Vrrrrmmmm Vietnam Vrrm Part 1

I arrived in the city of Da Lat early this morning. After eating lunch at a noodle shop and walking around in the pouring down rain I figured it was time to dry off a bit. Sunday night I arrived in Saigon, Vietnam from Koh Yao Noi via Phuket, Thailand. When I got out of the airport a cabbie approached me and wanted to give me a ride. We walked a bit and he said you pay me and I go get car. I said no how about I follow you to your car. So we walked a bit more to a van with some other people in it. He switched with that driver and I got in. Pretty smooth on his part huh. The drive to the hotel was about 45 minutes. Wow, I thought Bangkok was busy. That isn't even close to the amount of scooters that Saigon has. They weave in and out of each other, other vehicles, and people. Its the most organized chaos I have ever seen in my life. Its like they all know what each other is thinking and knows which way they are going to turn. Crazy I tell ya. Its a picture the intersection and a video of what its like.









At one point along the drive we were stuck behind a road paver. Well the cyclos decided to all go up on the sidewalk. So now you had 60-70 cyclos on a sidewalk all trying to go the same direction and then get back onto the road. There was one brave soul that was trying to go the opposite way but he wasn't making it very far. My hotel was in an alleyway off the street. The driver dropped me off and said its back there. So who was I to argue with him. After all he is from Saigon and I'm not. He was telling the truth and I did find it. I decided that night to go to the beach town of Mui Ne about 3 hours north of Saigon. I got there and was lucky to find a great dorm for only $8 right on the beach. Once I got settled the beach was calling my name. The waves were pretty big there. It took me awhile to get used to them and not get knocked over every time. That afternoon the rain started. It rained and rained and rained. That evening when I decided to go to dinner I had another interesting run with a taxi. This time it was a scooter taxi. Well it was sprinkling so I figured why not take one since I hadn't done it yet. I was sure that I knew where this place was. We started out and kept going and never saw it. I knew I was wrong so I told him to let me off and I walked back the other way. He turned back around and said free ride. So we went. He kept asking me, "You want boom-boom?" "No I didn't want boom-boom". Then we passed it but he kept going. He finally stopped and I walked back the other way. Finally. It turned out that it was right across from my hotel. Basically I paid the guy $10 for a 5 minute ride and a "boom-boom" proposition. Gotta love it.


Yesterday I rented a scooter instead of getting a tour or getting a taxi. It was pouring out but what else was I going to do, get drunk? It was an experience. I decided to ride to the red sand dunes about 20 KM outside of Mui Ne. It was fun just barreling down the road like I was a local. When I got there I went on top of them to take a picture. There are kids who rent you a plastic mat that you can use to go down them. They approached me and asked me. I said its too wet. They said no it means you go faster. I told them that if one of them showed me then I would do it. Sure enough they were right. I asked them how much. They said whatever you want. So I figured I'd be generous. After all whats $5 to me. I took about 3 runs and it was fun. When I got back up they said, "You pay now." "Yes I pay now." I was going to give them 50000 Dong which is about $3. They ended up milking me for 80000 which is $4.50. Then they noticed my Altoids in my bag. "We wan't candy." Ok I will give them candy. I opened the tin up and it was like a feeding frenzy. I couldn't stop them. Once all the mints were gone one kid wanted the tin. Now a girl wanted it too. So they broke it in half and shared. Nice huh. This morning I left for the city of Da Lat in the south central highlands. It was one the worst bus rides I have ever been on and I have been on a lot of bad ones. There was one point for an hour where we had to keep slowing down because the road was so bad. There were potholes galore. My last night in Mui Ne I saw that a bus like that ran off the side of the road last year killing 9tourists. I serious comtemplated not going after reading that. Here is a video of the ride.




Now imagine that ride for an hour. The rain seems to have followed me here. The forecast calls for rain the rest of the week. Thats too bad if its true because there is so much here to see that is hard to see unless its sunny. So I will probably take off Friday. The good news is that my room here has two beds, a fridge, my own bathroom and shower, and cable TV for only $7 a day. Its super nice too. Awesome huh. Here are pictures from Saigon and Mui Ne. Cheers.





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