Badly dressed tourists Part 2

Faces on one dress and images of Ancient Egypt on the other, it almost makes you feel sorry for the girl in the plain black dress.



There they are again, the tourists in the non la, I'm not going to rant, just growl quietly, my reaction is tempered because the hat clearly isn't keeping him the slightest bit cool

Badly Dressed Tourists Part 1

The first part in a collection of pictures of tourists wearing ill chosen clothing. These were taking in Mui Ne where coincidentally there are a high proportion of Russians. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether these holiday makers are Russian but it's worth while knowing that they have access to fabrics and designs not seen in the rest of the world since the 1950s.



Mesh baseball cap - Check
Oversized medalion - Check
Ill concieved shorts - Check
String anklet - Check
Moobs - Check
Overhang -Check
A perfect street outfit for the young bleached man babe about town.

And for the gentleman of experience:



Ladies also put in a lot of effort to look suave and sophisticated on holiday:

A Fringed Fantasy, the front featured prancing horses and a nautical theme. It's one of those pictures I will always regret not capturing but my "stooge" refused to stand still so I could take a full frontal over his shoulder. Sometimes I think he doesn't support my art.

More later.

Mui Ne for Christmas

We escaped the city for a few days and couldn't get ourselves organised in time to go anywhere outside Vietnam so Mui Ne provided the perfect answer for a couple of days doing very little.

Saw a couple of sunrises:


Ate a couple of fish and fish friends:


Drank a couple of beers at the latest incarnation of Hoa Vien Brewhouse:



Found a couple of ruby slippers on a yellow brick road:



Good beach, good fish, good beer. The flip flops didn't fit.

Holiday Travel

We joined the world traveler set and got ourselves an open tour ticket from Saigon - Mui Ne - Dalat - Nha Trang, a trip of around 700km at a cost of $15 each. There are several buses that do these tickets but we opted for An Phu travel which we booked through the TNK Office on De Tham who offered the times that suited us best.

I've read long tirades about the open tour buses but generally I found this a good way to get around with a few provisos. First of all we were promised "We garanteed all buses are A/C, brandnew with more leggsroom". They're not, they don't and they haven't. However they all left around the time they were meant to and arrived where they were meant to nearly on schedule.

I didn't get any pictures of the first bus we were one which was a pity because it was half sleeping bus, half sitting. I snagged a horizontal seat once we'd spent an hour tootling around Backpacker District picking up stray passengers and snoozed most of the way to Mui Ne only fully waking up when our driver got particularly enthusiastic with the brakes.

On arrival the tour buses operators will try to sell you a room in one of their hotels or trips during your stay but you're not held captive, there are options.

1. Pre book your hotel (or say you have) and after a while the bus will take you to the door of your accommodation
2. Have a look at what they have to offer, it might not be so bad after all
3. Jump a Xe Om, get a Taxi or walk to where you're going

We chose option 1 and had a cold beer in their affiliated cafe for half an hour and watched the world do very little indeed

We confirmed our travel the day before we left and our next trip to Dalat was in a less attractive bus without air conditioning unless you count open windows.



On the HCMC to Mui Ne route there was a stop at a petrol station to pee and buy fruit and snacks, there aren't any such facilities on the way to Dalat but they did manage a scenic stop to cool the bus and stretch your legs on the way.



Look carefully, you should be able to see the extra brake. The scenery was outstanding on the way and made up for the bus being a bit on the rough side. When we arrived we opted for a taxi the quicker to get a shower and wash the dust off.

The Dalat Mui Ne run was in a little Mercedes Ben - not a typo.



Which was comfortable and well driven and, after essential repairs, got us into Nha Trang in three hours.





So Open Buses, not a bad way of getting around, I'd happily use them again, just remember it isn't always exactly what it says on the tin.

Mui Ne

We had a quick weekend break in Mui Ne about five hours from HCMC by bus. The picture above was taken from Coco Beach resort where we didn't stay but did use the facilities. The following picture was taken from the same place.


Why tourists shouldn't wear traditional clothing

We stayed at the Full Moon Beach Resort and liked it. The rooms were quirky and cute, more bijou than luxurious but perfectly charming. The plumbing was a bit musical so if you stay there expect to wake up to other people's water music as it courses down the pipes. Nice staff, perfect positioning and a laid back atmosphere.



The pool is saline and the tiles are very nice, bourgainvillia drops into it from time to time but my photie-ography isn't up to capturing it yet.

The bar closes at 10.30.



There are lots of other places relatively close by where you can drink later.



Or you can time it right and get a bottle of wine as the bar closes and enjoy the sound of the waves a few meters from your table.

The view is stunning. Even at night.



But just in case you think it was all too idyllic .....











...here he is again