Dune (+ bad comedy!)

We started Boxing Day with a refreshing swim in the pool. No synchronised swimming today, but we can show Nick ignoring the No Diving rule:

For much of the rest of the day, the four of us went on an old-school jeep tour of all the local 'sights', starting off with the Fairy Springs.

Walking through a muddy red trickle without our shoes wasn't the best of starts:

But since we were in a river, we decided to go with the flow!

[Baboomb ching! Thank you, we're here all week!]

 

 

This was then followed by a lot of thigh-busting climbing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catching our breath for a second at the top...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Followed by leaping and skidding down the other side! :-)

 

 

 

The remainder of the springs consisted of rather strange rock and sand formations... Mweh... The 'fountain' once we got there, turned out to be a  small dribble of water. Despite that, we had a cool time, and no-one can ever say that Nick is a stick-in-the-mud. ;-)

[Mwah, mwah, mwaaaaaaaaaah!]

We went back through Mui Ne town again for long enough to take some more snaps:

 

 

Down by the waterfront where they bring in the shrimpy-fishy goodness (!?) they make the fish sauce out of was especially 'pleasing' to smell.

 

 

 

So, back into the jeep for a ride onto the 'main event' - the sand dunes that Mui Ne is known for. Here's some bad hair in the jeep:

 

 

 

And here's some bad hair on the sand dunes.

We probably should call it Hazel's 'Windswept Look'.

 

 

 

 

The dunes themselves were... a long way away. And we didn't have the time to do the Sand Sledging either - though it wasn't anyway near as exhilarating as the tour companies make out!

We finished the tour and got back to the main beach, where we took in the beautiful scene of dozens of the colourful kits cutting through the air. We both like this shot - the couple kissing in the middle give it that extra bit of romance. It's one of the better photos we've taken on this trip:

 

 

 

We finished off the day with some cocktails and nibbles at the (five star) Sailing Club to see how the 'other half' live - ie those who are not on backpacker's budgets!

[It may not *actually* be five star, but it was for us anyway!]

 

Namaste!

del.icio.us Tags: vietnam,mui ne

Gone Fishing!

On Friday we headed off to the South of the island on a tour of the nearby archipelago for some snorkelling action. The ten of us boarded our small but comfortable boat and it 'put-putted' (ed: that's the sound of the engine!) off at almost glacial pace... We didn't mind the slow progress as there were plenty of deck chairs in which to lie back and enjoy the view.

The snorkelling wasn't the best we've seen, but it was all still enjoyable nonetheless. While we were out swimming, the crew cooked up a storm in the galley for our lunch of fresh seafood dishes, including some freshly-caught sea-urchins. Here you can see them cutting off the spines from the back of the boat:

And this is some of our group tucking into it all:

Later on we all had a go at line fishing off the side of the boat. Though we both completely failed to catch a thing, Hazel is convinced if we'd had some better bait (such as SPAM!) we could have landed a whopper.

Everything else caught by our more successful companions was thrown straight in the frying pan. You can't get fresher than that!

A nice surprise to end the day was when they took us to a remote beach on the other side of the island, where you could walk out 100 metres into the sea and it was still at waist-level. This brought on great frivolity for the group, splashing about in the water.

Anyway, here's the obligatory 'Couple Pose'. Breathe in now, and smile for the camera!

Namaste!

del.icio.us Tags: vietnam,phu quoc,fishing,beach

Phu Quoc Island - Birthday Bliss!

Despite the delay in Rach Gia, we managed to get to Phu Quoc in time for Hazel's Birthday. It had been recommended to us by Rich and Charlotte, and it was definitely worth the seasickness Hazel endured on the boat over (and back).

Minibuses are available to take the ferry passengers to the main town on  the island (Duong Dong), although our driver took us directly to his beach-front guesthouse. Fortunately it was one of the two we had in mind, and it turned out to be great value - compared to some of the others nearby.

The sand was white and the sea calm and blue, and Hazel was in a very happy place! We were treated with a number of delightful sunsets while here. Check out the fisherman below:

As well as this one:

And this:

 

And not forgetting this one:

Here's a statistical breakdown of our time here:

• Drinking cocktails (or Saigon Beer), 10%
• Staying horizontal (sleeping/sunbathing), 60%
• Eating, 10%
• Strolling aimlessly up the beach and back, 30%
• Commenting on how amazing it all is, 7%
• Sightseeing, 2%
• Playing French people at chess (and winning!), 1%
• Floating (because swimming was too much effort), 10%
• Hour-long Massages, 4%
• Watching Newcastle beating Portsmouth on the telly 3-0, 0.6%
• Blog writing, 0%

All giving a total of 134.6% of a great time! :)

Namaste!

del.icio.us Tags: vietnam,beach,sunset,phu quoc