Rain, mopeds, sand dunes and men with hairy faces.....

Sunday was a really rainy lazy day. We got up mid morning and through the French windows and over the balcony and pool, all we could see was a grey mist of clouds over the ocean. It pelted down with rain for most of the afternoon and so we vegged out, with the doors open to the room. We sat listening to the heavy rain and enjoying a bit of cool air as we watched TV, read books and generally had a really good lazy Sunday afternoon in.

As it started to get dark about 6pm, the rain let off a while and so we took a walk down the hill into town, to pick up our laundry and to get some dinner. Unfortunately the laundry/travel agent where we had left our clothes, had closed for the day and so we went across the road to a German style restaurant, where we had Frikadellen and Currywurst whilst we watched the Italian Grand Prix on TV. The food was great, as was the German beer and afterwards we had Apple Strudel and Ice Cream, to finish.

An early night followed and after a good nights sleep listening to the rain again, we woke up on Monday to a bright morning. We decided to get a moped out for the day and tour around the area. On the way we stopped again for our laundry, but the place was still closed! Our first stop was the Fairy Stream, where we walked about half a mile down a stream – literally in the water, until we reached a fairly nice waterfall at the end. It was a nice cool place surrounded by strange sand stone formations and the perfect place to spend the hottest part of the day.

After a quick stop in Mui Ne where we got some fuel for the bike, we stopped again, on a quiet road in the countryside, so that Buffy could learn to ride a motorbike. We had got an automatic bike, so it wasn’t too long before she was buzzing up and down the road riding past me again and again, getting faster all the time – she picked it up really well and I found myself on the back of the bike for the next 20km or so, as she took the controls.

Walking in the......

river

On me moped

Us on the moped befoe Buffy took over!

We went off-road a little, to find the white sand dunes, where there is an oasis of greenery and a lake of lillies, surrounded by the sand dunes, which if you take a photo at the right angle, look like the desert. We got a couple of quad bikes for 20 minutes and enjoyed ourselves doing doughnuts and generally being idiots, riding up and down the dunes and through the sand.

It was starting to get to late afternoon and so our last stop was at the Red Sand dunes, 20km back down the road towards town, where we wandered out into the dunes and took a few photos while we watched the sun fall. It was the end of a really good day and we enjoyed our ride back in the dark as we made our way back to town. We were really happy when we arrived in town to see the laundry place open – we really thought we had seen the end of our clothes as it looked all shut up and closed for ever earlier – the lady looked really surprised at our reaction to seeing our clothes again. We celebrated the end of the day and getting our clothes back with a great meal in 'Red and Blue', the restaurant owned by Erik, the guest house owner.

When we got back to the guest house we jumped into the pool for a while, to wash some of the sand off too, but I stood on a large man size bean bag, which burst and I spent a few minutes cleaning the pool of all the tiny polystyrene balls that flew out of the bag and into the water.

Quadbiking the dunes

On a little chair having a break

Dunes

Me in the pool, viewed from our room - the small white things are polystyrene balls - oooops!

We leave Mui Ne today and head back up the coast towards Nha Trang. Its been a great stay here, with a lazy day in the rain and a really good day out. The only down side was the strange room set up, with no door in front of the toilet – so we hung the hammock up to hide ourselves.

We left Mui Ne on et 1pm bus to Nha Trang, but not before the bus crew had spent ages trying to get it started due to a fault in et electroical system – It was foxed in the end with one of them shorting out the circuit, causing a big crack and spark, but at least the bus started.

The journey was good, as it was actually a sleeping bus and we took up the five person wide back seat, which ended up being as good as a bed – although the Russian tourists in front of us weren’t too happy.

On arrival in Nha Trang we booked into the hotel and then wandered the long way around to et train station to buy our overnight train tickets out of here, to Hoi An, for the night of the 15^th Sep. Then it was a lovely dinner of Beef Pie and mash, before a movie in the room and then bed.

We had a really good lie in the next day olny getting up when the cleaners came around at noon (although we had been woken by workmen on a building site at 7.30, we fell back to sleep.)

We started our day with lunch at a small café around the corner. Buffy though didn’t enjoy it too much when she had extra food in her baguette – A lot of small dead ants had found their way inside and put her off her food. The rest of the day was spent booking a boat trip for tomorrow and then we sat by a swimming pool in a beach front restaurant – enjoying the sunshine and mellowing out. The evening was not unusual – a few pictures taken down by the sea front and then dinner followed by a couple of beers (Buffy may have had one beer too many and ended up with beer bottle stickers on her face) before back to the hotel, watch a bit of TV and then bed – Its a hard life!

In the morning we were brought breakfast in the room, before we headed out to the boat trip. Of all the boat trips I have done this was the most mellow and relaxing. We motored out into the South China Sea stopping to pick up some fish from a local floating fish farm and then stopped for over an hour as we snorkelled around a lovely bit of reef, where we took photos and messed about. After a good lunch, we stopped again for a swim in the sea before going to our final stop of the day at a lovely top notch quality deserted beach. Its called Mini beach and had only 2 or 3 cabins, where you pay through the teeth to stay in your private cabin, with a private boat dock and your own little private sunbathing area. We were only visiting for an hour though, so after a walk around we relaxed on the sun-loungers and watched as the rain fell and a lovely rainbow appeared above the sea. The only strange point of the day were the Korean men on the trip, who wandered around in their too tight pants, with bum bags and hats on, plus the guider who had about 6 inches of hair growing out of a mole on his face – it must have been there on purpose, but was horrible!

Another broken bus

In Nha Trang at night

Drunky!

Manchester water

Zoom in to see his hairy mole!

Cool, private beach and resort

We stopped at the Louisiane Brewhouse after getting dropped off, where we swam for a while in the pool before eating a great dinner and returning finally to the hotel where we waited to go to the Train Station for our overnight train north to Hoi An. All in all its been a great day, yet again!