The Coastal road - Da nang to Mui Ne

(Not to make you all envious but ..) I'm writing this entry whilst sat by the swimming pool in the idyllic Coastal town of Mui Ne. This beautiful resort was once just a small fishing village but now the exclusive hotels, bars and restaurants take up the entire bay. Most of the tourists here are not backpackers but Russian families who have clearly been frequenting this resort for some time as all the tourist information / menus and often music is in Russian - very bizarre!

We're staying away from the main tourist strip in Mui Ne Hills (very pricey for what you get but ...) From the pool, which we have had almost entirely to ourselves most days, we have a beautiful sea view. We also overlook some of the local houses and you can see the women preparing meals and children playing below. It has been fantastic to recharge our batteries here and I could easily spend a lot more time relaxing but we move on to Saigon today - our last stop in Vietnam. Plus it's very expensive here so we can't enjoy this luxury any longer :(

Our first stop on the coastal road was Da nang. Most tourists seem to miss out this stop and go straight to the ancient city of Hoi An just 45 minutes down the road but we decided to give it a go and escape the other backpackers for a bit (most of the travellers we have met have not really been our kind of people). We were quite possibly the only tourists in town so we did feel a bit out of place but we really enjoyed wandering round the city and the beach front was lovely and very quiet until the evening when we were entertained by the children playing volleyball and climbing trees for coconuts.



From here we went to Hoi An which is a world heritage site. The weather took a turn for the worse as soon as we arrived and it chucked it down throughout our stay. Nat got so soaked that she had to buy a very fetching illuminous poncho - although it did help keep the sales people away for a change - they really hound you to buy things here, especially if you sit still for too long. We found it too touristy although the town was very sweet.



It was really special to celebrate New Year on the riverfront watching all the lanterns float away as the crowd cheered happy new year. The bars were packed with tourists so it was a nice vibe too.

To escape the rain we headed further down the coast to Nha Trang - a slice of Benidorm in Vietnam although with a much nicer sea front.



We got here on another overnight sleeper bus but unlike the one from Laos there was no one in the aisle. It's still impossible to sleep though and you're always thankful to make it in one piece.

Thankfully Mui Ne was only 5 hours away and its only 5 hours from here to Saigon.



We're really enjoying our time in Vietnam. Throughout our time here the local people have been absolutely lovely and the scenery on the
journey down the coast has been absolutely beautiful. Nowhere more so than on route to Mui Ne as we travelled through lush countryside
and rice paddies followed by sand dunes and the villages nearer Mui Ne. I'm sad that we don't have more time to explore Vietnam further but I hope to come back one day.