April 8 - Coasting
Each day that starts with a swim in the ocean is a nice one - it was true for this Sunday, too. There were beautiful shells laying around, waiting to be collected.
The beach I slept on - not a lot of people, are there...?
I left, literally starving, have not had a dinner the previous evening - I was fighting with the elements on nature. Soon I found a restaurant, where not only the sign, but also the menu was in Russian, followed by Vietnamese and then English. You see, this place in Vietnam is a beloved destination for Russian tourists, probably from Siberia, they just have to fly southwards for a few hours, to escape the harsh weather - and they are on a beautiful beach with warm weather, all for reasonable prices. Homo oeconomicus. The waiter and the cook at the restaurant was a young kid, maybe 12 or so, he took a long time, but prepared quite a tasty omelet.
A bit later I reached the town of Mui Ne. There, and pretty much for the remainder of the day, I saw a number of tourist resorts next to the road, one after the other, mostly rather empty. Honestly, I can't imagine these ever being completely full, but then who knows; maybe April is a slow season. A lot of the resorts had Russian signs up front - and I did see (and hear) a couple of tourists from there.
I stopped at a campground, it had been mentioned by both of my books, it would have been my destination of the previous day, had it not been for the sandstorm. A very pleasant, well-kept place with a number of chilling tourists from all over the world. Sleeping there is inexpensive, costs about $2, for that, you get all facilities and Wifi. The omelet the kids prepared earlier was good, but I was still hungry, so had a second breakfast, which was just OK. The waves were quite large, here I also went in for a swim - and felt quite a current, luckily, it did not drag me out, just along the coast. There was a group of German tourists, I sat down with them for a chat.
Large waves at the campground
I had been on the road for over a month and somehow I was not to keen to leave the the nice place, especially with my bike not working well (stuck in the middle crank), I felt that my energy for biking had let down. It was not until noon that I stood up from the comfy lounge chairs.
The downtown of Mui Ne, which I reached around noon (yes...), had views of the harbor with dozens and dozens of small fishing boats.
As seen from downtown Mui Ne
I got tempted to go in for a swim a bit later, but seeing this beach, you might understand me - palm trees, yellow sand, blue water...no wonder why Mui Ne is a highlight by both guide books in Vietnam.
Great swimming here - no large waves
Later I reached the town of Phan Thiet, where I visited some more Cham towers, impressive.
Cham tower in Phan Thiet
I could hardly believe my eyes that it was already 4 pm, well, with all the swimming, chilling and cultural visit, there was not much sunlight left that day - so I headed westwards, sticking to the coast. There was a big drop in the road towards the sea, I really enjoyed rolling down on it.
Rolling into the sea - well, almost
On the coast, there were rather poor and desolate villages, courted by well-kept, luxurious resorts, this section was really completely empty, I did not see a single tourist. My plan was to reach some cliffs with a light tower, but then I spotted another sign saying "Unique Camping Resort". I thought it would not be a bad idea to camp, although the wind was rather strong. The issue was that there was not a single soul to be seen at the place - until a young girl, speaking passable English, showed up, she told me I could pitch a tent, but it would probably be torn by the howling winds. She offered me a room for quite a good price - I got a large room, with TV, A/C, bathroom, however, the bed had no linen - very strange. I was unsure whether the resort was not yet completed or whether it was once well-visited, but now abandoned. Anyhow, it was a good opportunity to get some rest. I woke up once during the night - and wanted to open the balcony door - the wind almost threw the door handle out of my hand and slapped the door shut. I somehow managed to open in and was wondering my tent would really have been torn had I decided to tent.