Beaching it up (Mui Ne & Nha Trang)

After spending time in the heat of Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City, it was awesome to arrive in Mui Ne for our first bit of genuine beach action. Mui Ne is about 200 km north of HCMC and is set along a 12 km stretch of white sand peppered by resorts. We found a relatively cheap one on the beachfront, with a pool and all the other mod cons. Mui Ne is a windy place, which make it quite popular with kite surfers - the learners making for good entertainment as they were dragged face first down the beach by their kites. Not a lot was done in Mui Ne, apart from swimming, reading, skyping and eating from the fresh seafood stalls right on the beach, which were incredible (think tuna steaks, fresh scallops, prawns for only a couple of dollars each).

After a few days we made our way up to Nha Trang, which is quite a bit larger (pop. ~300,000) for more of the same. We had plans to head further up the coast to a quiet beach, but were roped in by Nha Trang and all it had to offer. We hired a scooter and got involved in the mad traffic and rode out to the local hot spring for a mud bath (which was awesome), and riding around on the scooter tooting at all and sundry was a great way to see the 'real' Nha Trang rather than polished resort fronts.

On our last day we went snorkelling, spent the day feasting on seafood, looking at crazy tropical fish and coral reefs, sunbathing and doing bombs off the top of the boat. Awesome. We then got on the night bus to Hoi An, and after all the swimming, and over indulgence in Bia Hoi the previous night, I thought we would sleep pretty well. I'm a terrible sleeper on any form of transport anyway, but the fact that the bus driver hit what seemed like every single pothole from Nha Trang to Hoi An (an 11 hour bus ride!), made for some pretty tired travellers this morning. We got in at 6 am, got a guesthouse and caught up on a few hours sleep, so it was all good in the end.

Finally, I must give a huge shout out to those whose weddings I missed over the weekend (there were a few!) - CONGRATULATIONS, we had a toast ('brown' of course) to ya here in 'Nam!