HCMC to Dalat via Mui Ne.

Leaving HCMC, or Saigon which sounds sooooo much nicer, was to be our next adventure. The hotel booked us our tickets on the VIP tourist bus to Mui Ne our next destinaton on the east coast of Vietnam. Promptly at 8am we were hustled into a taxi to, we thought, the bus station. A few minutes later we arrived at a "corner shop"and were asked to wait. "SIt please, sit" so we sat. Waiting just a few minutes enjoying people watcuuhing, "come with me please, come with me". Up we jump, grab our bags and toodle off down a busy main street following this young guy who was totally unemcumbered with baggage and now striding metres ahead of us. Dodging bikes, scooters, cars and buses we catch him up with a sigh of relief all round. "Wait here please, sit please, sit" so, once again, we do as we are asked. No sooner as our bums are on the plastic, childs stools - "Follow me please, quickly, quickly!" Off we dash again, straight across a busy main road, through a park to another main road one block over. At this stage it crosses my mind we may almost be back to where we started at our hotel, but promptly dismiss this as pure insanity!!!! We are hot, dripping with sweat and struggling to pull our main baggage along extremely lumpy roads and over iron barriers. "Wait here please, wait here. Bus come soon." Ok but this is a street not a bus station, how do we know when our bus comes and will it just stop for us or what - it is already half an hour after we should have left anyway and this is rather deja vue. Alarm bells are ringing loudly. "Best you stay with us" we say and, bless him, he agrees. So we wait and we wait - stroll around taking a few photos here and there and generally relax knowing we are in safe hands. I know, you can feel another disaster about to unfold and you will not be far wrong. Next thing we see a bus hurtle past and our little man waving furiously at the back end of it. "Was that our bus?" I ask. "Yes, yes but wait here please, stay here, right here." and he disappears into the mass of people who are everywhere. We do as we are told. Rematerialising he grabs my bag and yells at us to follow him - back through the park, across the road to our previous port of call where a furious exchange is happening and cell phones are being overworked. This is now getting ridiculous but before we can start asking questions a taxi is hailed, our bags are thrown in, we are bundled in the back and our little man jumps in the front. Off we go - to where, we have no idea and all we can do is laugh. We speak no Vietnamese and they speak no English and we wonder whether we are going all the way to Mui Ne by taxi!!!!! Driving out of HCMC through the suburbs and onto the motorway we travel for about 30minutes until we see this bus stopped at the side of the road. Coming to a halt behind it our little man jumps out with a big smile on his face "your bus, your bus. Get out please, get out". Well the bus is the right colour but we ordered and paid for a sitting bus and this is a sleeping bus. Oh well let's just get in and hope, our bags have already been literally thrown in the luggage hold by the very grumpy driver, so here goes nothing. Stepping on to the bus the driver confronts us with an open plastic bag???? We have no idea why. Showing our confusion he barks "shoes off, shoes off, in bag, in bag". Once again we obey and struggling to get our Keens off (which let me tell you would have been far better off being left on our feet) we finally get them into his little green plastic bag. "In the back, in the back"and he jerks his thumb in a backwards motion, sits in his seat and drives off leaving us to lurch towards the back of the bus to find a lounger type seat each. I have to say that this type of seating arrangement is a very popular mode of travel in Asia but the buses have been thrashed and it is hard making inroads into seat choice when everyone else on the bus has made themselves comfortable and are seemingly asleep. Consequently Gary and I spent the next 8 hours in broken, non adjustable seats which were one behind the other. The only way we could comunicate was if I first got his attention by hitting him on the head with my bottle of water!!!!!! The journey itself however was not too bad, if a little hairy at times, because let's not forget we are, after all, in Vietnam. The driver did drop us off right at our hotel in Mui Ne though even if it was with one, final grunt! Mui Ne. We were dropped off at the entrance to Mui Ne Hills hotel which turned out to be the bottom of an alleyway and at the base of a steepish little hill - hence the name of the hotel. Lugging our bags behind us we started onward and upward. About half way up a motorcycle materialized, took my bag, I jumped on the back and poor Gary courageously made it to the top on foot. This was a nice place to stay, swimming pool, all day breakfast, 2hours of happy hour in the evening, a kite surfing beach across the road, an upgrade from mui ne hills 2 to mui ne 1, lovely young people staying who attached themselves to us and are still in contact. All in all a good stay. We took a jeep to the sand dunes, walked along the perfume river but generally blobbed out, swimming, eating and interacting. The weather was beautiful and we extended our stay here for one day. Saying goodbye to everyone was a little difficult but we had booked our bus to Dalat so it was time to move on. The bus trip to Dalat was slow (multIple stops) and painful (cramped condItIons). The bus was small and crowded and designed for Vietnamese people who are only half our size every which way you look at them. Two rather large men from northern England were in front of us and the man on the aisle side only had one bum cheek on the seat and was hanging on for dear life as the bus driver threw the bus around corners both up and down the mountainside. One was overheard saying "first of all they scare the life out of you, then they make you shit your pants". Nothing good can be said about how the Vietnamese drive. Very fast, overtaking on blind corners and brows of hills, constantly using the whole road not just to the right of the centre line, the horn honks continuously. On high mountain roads this can be a tad scary and a huge sigh of relief is heard once a destination is reached. On the other hand it all works, even if a bit noisy, and there are few accidents. After 6 hours we finally made it - intact. Catching a cab to our hotel we were greeted with smiles, a choice of room and a grand welcome all round to a beautiful family hotel. Hello Dalat we are glad to be here In this mountainous, alpine region of Vietnam. More to come x