Mui Ne

Cows on the beach

We stopped in Mui Ne for a quick stopover. Mui Ne is a beach town that still has lots of fishing. We walked along the beach for a while. They aren't as pretty or as crowded as Nha trang.  It's a cool little town though. Not tons to do. 

We went on a jeep tour. It stopped at fairy stream which isn't quite as magical as it sounds. We also stopped at a fishing village and went to a couple sand dunes. The dunes were fun. We flipped off the top of the and played around for a while. Ended up completely covered in sand. We caught a sunset. We had a good group we traveled with. Some girls from china and a guy from Germany. We caught up last night with them to hang out.  Had a good time hanging out. 

A resort we snuck onto until they asked us to leave. It was nice

Fairy stream 

Jeep tour

The seductive looking pose in the background is a pretty common site among the Russian travelers 

Scallops. They were really good. 

Today we head to Saigon. We will be there until the 7th when we will fly out. 

Nha Trang

The white lettering on the mountain is Vinpearl. The tram takes you across the ocean there. 

On my walk

Really cool boulders I climbed to the top of

Alpine coaster

Roller coaster 

Sunset on the tram on the way back. 

So far this is and will be our longest stop. We are in the beach town of Pha Nang and it really is nice. We are staying at a place about a five minute walk to the beach. There's lots if good food around and the weather now is really ideal. We have spent a couple days just lounging on the beach enjoying the sun and warmth again. We even sprung for some shades chairs one day and I sat and read my book while kicking it by the ocean. 

Yesterday I went for a walk and went to a point that had these giant boulders. Naturally I was intrigued. I got to go climb around on them for a bit. It was really just a nice walk. It's been nice to really relax. You move so much and are always going to different places or points of interest you forget what it's like to unpack and be able to just hang out for a while. Nha Trang wasn't a bad place to do it. There are a lot of Russian tourists this time of year. I would want to escape the weather too though. 

We have a little over a week to get to Saigon where I catch a flight to Nepal and trade this weather for some trekking through the Himalayas. I am definitely trying to

Take advantage of the nice weather while I have it. 

We spent just shy of a week in Nha Trang and I am on the bus headed to the next town now. Yesterday we went to Vinpearl land. The closest thing to Disneyland they have in Vietnam. Not to say it was close though. To get there you take a sky team across the river to an island. Gives you some really nice views. The park itself had immaculate grounds and ridiculous views of the ocean. The backdrop from the rides was the ocean the highlight was probably the water park. We met a Vietnamese guy named William. He was terrified of the rides. We finally got him to go on the Alpine coaster because he could control his own speed. He bought his pictures and it shows him completely focused on the track with his brake engaged and like three people piled up behind him. He was quite proud that he made it down though.  He was a really nice guy. 

William on the tram. He was terrified. 

The aquarium had a conveyor belt going through it. 

Next stop is Mui Ne. More beaches and even some sand dunes. Should be fun. 

Hoi An

We spent a couple days in Hoi An. It was a good time. We ended up meeting up with our friend Earl from Australia. We went around town and him out. There is a part of town that's French architecture right on the river. We went to a sandwich shop that features on the show no reservations touted as the best sandwiches in Vietnam. I don't suppose I can argue the fact. They were good. We spent some time at the beach. Went to a club called volcano one night and played some pool with some guys from Israel. 

Hoi An is famous or their tailoring. Brandt got a suit tailored and Earl got some shoes tailored. Hoi An was fun. The beach wasn't great but we only made a quick stop. Touring the city by bike had to be the highlight. 

From the bus. Really cool bridges in Da Nang. 

The private beach they kept telling us to get off. 

Back alley dining. There were chickens that were so fat the looked like they didn't have legs. 

Hue and the National Park

So we went to Hue. We got in in the afternoon and rented bikes for the rest of the day. We went to the city Citadel. It was another world heritage site but this one wasn't really that impressive. It was were the Emperor loved for a while. Hue was chosen as the location in an effort to unite north and south Of Vietnam. There isn't much left of the citadel. There were 144 buildings there and only about 20 buildings left. It was a result of the indo china war and the American war. The city was crazy to bike around in. Traffic laws are kind of a funny thing here. People don't really follow them. 

Today I met up with a friend, earl from Australia and we jumped on a local bus and headed out to the national park. The weather was pretty bad. It rained the whole time. We were soaked from

Head to toe.  We hiked for a really long time. About 13 km up and 16 back into town. The 13 up were pretty grueling. It was uphill the entire way. We stopped at a place where it looked like thy did zip line tours. We thought it would be fun to climb across it. It was cool to talk to him about travel plans, growing up and just about everything. We did have a long hike. 

Huge earthworm 

The ocean in the background. It was mostly too cloudy to see much. The area receives more rainfall than anywhere else in Vietnam. 

We made it up and back down and caught a bus back into town. It was so nice to get back in and shower and warm up. It was a really fun time. We grabbed dinner with Warl and a couple other guys. One from Holland and one from Germany.