Mui Ne, a 6km strip of sandy beach and posh resorts lies an easy 200km out of Ho Chi Minh - under normal circumstances, the trip shouldn't take longer than three hours. Well, this is Vietnam, there's no such thing as normal! It took us SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS to travel: that's an average speed of less than 30km/h! The bus left on time, but no sooner had it made its way around Pham Ngu Lao (the backpacker district of HCMC) than it got stuck in a never-ending traffic jam. Not once in the 200km trip did we leave a city, our first long distance bus trip in Vietnam didn't bode well for the rest of our trip: where was the green and pleasant country side of this Dragon shaped country? We'd have to wait till our next trip to find out!Anyways, after that marathon of a bus ride we pulled up outside the Saigon Cafe, which has some basic bungalows facing the sea for $7 a night - a bit pricey, but then again Mui Ne is a resort town, and with all the tourist influx prices go nowhere but up! After a very poor dinner of gelatinous fishy soup we made our way to bed with the aim of getting up early to make the most of our one day in Mui Ne.
Mui Ne is famous for its fish sauce, but its quite a smelly delicacy so we steered clear of it, instead opting to go to the Red and White sand dunes, where some photo trickery makes it look like we're standing in the Sahara desert ;) The Red Dunes were easy enough to find on our motorbike, but for the life of me I don't know how people manage to find the entrance to the White Sand Dunes and the Lotus Lake. We must have spent the better part of an hour driving up and down past the several kilometers of white dunes, and not once did we come across any signage pointing out an entrance to the dunes. When our patience got the better of us, we hid the bike in some bushes and set off exploring the dunes on the seaward side of the road, but we were weary of having our bike stolen, so we didn't go down to the blue waters for a much needed dip.
On our way back into Mui Ne we swung by one of the many fishing villages where we say a group of ladies busy cleaning cockles and scallops for sale, as well as many of the wicker fishing boats that the Vietnamese use for fishing close to shore.
Perhaps if we'd shown up earlier in the day the village would have been a hive of activity, but seeing we visited in the hottest part of the day, most people seemed intent on taking a nap in the shade rather than going about their fishy business.
We returned to Saigon Cafe after lunch hoping to cool off our burned thighs (suncream evaporates MUCH faster when you're riding a bike!) in the sea, but sadly the sea wasn't very clean - discarded bottles, bits of broken boats, fishing line, dead fish… not a very inviting stretch of ocean. Lucky for us there was a diversion on the beach: the staff of Saigon Cafe were harvesting coconuts to make fresh drinks, and we got to see a guy expertly shimmy up the tall trees to hack away at the ripe green fruit.
The Central Highlands
The following morning we caught our open tour bus to the Central Highlands city of Da Lat, and I can happily report that Vietnam is indeed a green and pleasant land. This leg of the journey was the complete opposite of our trip from Saigon to Mui Ne: not once did we drive through a village of more than a few hundred people, most of the way was through pristine countryside and hilly terrain with stepped fields and lush forest.
Da Lat is a very popular holiday spot for Vietnamese people, and we had the great fortune of arriving in town on the Friday of a long weekend. It was the first time in our S.E. Asian adventure that we had trouble finding a room for the right price, though our perseverance eventually netted us a nice room at our average of $7 a night :) Once we'd got rid of our bags we set off to explore Da Lat and plan out our two days in the area. There are a few attractions worth visiting in Da Lat proper, most notably the Crazy House. This is an architectural experiment by a local architect who attempts to marry architecture and nature. The result looks like one of Lewis Carol's opium induced adventures :)
From the Crazy House we took a short stroll to Bao Dai Summer residence - the summer palace of King Bao Dai, Vietnam's last monarch. Unlike other Royal residences that I've visited, Bao Dai seems rather plain and unassuming, with none of the pomp and grandeur of Western royal palaces. Were it not for the cheap admission price (about $0.50) it would have felt like a bit of a rip off… if you're in Da Lat, this is certainly not a "must see"! The next item on our agenda was to be a ride on the
Cremailliere, a cog railway that winds through the mountains to a Pagoda, but the rainy season intervened and stranded us for a good 40 minutes under a bus shelter, by which time we were too late to catch the train! We beat a hasty retreat back to our lodgings to dry off and prepare for the next day's adventure…
Easy Riders of Da Lat
There are several groups of bikers operating out of Da Lat calling themselves The Easy Riders - the originals have spawned many copy cats, but it seems from our and other traveler's experiences that the level of service from the "copy cats" is generally as good as the originals. Anyway, original or not, we arranged to spend the day touring the countryside around Da Lat on a couple of 250cc bikes, starting at a nicely timed 8am; though thanks to our Vietnamese neighbor we were up at 5am listening to Karaoke!
The day started with a visit to the "dragon pagoda" - so called because, you guessed it, the running theme is dragons! We were surprised by the number of worshippers around, but our guides said that this was due to the long weekend, once the kids would be back in school the pagoda would return to a state of calm. Once we'd taken a few photos and had a good look around we set off into the countryside, and oh what countryside! Stepped fields of an iridescent green lining steep hillsides, winding roads that twist up mountains, lush forests, and a clear blue sky. We couldn't have had better weather for spending a day out on a bike.
Our destination was a K'Ho minority village, but on the way there we stopped at a strawberry farm (the only place they grow in Vietnam besides Sapa). At the village we were shown around the church / school playground, and a skilled K'Ho girl worked the loom to show us how they weave fabrics. We were given the opportunity to buy some crafts directly from the creators, but in a reversal of the laws of economy the objects were actually much more expensive than if we were to buy them from the market in town!
Once the group of riders who arrived before us had left, we were shown into the village elder's hut. The sprightly 60 year old gave us an overview of K'Ho village life, and explained how he can speak a little English from his time in Nha Trang hospital with the GIs, but that his French is much better because that's what he learned in school! He proceeded to demonstrate some traditional instruments such as gongs (twelve different pitches depending on size), some guitar like contraptions as well as flutes made out of gourds. The final surprise was a taste of rice wine direct from the fermenting pot. No wonder the elder was so talkative! He takes a swig of wine with every visitor!
From the K'Ho village we drove on to a coffee plantation (three different coffee bushes - mocha, arabica and robusta) and a flower farm. It turns out that Vietnam has an ideal flower growing climate - its sunny year round and with a constant temperature - but till a few years ago no-one took advantage of this, as the cost of investing in a greenhouse was beyond the means of your average Vietnamese farmer. Nowadays though the use of greenhouses is spreading and farmers are moving up in the world, as greenhouses give the added security of an almost guaranteed crop.
Once we'd learned a little about the Vietnamese floricultural industry we rode on to a silk weaving factory. Silk worm cocoons are soaked in warm water to loosen the outer threads, then one of the factory workers skillfully scoops the loose ends and feeds them into the automated machine. This spins at great speeds to spool the individual silk fibre into silk thread. This being a factory, the thread is fed into an automated loom that weaves the silk into different patterns. Depending on the finished product, the silk can be dyed before or after the weaving. During our visit the looms were churning out white silk fabric. The thrifty Vietnamese let nothing go to waste, not even the silk worms inside the cocoons. After donating their silk for clothing, the worms are made into a tomato based stew that is very rich in protein!
A short ride from the silk factory led us to Elephant falls - so called because back in the days when Elephants were common in Vietnam locals would bring them here to bathe. The falls were a gushing torrent of muddy water due to the recent rainfall, so our guide advised us against standing under the torrent, which was a bit of a downer as I was looking forward to a fresh water shower! Close to the falls we found the Happy Buddha pagoda, home to a giant Buddha of the fat variety with a great big smile on his face.
After our visit to the pagoda the weather started to close in, so we donned our waterproofs in case the heavens decided to open up. In any case we had been really lucky with the weather so far, and the attractions we still had to visit were indoors.
On the homeward journey we stopped at a rice wine brewery where we sampled some of the South East Asian firewater (at an undiluted 65% proof!). The rice wine is made as any other hard alcohol around the world - boiled rice is fermented in a still and the distillate is collected and watered down for sale. The interesting thing about the rice wine making was the fuel - instead of burning wood, the still is heated using the by product of coffee farming: the dried husks of roasted coffee beans.
From the moon shine still it was a wonderful ride through the mountains back to Da Lat, where our luck with the weather proved its worth - the heavens opened up into a downpour only as we stepped off the bikes to get into our guest house!
Da Lat left me with mixed feelings - the city is quite kitchsy and there isn't much going on, unless your kind of thing is riding round a lake on a giant swan shaped pedal. On the other hand, the experience with the Easy Riders was by far the best excursion during our stay in Vietnam with an interesting mix of stunning scenery and unique culture with a touch of adrenaline. If you're going to Da Lat, do yourself a favor, and spend as much time as possible away from the city making the most of the countryside!
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