Ho Chi Minh City and Mui Ne – Vietnam

One thing that worried me, and read and heard much about, was the theft in Vietnam.  There are 86 million people living in Vietnam, 9 million of them in Ho Chi Minh City.  My Lonely Planet book says that although physical danger is rare, Ho Chi Minh City  has the most determined thieves in the country, from pick pocketers, to drive my motorbike drivers that snatch your bag out of your arms.  So heading off the airplane, I rearranged my passports, cash, and valuables in my bag and warned Dustin of the thieves.  We have yet to come close being robbed of our valuables, but did get caught up in a scam for our money the minute we stepped out of the airport; literary.  When we stepped out of the airport doors, we were looking for a taxi, and we had the address written down for our Ho Chi Minh City Hotel.  Two men in uniform asked us “Taxi? Taxi?”  We said yes, a metered taxi only Dustin insisted, as we had learned in Thailand, set prices are always more than metered.  He replied “Yes, yes, metered” and pulled out a taxi photo ID “badge” from his pocket to show us he was a legitimate taxi driver.  He turned the card over and it had a chart of the prices to certain areas in Vietnam.  It said 25-35 USD to get to the part of town we needed to get too.  He said he could do a meter but it would be $35, and it is a 35-40 minute drive, but he would do a set price for us for $25 USD, the minimum amount it would cost anyhow, according to his fake chart.  We were familiar with these charts as some towns in Thailand did not have metered taxi’s and only followed these charts.  So we trusted him and agreed to the $25, seeing no other taxi drivers around.  As we followed him and approached the car Dustin and I both started to realize many signs that we were being ripped off, but neither of us spoke up as he had already put our bags in the trunk.  1) The taxi was unmarked 2)there was no meter inside the car 3) upon leaving the other guy in “uniform” came to Dustin’s window requesting he paid him before we left 4) as we are pulling out of the airport, we see many marked taxi vehicles 5) those marked taxis stated on the side the equivalent of 50 cents per km 6) with Ho Chi Minhs INSANE traffic a 40 minute drive is only about 10km.  We have since learned it was a $5 cab ride.  Lesson learned.

We stayed at the Mai Phai Hotel on a busy strip in the main backpacker.  Traffic is crazy, and it is difficult to cross the road, and always taking a risk.  Scooters are everywhere! Weaving in and out from one another, around cars and buses, and everyone is honking to tell other vehicles of their whereabouts on the road.  Family are packed onto scooters, and babies are in slings or being held by drivers.  This is definitely the place NOT to rent scooters.  There was lots of shopping around, and Dustin and I discovered Vietnamese food, which I already LOVE.  They have the tastiest chewy French bread meat filled sandwiches, my fav, and I also love the fried beef plates, last night mine had beef, pineapple, and onion with a side of rice that I dumped on top.

We took a sleeping bus from Ho Chi Minh to Mui Ne, a beautiful beach resort town- best known for their natural sand dunes.  The sleeping bus was at 8am-1pm and it was so comfy and fun! Dustin did not enjoy it as much as I did as he did not fit in the bed, but I fit perfect and tucked in with the blanket and pillow provided and had a comfortable nap.  Way better than a sitting bus.

Mui Ne is beautiful.  We are staying at a beautiful placed called the Thai Hue Mui Ne Resort.  It has a nice restaurant, clean comfortable rooms, a large pool area with a bar, and right on the beautiful sandy beach with free beach chairs.  This morning we walked to Fairy Stream.  It is a beautiful steam between the sand dunes that resembles the grand canyon in places.  Just beautiful- pictures to come.  Then we spent the afternoon at the pool, it was a hot and sunny day. The ocean is not as nice here to swim in as Thailand and Bali, not as clear and the waves and wind mix the sand up a lot, but the sand is as soft and fine as we have felt yet!

I am also reading a lot.  For any of you that don’t know me that well, I am not a novel reader and have always thought it was a waste of time, when I could be reading and learning things I wanted on the internet.  But after my boss Tracy introduced me to the Twilight series a year ago, I read all 4 books and loved them.  I am taking advantage of the book exchanges at the hotels and I am currently reading a murder mystery book called The Day of The Dead. I also finished reading a true story of a man that spend 12 years in a gruesome Thai jail in the 80’s, and the torture he endured.  I tried reading a girly romantic comedy but became bored with it, and I have discovered that I like scary books that are full of suspense.

xo

Jade