Mui ne and the Dunes

On Friday night, I headed to the seaside resort town of Mui Ne. This little resort town is reminiscent of many others I've been to, like Bali, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, etc. Beautiful in the resorts themselves, but kinda desperate outside.

Here in Vietnam, they really have the buses figured out. I booked a trip with one of the better known travel agencies here, Sinh Cafe. They have a whole fleet of buses that carry people all over SE Asia. I will also be traveling with the same company when I head to Cambodia tomorrow. The bus that I traveled on to Mui Ne was what is known as a 'sleeping bus'. Imagine 3 long rows of bunk beds, stretched along the length of the bus, and you get the idea. When you enter the bus, you have to take your shoes off, just like home. I have to say though, that calling it a 'sleeping bus' is a bit of a misnomer. It's more like a reclining seat bus, or a lay-down-while-you're-hurtled-across-the-country-feet-first bus. The notion of actually sleeping on the bus is ambitious. All the roads are seriously bumpy, and when you're laying down, you feel each and every one of them. Still, it was a pretty cool way to go.

One other thing about the buses here, is that while they may leave relatively on time, getting to your destination at a time close to the estimate is pretty unlikely. In both directions, the arrival time was close to 2 hours later than posted. That's about 50% longer than promised.

One of the reasons I went to Mui Ne was to photograph the white sand dunes that they are famous for. It was pretty cool, to be sure. The only thing missing was the camels and pyramids. It was super hot and toasty, but surprisingly, the sand was not too hot to walk in barefoot. I shot a lot of photos, but they all look the same. White sand, blue sky. It's kinda hard to make sand look like anything other than sand. But, I still enjoyed the trip.

The Resort I stayed in seemed to have a bit of an identity crisis. I don't think the owners really knew who they wanted to be. It was called the Swiss Village Inn. All the buildings were built in the Chinese architecture style. It was all Vietnamese staff. And all of the communications were in Russian. In the restaurant, they played Russian music, it was Russian channels on the TV, and the daily info sheets and boards were all in Russian. I really felt out of place speaking only English.

Tomorrow, I begin a journey to Cambodia. I don't know a lot about the country, so I am going against my normal routine, and going on an organized tour. Although the tour itself is in group, all the actual sightseeing is done individually. My city tour of Phnom Penh and Ankor Wat will be just me and my guide. I like that idea. When I go to a place for the first time, I like to shoot a lot of photos, and when traveling as a group, that's kind of dificult. I will be in Phnom Penh on Tuesday and Wednesday, then on to Siem Reap (and Ankor Wat) on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday afternoon, I head to Bangkok.