What a contrast to Nha Trang (population around 375,000) – Mui Ne is small (population about 15,000), it’s peaceful and it’s quiet. Apparently the Russians started coming here 7 years ago and there’s a Russian tourist dominant zone and a non-dominant Russian zone. The menus are in English, Vietnamese, French and Russian. The spread of he Russian holiday maker has made its way up to Nha Trang as well where Russian restaurants are big.
Here’s a picture of downtown Mui Ne compared to downtown Nha Trang. We have a couple of cows tethered in the block next door to our little bungalow accommodation and there’s afew chickens trying to cross the road. This place reminds Steve and I of the Vietnam we visited 13 years ago (excluding the big cities of course) on our honeymoon – less development with no massive high rise hotels (yet) but it’s on it’s way.
And downtown Nha Trang, waiting to catch our bus to Mui Ne that took 5 hours. Couldn’t resist the matching tops!
Our bungalow is so full of character: wooden floor, thatched roof, balcony overlooking the pool, white mosquito net over the bed. We could stay here for a lot longer and simply chill out but we have no more days to spare. Next time.
The beach here is rough. It’s more of a surfers town. We found a bar called Pogo that lets you walk through to the beach but the water was crashing up against the concrete barrier. However, the girls loved writing on the communal graffiti wall and leaving their mark.
This afternoon we head off in an open air jeep to explore sand dunes and streams. Tonight its Steve’s turn to choose where we eat – I think seafood is on the agenda while we are at this beach side town. Tomorrow morning we take our final bus journey into Ho Chi Minh City or the old Saigon. It’s another 5 hour journey and we will face the bustling, horn tooting, hot, crazy, busy, big city once again. Bring it on!
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