Mui Ne

It was hard to tell what Mui Ne was going to be like due to the flooded roads and the rain that was crashing down on the taxi's windshield. We were left at a hotel we had chosen out of the Lonely Planet. Both wet and hungry, we decided to rent a room for the night ... the cheapest being $50US. It was a great room with the hotel being right on the beach. The internet was free and there was a pool in the yard. After a fantastic meal, it seemed the rain had stopped. We went for a walk on the beach and then up and down the road to check out what was around.

It looked like a great place to hang our hats for a few nights. The hotel right next door had a cute room for half of what we had paid for ours. We put down a deposit and planned to make a switch the following morning.

Saturday, we found ourselves up and out early. We went for a long walk down the beach after seeing blue skies from our window. It was a beautiful morning allowing one to see white sand for miles.

During our short stay, we rented a jeep with a driver to take us out one afternoon. It was questionable as to whether the jeep was going to stay in one piece. Something seemed to be wrong with the tire and the guy was having trouble changing gears. Our first stop was at some red sand dunes. The driver actually left us there to go and get the jeep fixed or something ... he didn't speak English so it was hard to say, but that seemed to be what was going on. After a half hour we began to wonder.


He finally returned ready to take us to the next stop. The drive to the white sand dunes was very impressive ... perhaps more impressive than the dunes themselves.


We hit a few more places on the way back always in hope of making it in one piece.


The few days went by quick but it was time to head off ... we had a lot of ground to cover. We booked an overnight sleeper to our next stop, Nha Trang. We were being picked up from our hotel at 1am. We would make the 6 hour trek in a bus that had 30 beds. There was one half hour stop along the way.


After pulling away from the rest area, I saw an overturned bus in the ditch that looked the same as ours ... it was hard to get any rest after that. I'm not sure when it was that I dozed off, but I did awake to the bus slowing down and some gasps and chitter chatter. I looked out my window at 530am to see a dead body on the road. It was covered in thin sheet metal up to the neck ... two people were kneeling at the foot of the body praying. If that doesn't wake one up, not sure what would. With one hour left to our destination, it left me deep in thought to ponder the ways of life.