This is not a backpacker place, it’s just a seaside area that has been built to cater for foreign (i.e. Russian) tourists. I expected it to be a bit like Nha Trang up the coast which is a Vietnamese town that also happens to cater for the odd tourist at the seaside. Having said that, I haven’t yet visited Phan Thiet or Mui Ne proper, so it may just be this area. But don’t get me wrong, it’s a very nice place. The beach is long and clean, a long sweeping bay. It’s known for kite surfing but at the moment the winds are not here so some people are disappointed (not me!), and the clear warm water drifts gently on the sand. Vietnamese women and children dig deep collecting clams and deposit them in luridly coloured plastic colanders. The Sailing Club is a lovely, smaller hotel with a really good menu – and I even get a good Illy cafe latte at breakfast. Even the why why list is good so I haven’t yet been reduced to the local Dalat! But the people staying here all seem to be German, with the odd Russian. I think the larger more corporate Vietnamese hotels cater to the Russian charter trade. The hotel’s “left books” department gave me a clue, shelf after shelf of German and Russian books, but just four English ones. Come on Brits, where are you – have you stopped travelling?
The hotel strip is a good few miles long with the hotels on one side and the usual mix of shops, restaurants and bars on the other. The shops are all “same, same and not very different” doing a good line in fake t shirts and man made shiny dressing gowns with gold, red and blue butterflies roaming across them. The roadside stalls do a good line in “real” pearls.... But the “lowndree” is cheap and good! And actually, I don’t even really need to use that “Nyet” as they really don’t hassle you at all. It is hot though – perhaps that wind might actually be welcome....
