We leave behind the Starcity Hotel in Saigon, along with the rather large rat mooching about in the outside bar area, for the delights of the beach at Mui Ne. Gill had done enough buses for a while so we take the chauffered limo the four and a half hours to Mui Ne, where we will chill,for a week awaiting the arrival of David, the much missed member of our happy travelling band.
Our biggest problem in writing this blog is what do you write about when you have done nothing for eight days... This week has been a testament to the power of unrelenting relaxation. Day after day of blue sky, temperatures in the 30's, cooling breezes from the South China Sea, the whisper of palm trees, the rustle of bouganvillea, the empty pool (of people, not water that is... as well of course as the amazing food here, fully partaking of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Ant is always partial to a pho in Vietnam, so that been his breakfast staple, he did always like to live like a local...
Mui Ne is in a beautiful setting on a long sweeping bay with pale sand, when the breeze did blow the sky filled itself with hundreds of kitesurfer's looking like an enormous flock of muticoloured birds. In all truth, tourists far outnumber the locals and Russians outnumber everybody, but our little boutique hotel, the Mia Resort, has proved to be a perfect home from home, we've been cosseted, looked after, served with fruit and cold towels round the pool, all in all an atmosphere of quiet refinement, so us...
We have made a bit of an effort to see something of the area - a walk down the beach, a local bus to the fishing village. And another public bus trip into PhanThiet, the local town with its markets heaving with freshly caught fish, crabs, skinned frogs and huge squid. Of course, there was also the usual Ho Chi Minh museum and school where he taught for a while. For further information, please read my blog the first time Gill was here, nothing's changed... http://gill35.blogspot.com/search?q=Mui+ne
We are writing this during our customary happy hour in the early evening overlooking the beach, with the inky sea edged with the lights of the squid boats along the horizon like a sparkly necklace. We have also got rather too used to various types and colours of Martini's as the week has progressed.
Two days ago this peace and serenity ended with a crush - a Candy Crush..
Neither of us are computer gamesters but we happened to innocently talk about how people used their iPad on holiday. The detail of our journey from this discussion to finding ourselves downloading Candy Crush is lost in the midst of beer and bacardi... But too late, we were hooked...
We have been in 48 hour candy bubble talking about candy bombs, disappearing cherries and a pairs of nuts and are now hoping that Hanoi has a support group. The number of times we had to ask each other, or Google it yet again, "what exactly does a wrapped candy do....?" was, given both our supposed educations, faintly pathetic... But Gill did draw the line at Ant just about to buy a set of three "charms" for about £50 to help his score.... The most frustrating part of the last two days has been the enforced time outs of 30 minutes when we failed to complete a game for the fifth time of trying....
Anyway, must go, Candy Crush is calling...
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Location:Nguyễn Đình Chiểu,Phan Thiết,Vietnam
