Day 109 – Mui Ne to Ho Chi Minh City.

The bus came and picked us up just gone 8am and should have arrived at midday… 2 hours after ETA we were in our final destination in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City or as it used to be called Saigon.

We checked into our hostel where we were staying in pods or more massive incubators, Chrissy just said it felt like a morgue, it was a weird but cool experience. We were going to go and check out the museum but it shut quite early so we decided to head to the Botanical gardens and Zoo, it cost us 8,000 dong to get in, so about 30p! Bargain, there were lots of cages with not a lot of animals but we did get to see some giraffe, elephants, goats, you know the usual zoo/farm animals. It was a good way to spend the afternoon and by that point it was a cooler point of the day so it wasn’t that bad walking around.

For dinner we decided to go for the old favourite of Frozen Yoghurt which was only a 5 minute or less walk from where we were staying. After that we popped over to the night market to grab a few things where I found out my haggling streak still exists! Win!

Day 108 – Mui Ne.

After the crazy day we had yesterday most of us couldn’t be bothered to do a lot. We chilled by the pool and Chrissy discovered there are loungers at the back of the resort that are right on the waterfront bringing through an amazing breeze, which is exactly what we were looking for in this heat. Chilled there for a few hours, then went to the popular family restaurant for lunch, jumped in the pool, made a new friend and discovered that this little town has ‘the best burgers’ in the Vietnam… or so they say. We left the popular family restaurant behind and made the 20minute walk down the road to sample some western cuisine. They were pretty good, I wouldn’t say the best I’ve eaten and nowhere near as good as Fergburger but it was delicious none the less. The chocolate milkshake I had though was massive and one of the best. We couldn’t resist on our walk back to drop in on the guys in the popular family restaurant for a quick drink and to say goodbye as we’re leaving in the morning.

Day 107 – Mui Ne bike adventures and Tyler’s birthday.

I didn’t sleep very well so didn’t join them for the early morning activities but joint them for second breakfast at 9am. The curtains don’t really do anything in this hostel so when the sun rises about 5.30, that’s what time you wake up. We discovered at breakfast that our new friends had had pretty much every meal in the popular family restaurant since they’ve been here and why wouldn’t you when it’s right on the beach front and is the cheapest place to eat in the whole town. It’s even the cheaper to buy a bottle of water here than it is in the shop next door to us.

After breakfast we hopped on the bikes and went to visit fairy springs This place is made of sand and the colours are just amazing. We trekked through it for about half an hour before finding a waterfall and then walking back to the bikes. 

Our main excursion for the day was to find the Big Buddha at Ta Cu Mountain. We thought it was closer than it was, after just over an hours worth of driving and asking many different people for directions we had arrived! It was a bit more expensive than we thought it was going to be but seeing as we had now come all this way we obviously had to go in. It was 120,000 dong for the cable car and then another 20,000 just to enter the place, so it was only £4. We got in our cable car, which was quite cool as it took us up and over the mountain. 

The views were amazing but we didn’t realise as we got out of the cable car we still had to walk another 100m or so up to the Big Buddha. It was quite a good work out and they’re not lying when they say it’s big! It’s called Thich-Ca-Nhap-Niet-Ban and is 49 metres long and is the largest reclining Buddha in Vietnam.

When we left here we made the long journey back to Mui Ne through rush hour traffic and obviously went for dinner in the popular family restaurant as it was Tyler’s birthday after all!

Day 106 – Nha Trang to Mui Ne.

The bus to Mui Ne was suppose to leave at 7.30am but we’ve learnt that Vietnam time is very different to most other places in the world. We eventually left at 8.20 and arrived earlier than expected which makes no sense at all. First port of call was for lunch, when do we not go and eat? We went to what felt like the slowest serving restaurant ever. After this we made our way back to our ‘Backpackers resort’ and jumped straight into the pool. Any pool is better than no pool but it did feel like you were just chilling in a massive bath because it was so warm, the only advantage was feeling cooler when you eventually got out. We ended up talking to the other people around us and got invited to dinner to the popular family restaurant 2 doors down. We spotted this place after we had eaten earlier and planned to go for dinner there anyway. It was a fun evening getting to know 2 Australians and 2 Americans who invited us to join them on their adventures tomorrow.