Well,not what we expected but that’s what travels about,right? To try new things, see new places, meet strangers and experience. And then decide if you liked it or not. If it was worth it or not…

*Hello from Mui Ne. We arrived here today afternoon. Yesterday we pretty much walked around our so disliked city, Ho Chin Minh. We bought the bus ticket here for 4USD. But we started the price at 12USD. We went into a tour office first who asked for this price. We went to a next one who offered it for 5USD but we thought, we still check at the bus ticket office and guess what? We got the ticket for about 4USD (240,000VND). I tasted the famous Pho Bo soup (which is basically a beef noodle soup) which I ate with chopsticks (never thought Ill ever eat soup with chopsticks 😁) and then spooned the liquid out. Other than that, it wasn’t much else.

Today we travelled here on a really funky ‘sleeping’ bus, you’ve never seen anything like that in your life… for sure. It was like a different level of travelling. All photos are here. We got to this very cute little sea side town which we absolutely adore. Our hostel is fantastic,we feel like we are in the middle of the forest with wooden dorm rooms (we payed £11/person for a bed in a 4 bed dorm room) which are open,we have mosquito nets and even a water kettle. The beach is about 10 mins walk and there are hundreds of kite surfers as it’s real windy down the seaside. After we arrived, we asked the guy here about the trip to the dunes. One of the reason I wanted to come here cos it’s really famous of the white and red sand dunes not too far from here. He said, a jeep with a group cost 35USD/ 2of us. We thought it’s a bit much but kept listening. I also asked about massages as I saw the spa. A hot stone massage cost here 599,000VND and I’d have been happy to pay but we thought, let’s walk into the centre. The centre is about 2km away. As we walked, it was like a ghost town,no people only the restaurants started to be prepped for the dinner. As we got to the first tour office, we asked the price. They said, the jeep with a group cost 10USD/ person. Already 15 dollar less. But we thought, we still walk and see what’s closer to the centre. As we walked and the sun started to go down, we saw more and more people. There are little shops all the way, rarely any cars or bikes so we could actually cross the road. We stopped at an other office and guess what? We bought our same ticket, visiting the 2 sand dunes, a fishing village and something else, starts at 4.30am so we see the sunrise (again ☺️) and then back by 10am for….. 5USD/person!!! So,my friends. A good advice for you…never buy at the first place they offer. Always have a look around because yesterday with the bus tickets and today with the trip..there is alway a cheaper price. Oh, and I also had my 60 mins BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL hot stone massage for 200,000VND!!! That’s like 2.5 less… After our happy moment we decided to continue our walk on the beach. Surfers everywhere. It’s a really nice beach though so we definitely go down tomorrow after our trip. There are lots of Russians here because of the history with them and Vietnam as they were traded with each other and have been allies for a very long time. We had a nice walk then we walked back to the street, had a nice sea food spring rolls and a club sandwich (we only wanted snacks) with drinks for 200,000VND by the beach. We got back here (hostel) and then went to eat just on the other side of the road. Well….the whole beach front is full of with seafood restaurants where they offer everything they caught on the day. And they display it… we went for fried squid and grilled octopus. I’m sure, the squid was grilled as well..and even though I love seafood, it wasn’t my favourite. But it was interesting to see and taste it.

Now it’s 10pm, I need a shower and a sleep as we have to be up at 4am…

A day after:

Yesterday we woke up very early to get the jeep which took us to the sand dunes. Well…it was nice.BUT! If any if you ever comes here and you don’t particularly want to spend money on it, don’t. It wasn’t anything spectacular. We watched the sunset which was pretty cool but honestly, I don’t think it’s as amazing as people sell it… However, the fairy stream was actually pretty cute with the miniature Grand Canyon.

After we finished -about 9.30am- we went down to the beach. Well,we wanted to but as there are hotels built in a line on the beach, it’s hard to get down as the hotels don’t allow you to go through but there are no roads in between the hotels. So we kind of tried to go through resorts where it isn’t that obvious if you are a guest or not. We got down at about 11.30am. Stayed on the beach till about 4pm. As we walked back to the hostel, I saw a strange sign..it said ‘Lángos’ (which is a typical Hungarian food). Couldn’t believe my eyes so checked again. It also said ‘Gyros”. Gyros is how we call kebab in Hungary. We decided to come back here for dinner.

Back to the hostel I already felt dead and fell asleep in the hammock for a good 15mins till Rich got his stuff together. Went to taste the lángos which tasted exactly the same as home,except it was a size smaller -it cost 45,000VND-. Rich had one with salami on it which isn’t exactly what I’d eat. The original has garlic,creme fresh and grated cheese on. Very yummy. 😋

As it was international women’s day, we had a cocktail and then back to the hostel. I stayed in the hammock for a while but I was really tired so went to sleep fairly early.

Today we travel…and tomorrow. We travel 15 hours on a bus to go to Da Nang which is in the middle of Vietnam towards North. The bus ticket cost 700,000VND/ 2 of us. It’s a sleeping bus. The same funky looking bus we travelled here by.

Let’s see how it goes.*