The Vietnam Adventure Continues....

Katie and I decided to take an open tour sleeper bus to cross Vietnam North to South. For $43USD you can take a bus that stops at all the major cities and get off and on as you please staying at each destination as long as you like. It is called a "sleeper bus' and it is basically a greyhound style bus except that the seats have been replaced with Motor-home style, Vietnamese sized beds. While it is more comfortable than sitting upright an entire trip, the smaller size makes straightening your legs nearly impossible except for the few stretches where you let your legs into the aisles.

The bus left Saigon at 7PM Vietnam time (read - 8:15PM). We arrived in Muine (our first stop) in the middle of the night at about 12:45 AM. While Saigon is a city that never sleeps and hotels are available anytime of day, unfortunately Muine, as we found out to our displeasure, has a curfew for the entire town of about 12AM. We walked the dark deserted streets with a persistent motorbike driver following close behind us, the only other living being besides the noises in the trees, barking dogs, and very large rats walking the empty lanes. While we continually said 'no thanks, we'll walk' he kept leaving then returning "I have hotel, cheap price, only 20 dollar US". We saw lots of hotels advertising rooms for $10, the problem is all of these hotels were closed and all the lights off. After walking for entirely too long with my travel backpack we came upon a Hotel advertising New Hotel, rooms $10US. While the hotel looked nice, it still looked quite dark. I had enough though, so i ventured through the gate looking for any kind of lights. I found 2 people watching TV in one of the rooms with an open door. Turns out they were the hotel owners. They put us in a lovely room with all the amenities and even a few extras (drinking water, soap, shampoo) . Turns out this hotel had only been open for 3 days and so Katie and I may have been the first people ever to stay in that particular room. We were exhausted from our 'sleeper bus' ride and walking hundreds of meters with all our gear. We laid down and had a wonderful sleep.

The next morning we awoke to a welcome surprise of minimal horn honking. Muine is a smaller town placed right along the china sea. We opted for a more expensive breakfast so that we could eat overlooking the wonderful sea. We placed our order, however we realized that while Katie's item was a good choice, there was a similar option with that food item as well as free coffee and other side items for a mere 5000 more dong. We hurriedly got the waitresses attention and changed our order. No problem. Katie's food arrived and I thought "Wow! I should have got what you ordered, look at all that food!" Thankfully she shared with me. When the bill arrived it was all explained. There was a slight misunderstanding (who would have thought). Rather than changing our order, she simply added the set menu (which included our original food item) to our existing order....I guess common sense isn't as common around here.

Quick Lesson - Don't try to change a food order or ask for substitutions, even if it is within 10 seconds. At another place when Katie asked for a different kind of bread with her eggs. What we got was 4 french rolls instead of 1....all the same kind, but with tomatoes on the side??

Our hotel was called Muine dreams, and they were very helpful. For about $4 I rented a scooter and Kate and I took off for the fabled Sand dunes a little way out of town. The red dunes are only about 2 KM from town, but the more impressive White dunes are about 20KM out of town and much more fun for a Vietnam motorcycle adventure. If you plan on visiting, kids will crowd you soliciting rides on what we call crazy carpets back home. At one point Katie explained we called these things crazy carpets and they all thought she was nuts. Even if you say no to a ride, they follow you all over the dunes. After telling him my name was Dave, I was continually asked, "Hey Tim, c'mon, go for a ride". I finally made a deal, I would give him 30K for 3 rides on a slope of my choice. He very reluctantly agreed. Once the slope was chosen all of the children (about 12 of them) work together. They line either side of the chosen route and start shoveling the colder, moister sand under the top layer onto the track. While they are doing this, I am getting a quick lesson on the best way to ride the crazy carpet (and I'm still Tim). Once everything is set, off I go. One of the kids pushes me with all his might, and I must admit, the ride was really exciting, although a lot messier than actual crazy carpet riding. I had sand covering everything. After my 3 rides the kid insisted I give him a tip as well because he gave me a good push. The funny thing was the kid who pushed me was actually over in the group hassling Katie and didn't even mention the word tip, or money for that matter. I found out later when I arrived at the White dunes that they are the place to rent a carpet as they are cheaper and (as I noticed as well) the slopes are much steeper....While it was tempting, I was already covered in enough sand and couldn't stand anymore.

Muine's biggest draw is the Sand Dunes and they were well worth it. The trip to the white dunes was a great motorcycle ride through relative empty winding roads along the coast and through the hill sides and occasional village. When we were unsure of directions, we simply stopped and asked someone and through a series of hand gestures were always back on our way confident in the direction we were headed. I'll have pictures up one day, but basically the sand dunes are as described. A huge expanse of red sand dunes (imagine your built in Windows XP desktop) or the more impressive White dunes are an even bigger expanse of white soft sand (imagine Tattouine). I am not entirely sure how the dunes were formed as they border on relatively fertile farming grounds, but I am sure a little bit of internet research could answer that one for us....Anyway...next stop Dalat!!