29.-30.12.2002 - On train to Nha Trang Knowing there is a 12 hour trip in a vietnamese train ahead of you is not a feeling you find the most conforting, at least if got up at seven in the morning already. Or so I thought. Despite the bed being a hard bench at least 20cm too short for me, I got a very good night's sleep aboard. The train was very slow (550km took 12 hours) but then again, pretty cheap (186k per person) and it got us where we were going. And did so quite pleasantly - there was even a service cart from which they sold coffee for 1k and warm noodle soup for even less. I wandered out a bit in the train to see the people traveling in the hard seats cars to see whether the things I had heard were true. And by gods, it was all there. Families cooking their own noodles, couples playing cards in the dark, people sleeping on the overhead compartments, pigs, dogs, chickens.. We had bought some bread (it turned out to be some kind of sweet bun) for the trip from a bakery near the station in Da Nang and a nice round number of ten cans of beer.
30.12.2002 - Nha Trang We arrived in Nha Trang at 4am. I was a bit worried about getting an accommodation but again my worry turned out to be unnecessary - there was a screaming horde of approx. 50 small funny men waiting for possible tourists on the train. Us + a british couple seemed to be the only ones matching their criteria for a tourist, and they were swarming all over us as soon as we left the station. I filtered the first ten or so off by hand (literally) and the accepted a hotel offer of 10usd for a double. The hotel was supposed to have ac, balcony and ocean view - and it did. We got a temporary room for the night (and weren't even charged for it!) and by eight o'clock got our own room, cleaned and ready. Sweet. We had breakfast in a small pub by the beach boulevard. The owner was british (the joint's name was Jack's Bar - simple is beautiful). Naturally we half ran to the beachfront as soon as we had finished breakfast. For the first time on the journey it was warm enough for walking around in shorts. We swam, slept a moment in the sun and then hiked a few km down the beach and sat down for drinks. There was a lot of selling on the beach (one of the most extraordinary items I have ever seen being sold on a beach, for example - huge, live lobsters).
	Famous beach of Nha Trang - view from balcony.
	Riikka being tossed around by the waves.
It was off season, but still the feeling of the tourism business was somehow depressing after seeing pure originality for a week in the northern parts of the country. After lunch we decided that we wouldn't stay here (my original thougth was to spend 2-3 days here) but take off in the morning and spend the New Year's at Phan Thiet's Mui Ne beach. Having decided that, we toasted to it, got off our butts and got ourselves bus tickets for the next morning. After that it came to us (remembering the Da Nang flights being full and all) that booking ourselves the return tickets from Siem Riep wouldn't be a bad idea, and walked into a small travel agency. The owner (a dude a few years younger than myself) ran the business by himself. We chatted for 30 minutes, after which he got through to his friend working at Vietnam Airlines. The flight was booked full, but he got us tickets past the queue. Damn what luck, walking into that exact agency. I double checked his offer a few blocks down at another agency and they said sorry, flight full, nothing we can do. How about that. In the evening we ate lobster (600k/kg - the only expensive meal during the whole trip) and went clubbing. My intention was to spend the whole night at this Sailing Club, which was a well-known high class beach bar. But they techno "music" all too loud and we got bored in midst of our first Heinekens, so we left. I noted the escort girls available in the bar. Also the beachfront was swarming with girls after dark. We sat down for a while, watching the ocean, and went to sleep. 31.12.2002 - Nha Trang We slept late (until eight), had breakfast and climbed into the bus. The trip took about 4.5 hours (some 250km). The bus was full of people going either to Mui Ne or Ho Chi Minh City. In half way there, we stopped at Ca Na beach, a peaceful bay with little housing and one restaurant. I tried to bargain for 2 small oranges from a girl selling them, but she wouldn't sell them for the 2k I had in my pocket.
	Ca Na beach where we stopped for refreshments and urination.
	Mountains of the central highlands start a few dozen km from the coast at some places.
31.12.2002 - Mui Ne Again, I got concerned about finding a free room when the bus driver said that there aren't many available in the whole village. That's why I took the first available bungalow I was offered - at 35usd per night it was expensive, but worth it. Breakfast was included, and the small, cozy hut was located only 5 meters off of the beach line. We didn't take much time to settle in, rather than threw the backpack into the apartment and ran to the ocean. Ah, it felt damn good to think that we wouldn't be leaving anywhere for four more days. This was definitely to stop for a moment and regroup after tiresome travel. After eating some spring rolls for lunch we went back swimming. The waves were amazing. I wish I had had a body board. Even without one it was possible to slide dozens of meters on one wave. The profile of the beach was ideal for such activity. We ate shrimp for dinner and walked along the only street in Mui Ne, to come by a surfer bar down at the beach, some 300m from our resort. We parked at a corner table, shot some pool, and anchored down for the evening as we saw staff carrying firewood for a midnight fire. The New Year's celebration was nice, with about 30-40 people barefoot on the sand around the fire. Very much reminded me of our Malesian excursion and the new millennium celebration on a beach there - only in a smaller scale.
	Our bungalow.
	View down the Mui Ne beach. Our bungalow was 5m from this spot to the right.
	The same view at sundown. It was not quite match for one in India or Hawaii, but amazing sundown still.
	Fires at midnight. Some 30-40 travellers from all over the globe were present at the surf club for the New Year's.
	The bonfire was big, hot and attracted some germans so much they had to try jumping through it.
1.1.2003 - Mui Ne Tired and hangoverish. Got up as late as nine, ate breakfast and went swimming. After dropping the pace the day before, I needed to go somewhere. So I rented bikes for us and we set out to find the famous dunes of Mui Ne. Well, it just so happened that we turned at the wrong junction and never got where we shoulda been going, but found other interesting places instead. We biked to the Mui Ne village some 10km away, and from there on to the other side of the peninsula, where we found a secluded, wonderful beach and a small seafood restaurant on it. We ate lunch with no hurry whatsoever and biked back. Once we got back, we went swimming. Biking the 30km tour in hot sun was tiresome for someone with my stamina, so we didn't have much energy in the evening - after dinner we went to the surf bar again to shoot some pool, and the after few games called it a night. The night was clear, so we watched the stars for a while before going to bed. It's every time as weird seeing the familiar constellations in all wrong positions in the southern sky.
	Resting in a green valley after biking over a gigantic (or so it felt in the 33 Celsius sun) hill.
	Local housing.
	View from the hill on the way back.
	The beachfront was being built up. Expect to see dramatic increase in lodging facilities in the years to come.
	Fisher armada of Mui Ne village.
	A remote, secluded beach with this tiny seafood restaurant on it.
	Biking along the water line was tiresome, but worth it.
	Saying hello to mr Crab before devouring him and two of his friends. The 3 crabs, 3 Heinekens, 2 bowls of rice and 2 omelets cost an astonishing total of under 8 euro.
2.1.2003 - Mui Ne This was the first completely cloudless day, so we would spend it on the beach. We hiked the whole length of the beach, read books and idled around in general. And of course swam until I had sand and salt everywhere from ears to.. well, everywhere. Riikka had taken some hits from mosquitos, and her legs were all red with nasty bites marks. We noticed that we had no clean clothes left, so laundry day it was. Washing all laundry was unexpectedly expensive (12usd) - just because I didn't realize they would iron everything unless requested otherwise. What good might ever come fron manually ironing socks?) In the evening we went to the surfer bar again, but left early. The waves had been pretty aggressive, and my knees were sore.
	Each morning, women and children would comb the beach for small crabs.
	Relaxing away with coconut milk. It was very good for thirst - or at least the locals claimed so. I asked about adding rum into the nut, but they didn't have any.
	Walking the 15km-beach of Mui Ne.
	This one would never sail again. But it looked nice on the beach, and might be there for that reason and not just that the owner was too lazy to haul it over to the junkyard.
3.1.2003 - Mui Ne After slumbering the day before, it was definitely time to actually do something again. Biking had proved good fun, so mountain bike rental (2 bikes for one day cost 1usd :)) it was once again. This time we checked the route to the dunes and found them. We repeated the pattern of going to the surfer bar to play pool after dinner. We bought bus tickets to Ho Chi Minh City for the day after, and told hotel personnel we would be leaving. They were sorry (there were only 6 apartments and 4 bungalows in the resort) to lose a good customer, but helped us organize the bus trip and booked us a room at the other end. Mui Ne was the most memorable place (naturally, since we stayed there the longest) of the journey. Tourism there was very young, and it might stay like that for a few years still. If you enjoy resort-style vacations, you might want to pay Mui Ne a visit. Definitely it is a better place for a stay by a beach than, for example, Nha Trang.
	Biking up the final hill on the coastline before arriving to the small fisher village at the end of the bay.
	..and a few minutes later, arriving there.
	Housing on the sand dunes.
	Hiding out between the mighty dunes of Mui Ne.
	Posing in the sun. Despite the sea being not more than half a kilometer away, it was amazingly hot on the dunes.
	The dunes were huge. I'd say the largest ones were up to 50 meters high. People were using cut plastic barrels as sleds for sliding down the dunes. The speed of the ride was very high, and almost always ended up in the rider tumbling off the sled and into the sand, head first.
	Laughing at the stupid looking chickens on the way back. The birds were nothing but a small head with 2 enormous feet attached.
	Hi-tech internet cafe on the way to the Mui Ne Village.
	Relaxing before dinner.
4.1.2003 - Mui Ne Time to go. After breakfast we checked out (and noticed our room service tab had been running at approx. 0.05usd per hour for 96 consecutive hours), left the backpack at the lobby and went swimming. We would lie in the sun for a couple of hours before the bus picked us up at about 2pm. I realised I hadn't eaten any meat for nearly two weeks. Brrr. Part of me was reluctant for leaving the peaceful Mui Ne community, but on the other hand I was getting pretty bored, and was glad to move on.