After leaving Nha Trang we headed towards Mui Ne, a town which we knew very little about. Our open bus ticket meant we could get off at a specific amount of locations around Vietnam, and before reaching our final destination of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) we had a choice of either stopping in Mui Ne or Da Lat. From the limited information we were given when choosing, we understood that Mui Ne has beautiful sand dunes which you can explore, and Da Lat is famous for zip lines: wires between trees, high in the air, that you strap yourself to and then hurtle down, headfirst. Gemma had zero interest in ziplining, so our choice was made easy. It wasn’t long after we boarded our bus to Mui Ne that a bunch of feisty chaps came onboard, one of whom sat next to us, and another was given a makeshift bed hanging precariously between two seats (we worried about the safety of the person below). The group of chaps were none other than the Billy Elliott and Harry (who we had met at Castaways) and two of their friends Callum and Matty. They serenaded us with a partial rendition of Whats Up, the song which Gemma sang at the talent show in Castaways, and we learned that this had become somewhat of a theme song for this group since they heard Gemma perform it, singing it wherever they go (or at least the few lines they know). The bus journey was the same as ever, too hot, too bumpy and too much noise from the driver aggressively using his horn, but arriving safely in Mui Ne is the main thing we were worried about, so we were relieved when we finally pulled up.

The hostel we were staying at was more like a little resort, with swimming pool, restaurant, and a combination of chalet/private rooms and dorm rooms (for budget reasons we were in a dorm room). As we had been on a bus all morning and arrived in the early afternoon, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat at the hostel restaurant. Steve found it quite disconcerting that his pasta carbonara arrived within about 90 seconds of ordering it, and didn’t look very appetising – but he devoured it all the same. As is often the case with Steve, when there is a swimming pool available in a reasonably hot country, it doesn’t take long before he is in.

As that afternoon went on, Steve started to feel poorly, and by early evening he knew something wasn’t right. We had eaten the same meals together for almost two days straight, with the exception of lunch, where Steve had eaten the substandard carbonara – so when he became violently ill, it was clear he had food poisoning from this meal. Our guess is the carbonara sauce (egg based) had been sitting around in the heat all day and given Steve salmonella poisoning. This was the end of the Mui Ne adventure for Steve, he spent the next two days in bed (and running to the toilet) as he was iller than he has ever been in adult life!

The next day, whilst Steve was recovering in bed, Gemma went on a jeep safari to see the sand dunes, and also the Fairy Stream (which is the second most famous thing to see in Mui Ne). We always try to be positive, and so far on our adventure, we have loved everywhere we have been, soaking up the culture, the nightlife and enjoying the sights, but Mui Ne was a bit of an exception. Firstly, let’s take a look at the Fairy Stream:

You are probably wondering why we have uploaded photos of a muddy puddle or river, rather than the Fairy Stream? Some sort of mistake? Amazingly not, this is the Fairy Stream, it appears the tourism office must have realised that in order to get people to visit they need attractions, but decent attractions can take a lot of time and effort to sort out, so maybe it would simply be easier to put the word Fairy before an existing feature in hope it’ll drive the tourists to visit. It certainly worked for us. Luckily, this is only the second most popular attraction in Mui Ne, the pièce de résistance is, of course, the sand dunes:

We had pictured a desert like environment, with sweeping sanddunes all around us, but the reality didn’t really measure up. Gemma was the only person who had signed up for the tour from our hostel, and was expecting to be driven around in a jeep over the sand on the dunes, but it turns out that the price would have been four times more expensive than advertised, to make up for the fact it was only her doing it. Sometimes when traveling, and generally in life, you need to realise when it isn’t a good idea to throw good money after bad, so Gemma decided not to be driven around the dunes themselves. Instead, she went back to the jeep that had taken her to the dunes, but in order to make a bit of extra cash in hand, the driver had picked up four Vietnamese customers. They were taking up all the seats in the jeep, so Gemma was asked to sit in the boot, like a dog going on a car ride. Luckily, she hadn’t been driven for too long in this inhumane manner, when who should she bump into? No other than Billy Elliot and his entourage: Harry, Callum and Matty…

Harry wasn’t impressed to see Gemma being driven around like a dog, so he had a word with the driver for their tour (which was completely separate to the tour Gemma was on) and their driver agreed to let Gemma ride with them, sitting on a normal seat, like a human. It saved an underwhelming day from being borderline humiliating!

After a troubling couple of days in Mui Ne, we were glad to be leaving on the last leg of our open bus ticket, heading towards Ho Chi Minh City. This was probably the best bus journey we undertook in Vietnam, nothing particularly unusual happened (other than one customer insisting on watching films on his phone with the sound turned up to full, with no headphones, but in the grand scheme of things, that is still very good for a Vietnamese bus journey)! We were pleased to arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, it had a somewhat similar feel to Hanoi (in as far as it is a major city in Vietnam) but it also certainly had its own character.

We saw the Phuoc Hai Temple, which had a lot of activity, most likely due to the lunar new year and also popped into the post office (which has amazing architecture) and saw the Opera House and Notre Dame (their version of it)!

There were people dancing inside the temple grounds, and people were also freeing birds from a cage, presumably as some sort of good luck gesture for the new year. We didn’t do this ourselves, as it doesn’t seem particularly kind to be keeping birds locked up in a cage for this purpose and we suspect they just get caught again later to be sold to the new person who wants to free them.

We received a recommendation from a friend, Martin, uncle of Rebecca who Steve travelled around West Canada with about 12 years ago, to go to a restaurant called 5KU Station. As we felt that overall you can trust a recommendation from Martin, we headed over there without looking into exactly what makes the restaurant stand out. Upon arriving we quickly found out, they bring over some hot coals and a grill and you cook your own food at your table, which is quite a novelty.

The food was delicious (even if we do say so ourselves after we cooked it!) but we had no idea how much to order and ended up with enough food to feed about eight people. In fact, the restaurant seemed to feel a little guilty about letting us order so much, so didn’t charge us for one of the huge dishes we had ordered and barely touched.

One of the highlights (and lowlights, depending on how you look at it) was visiting the Vietnamese War Museum. We went with a group of girls that we had bumped into several times throughout Vietnam, Kerry, Katie and Georgia, and none of us knew much about the Vietnam War (or the American War as they call it in Vietnam). It wasn’t something which had ever been covered at school, and films based on Vietnam had never appealed to any of us. So it was quite an eye-opening experience learning the sequence of events leading to the war, and the effect the war had on the country. We aren’t big fans of taking photographs at museums, but we can wholeheartedly recommend that anyone going to Ho Chi Minh City should visit. The devastating effects of Agent Orange, the nerve agent used to poison land and people are still reaping devastating effects on people living in Vietnam, as although the war finished decades ago, the genetic deformities and debilitating diseases are passed on for three to five generations. Victims of Agent Orange aren’t allowed to marry or have children. To save this post from becoming any sadder, here is a picture of both of us selling coconuts, traditionally, before getting to the museum.

We also visited the Chu Chi (Ben Duoc) tunnels, that the Vietnamese partly consider helped them defeat America in the war. Before venturing through the tunnels themselves, they needed a volunteer to demonstrate how to get into, and out of, the foxholes. We entitle the following The time Steven went down a foxhole and came up as a Vietnamese Man:

Walking (or crawling) through the tunnels was quite an experience, with a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, by the time we reached the end we were dripping with sweat, and feeling very claustrophobic. It is hard to imagine people moving around with heavy gear, wearing uniforms, for miles on end – the only slight positive is the Vietnamese were probably averaging a foot or two shorter than Steve is now.

Overall Vietnam has been amazing, we have seen so many things from party hostels to war museums, to eating street food on tiny plastic chairs to barbecuing our own food right there on the table. We’ll be sad to say goodbye, but at the same time, we are excited to see what Cambodia has to offer. As a little overview, the following shows our route through Vietnam (all by bus), starting from Hanoi and ending in Ho Chi Minh.

If you have enjoyed this post, please consider liking our Facebook page below. By doing this, you will be kept up to date with our adventures. This includes being told when there is a new blog post for you to enjoy. It also helps us grow our site and following.

[efb_likebox fanpage_url="https://www.facebook.com/OurBigPlanet" fb_appid="1489467474509397" box_width="320" box_height="240" responsive="1" show_faces="1" show_stream="0" hide_cover="1" small_header="1" hide_cta="1" locale="en_US"

]