems to live, so there is always granny or baby sleeping on a mat or watching telly while you have your lunch. The culture and towns seemed to be too same same for me, maybe a result of communism wiping out most of the spirituality or individuality? All in all its an great place, having gone through so much but the people so industrious and hard working and with some stunning natural beauty. Try go off the beaten track if you can!

Here are the pics.