Vietnam: Mui Ne

Leaving Saigon for Mui Ne was the first time we had to rush to catch our bus. Usually, it's a hurry up and wait situation in which we get ready for the specified departure time and end up sitting around until people feel like moving. Not so this time around, as we sat at a café enjoying some ice tea and watched our bus stop at the booking office and drive away. Of course, it all worked out and we hopped on with our quickly assembled belongings, ready for the 6-hour ride to the coast.

Mui Ne fishing village.

We arrived in the resort town of Mui Ne after dark and quickly found ourselves a guesthouse. Then of course, we ventured out in the rain to find some dinner at a pleasant place right on the water. Here, we realized there wasn't a beach in town at this time of year, so no wonder it felt so empty.

Chicken pho (noodle soup).

The next day we took the local bus (honking its piercing horn for the entire 30-minute journey) to the fishing village nearby. Turns out Mui Ne is actually this village and the resort area where tourists visit and refer to as Mui Ne is really a place called Ham Tien. We arrived in the village as the sun began to set, which made for some gorgeous lighting as we observed the local life.

Sam helping the men push their boat to water.

Fishing boats + garbage + Vietnamese flags.

Seen on the beach.

Already tired of the single strip that was the Mui Ne resort town, we ventured out the next day to the neighboring city of Phan Thiet via local bus. It was a rainy day, so we sat at one of the many cafés for a bit, relaxing as the Vietnamese seem to do so well. I am assuming this based on the incredible number of cafés in each town and the even more surprising number of people in them at any given time. Getting our café fix and even some KFC (they love it over here), we boarded the bus again to try to catch the sunset at the red sand dunes.

Blurry photo from the red sand dunes.

The local bus took quite a lot longer than we had anticipated, so we arrived at the dunes after the sun had set - not everything goes according to plan! Even so, the sky was filled was some gorgeous colors for us to enjoy and it was fun to climb the dunes and look over the village and see the boats light up in the bay as the sun faded.