Trip to Mui Ne

Still in a bit of a jet lag fog. It's slowly lifting though. In the meantime, if anyone is still out there, here's the details of our trip to Mui Ne, which is a beach town on the coast.

The trip from Da Lat to Mui Ne was about 4 hours. For about 2.5 hours we drove down out of the mountains going around hair-raising turns. Doug's not prone to exaggeration, and he keeps saying that they were 90-degree turns, which is how I would describe them. Our driver, Phu (I assume this is the spelling, it sounds like Foo), would just lay on the horn as we went around the turns because you couldn't see if anyone else was coming on the narrow road. It guess it's a way of saying, "Here we come, if you're driving, move over because we can't see you!" Audrey and I are bruised from bracing ourselves in the van. I have never gotten motion sickness, but I came really close with this drive. Very telling was that I didn't speak for most of the trip! Once we got out of the crazy turns, we just had extreme bumps for the rest of the way - potholes like you can't even believe! Calling them potholes is an insult to them!

Despite the turns, we did manage to have some fun. Phu asked if we wanted some music (1st time he asked this although we'd been driving with him for 3 days by now). Doug said, "Sure." Phu said, "France?" Doug, never liking to offend strangers said, "Sure!" Yes, he even said it enthusiastically. Now, we don't speak French. Audrey understand a little. So, we drove though crazy turns listening to music from France. I didn't need to understand the words to know that we were listening to some angst-ridden love songs (transcends all cultures, I believe). Audrey confirmed that in one of the songs, which had my favorite – speaking/singing (if you've ever head William Shatner sing, you know what I mean) the singer was saying, "I don't understand you, my love" (it was a male singing, of course - men not understanding women also transcends cultures). When the CD was finished, Doug asked, "Do you have any English music?" Phu indicated that he did. At this point I said, "OK, bets on what the music will be?" Doug quickly (too quickly, perhaps?) replied, "Barry Manilow." Audrey thought about it (too hesitant, perhaps?) and said, "Michael Bolton." I said, "Celine Dion." Within minutes we were embraced in the vocal stylings of none other than.......Celine Dion! Yes, we actually listened to an entire Celine Dion CD. First time for everything! Seemed fitting for a bunch of Canadians. Then, on the same CD, as soon as Celine was finished, the Eagles came on! Now, that was more our style. So, we finished the drive crooning to some oldies but goodies!

Mui Ne was really hot. I had to lie down to recover from the drive (seriously) and the rest of the gang checked out the ocean and the pool. After lunch we went sledding - yes, you read that right - sledding, tobogganing, choose you word, but we did it. Where, you might ask? On the White Sand Dune. Yup - big (and by big, I mean there were a handful of people) tourist attraction here - get a piece of plastic from local children who lead you up a hill of hot sand and you glide and slide....or....slowly jerk yourself in the sand until you've kind of gotten down but also kind of buried yourself in sand while laughing and getting a mouth full of sand. You pick. Audrey and I were busy contorting our bodies trying to get down gracefully (or really, just at all) and were stopped by an Australian who tried to give us some tips. Audrey was polite but after he left she was very indignant that an Aussie would be so bold as to give Canadians advice on sledding! Well, it's not like we had the flag emblazoned on us or anything, so how was he to know?

Doug and Norah also went down with more success (they actually went first). Audrey and I waited while Luke slept, Audrey drank water, I drank coconut juice, and we watched a monkey and turkey play together. Typical relaxing afternoon.

Those who know me best will be amused by the fact that I may have developed the first case of snow burn. Yes, Chera, I'm sure you're laughing (she calls me the Princess and the Pea due to my various "sensitivities" like being able to hunt down a scented candle in her house like a bloodhound - they make me sneeze). Once off the hill my legs and arms started stinging. Once we got the sand off later (it was caked on us), I noticed that I had a collection of sand cuts and red legs and arms. Lovely. Still have the souvenirs. Nevertheless, still well worth the experience!

We followed our sledding adventure with a swim before dinner. The South China Sea is like bath water! Sadly, it's also in need of a good cleaning. Audrey was attacked by a Ziploc bag while swimming as there were several pieces of garbage floating. I'm sure it was clean by the point it hit us, but still. We just imagined they were stinger-free jellyfish and enjoyed the waves.

We returned to HCMC the next day. Relatively uneventful drive, than goodness! Now the pics...

Lukey the cutey!

Military housing on the way to Mui Ne

Lovely toilet decorations - still a big shower stall, but this time we had a curtain

Beautiful towel and flower decorations on the bed

View on the way to the pool

Frolicking in the South China Sea

Fishing fleet in Mui Ne

Driving toward the White Sand Dune. There's a yellow one too, which we visited after the white one.

Doug and Norah going down a hill

Returning from sand sledding. So hot, Norah's hair is curly!

Monkey and turkey

Walking back up the hill after a slide (gives some perspective of how steep the hill was)

Graceful me - yes, there is a sled there if you look closely!

Audrey - marginally more successful than me (according to her, this was how I described her treck down the hill)

The 15-year old boy who rented us the plastic and took pictures of us the whole way - and a few of himself! Also got us to buy him some water when we returned. Very entrepreneurial!

Hanging out waiting for Doug and Norah before my sledding adventure.

Distant shot of the dunes

Norah and Phu walking back to the van (she loved to say his name and really liked him too!)

After the Hand that Rocks the Cradle, I decided to try out my own version of a new fmaily (at least that what Doug and Audrey were snickering about behind me as we were walking!)

Family at the Yellow Sand Dune

Shot of ocean in Mui Ne

Back in HCMC in our roomy digs - bit of role reversal for the kids