Weekend in Sai Gon and Mui Ne

a friend of mine had invited me to go to vietnam a couple of months ago, but she only wanted to go this july. i put the thought away knowing that a lot of things would happen in three months. and i was right. the trip didn't seem to be happening as planned.

then i had a eureka moment - why wait for companions when i can go by myself?! so that very day i booked my flights to Saigon - now called Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC. at the very last minute though, someone joined in. but what an awesome weekend it had been!

i've asked a great number of people who had been there before and most of them mentioned that there's not much to do in HCMC. i think it's because not many of them are historians, who otherwise would not pass on going to war memorials and such to get their dose of the 'Nam War history. while i'm interested in war stories as well, i prefer an audio-visual demonstration instead :)

that being said, i had planned to only spend the night in the city, and head to Mui Ne the next day and stay overnight, before heading back to Saigon and onward to Singapore. it sounded like a real rush, i knew it would be - but that's how i normally make the most out of a short trip :) 

and so we arrived in HCMC around nine in the evening, and i have planned to meet some people from CouchSurfing who are willing to meet up for coffee and show me around the city since we'll only be there that night. due to unfortuitous events, we didn't manage to get to the coffee shop until about half past 10. it was very nice of them to wait for us and Lu welcomed us with wonderful tea and iced coffee and the warmth of his cozy coffee shop.

meet-up at lu cupffee with local CSers

perhaps around past midnight, Huy - another CSer - arrived at the shop with two other travellers and since Frederico wanted alcohol to be involved and Huy wanted to watch the match, it was our cue to change venue. Huy brought us then to Pham Ngu Lao - the most popular area for backpackers. 

 

watching the Germany vs Greece match at Pham Ngu Lao

for beers that only cost 10k VND a bottle (about 60 cents SGD), it was the steal of the night! we probably got back to the hotel at about 4 in the morning. and had to be at the bus terminal by exactly 7. hah!

the journey to Mui Ne was not exactly the most comfortable - it was five hours of glorious pain. i was pretty tired, and so slept nonetheless, but woke up with an aching rear and a stiff neck. and yet - when we got there - i knew every second i endured was worth it!

the beach, the sand structures, the fairy stream and the fishing village

since it was such a short trip, we didn't really have chance to laze around the beach. we had lunch in a beach-front restaurant and had a few minutes to take photos and that was it. nevertheless, the time cut short for the beach was well spent - for the amazing sand dunes!

i'm curious to see the sand dunes as i've never seen this before. i've always wanted to go to egypt and get a glimpse of their historic deserts - so i'm bummed that i've not known about the sand dunes of mui ne before! and so there i was, at awe, for about an hour, walking thru the sands and enduring the prickly pain the sand made against my skin as the breeze was angrily blowing them towards me as i dug my feet further up. i didn't care. i was so happy :)

so tired from the half-day tour, we came back to the hotel ready to take a dip and probably head out for dinner. well, that didn't happen. we came back, met some strangers, and went straight to doing saturday night. we did it great justice. haha.

that's what i did last weekend, folks! what did you do? :)