Originally written on November 12, 2004

We arrived in Mui Ne after our 4 hour bus trip from Nha Trang at about noon. As per usual, we were dumped off at the place where the bus company get some commision if we stay. It looked OK, but it wasn’t near any restaurants so we would have to eat there or catch a cab every day — not bloody likely! So, I left Heather with the bags in the hotel restaurant and went out front, rented a motorcycle of some guy for 5 bucks (he filled it up with what he said was gas from a green 7up bottle, said see you tomorrow, and drove south looking for a good place to stay. I checked about 5 places and all were either OK and expensive 50US or more, or crappy and expensive. Except for the Rachua dua which was nice and only 25 US. We got a pretty decent AC room, 30 seconds from the beach, and the place had a pool. I probably could have gotten the place next door for cheaper, but it didn’t have a pool. We arrived, had a quick shower as is the custom to rid the travel sweat, and headed out on the motorcycle.

Where were we going you might ask? Question: where would 2 canadians go who were living on the cheap? Answer: to get beer! No need to pay ridiculous hotel prices. We headed into the town of Phan Thiet picked up some beer. This was also where we had our first really good whiff of Nuoc Nam, or fish sauce. Let me describe the smell: first a smooth sweet smell, like old honey or weak maple syrup followed by a puzzling, if not quite shellfish-ish then certainly fishy, but definatly pungent after smell. The first smell is good the second is bad leaving you feeling the need to constantly inhale to keep the sweet smell always going through your nose. Sadly, this is not possible. We got out of there quick, it really stinks.

On the way out of town we noticed two cham towers on the hill overlooking the place. We found our way there and after paying the 2000 dong toll we rode our motorcycles right up the ancient structures. There we were greeted by two young girls who happily guided us around and told us of their family. Li and here sisiter (sorry li’s sister, wher you May?) also showed us some berries they were eating. We enjoyed one or two only A)because its wrong to just ‘eat some berries’ and B) they where growing on an old military outpost which we also toured. Not nearly as exciting as the Cham towers, but certainly more dangerous. With daylight fading, and the camera batteries giving out, we headed back to our resort stopping along the way for some dinner, then to bed. Below is the original message (the sunset was from tonight):

We are currently in Mui Ne, Vietnam and still the internet is ass. We have been keeping up to date and hopefully when we get to Saigon next week we will be able to update pictures and the daily events. Here is where we are staying: http://www.elephantguide.com/hotels/phanthiet/tropico.htm Cheers for now. Sunset at Mui Ne last night…