Hot Christmas + Vietnam is a building site.

Christmas was spent on holiday with mum, dad, sister and of course Chi and Louisa here in Vietnam. To start, we visited Hoi An via Da Nang airport, Chi and I returning for the first time since our honeymoon back in November 2006, where I posted the pictures here (some of my favourites from Vietnam). The old town, as you'd expect, hasn't changed much.





Even the restaurants seemed to be the same bar an additional posh wine bar. What really struck me was the development on the coast road from Da Nang heading south. From leaving Da Nang city until Marble Mountain there are numerous big name resort developments under way. Kilometre after Kilometre of fenced off beach front, earth movers and concrete foundations strutting out of the ground splaying steel cable everywhere give a sense of awe at the sheer scale of what is going on down there. The weather by the way, was miserable - rained constantly.

Moving south to Nha Trang, again a first visit there for what must be two years, not a lot changed really. A nice new terminal at the Cam Ranh airport making baggage collection a non-stressful experience. The only other thing of mention would be, again, the development along Tran Phu. The new Sheraton building, I have to say, looks awesome. I love the design. It stands with unobstructed views, and the 360 degree shaped thing on the top has to be bar...what a view that place will have.





It's not such good news for the Yasaka, which has a huge shopping/office center being built right next to it which has blatantly obstructed the view from some of it's rooms at the back...!



The old concrete shell/pillar has finally been replaced (it was an unfinished something standing on the edge of the public square on the beach front) - replaced with a..flower or a mosque - I'm not sure which.



One thing about Nha Trang never changes...walks along a beautiful beach!



Heading south again now, a 3.5 hour car journey to Mui Ne. The kite-surfing season is really getting going now but the winds remain calm until mid-morning. 7.00 am on the beach with sun already high, no wind and a gorgeous ocean convinced me that Mui Ne really is the place to be. Sun, sand, swimming and plenty of restaurants to choose from.







An interesting sidenote, possibly, I picked up a very old copy of Huck Finn from a second hand book store. The book has a stamp entitled 'Vietnamese American ****** (can't read), 55 Mac Dinh Chi, Saigon. BOOK SHOP For Students, Teachers, Members'. It has a name written in biro in the top, Pham Van But, and a date, 08-12-70. Obviously this book shop was there during the war years and stocked English language literature.

A fantastic trip overall, and Vietnam just keeps developing.

Mui Ne

My preconceptions were all wrong. So wrong. I thought it'd be smaller. I thought it'd be full of jovial red faced expats smoking cigars and playing tennis, mixed up with odd backpacker who got lost on the way down from Nha Trang. I thought it'd all be quaint little bungalows on the beach, tropical breeze blowing of an evening. Whilst partly true, here's what else I discovered.

Mui Ne should be renamed 'Mui Netski'. It's not that I dislike the Russians, their terrible dress sense, bad driving and stern features, it's just that I've never seen so many before. I failed to take pictures of the signs written in Russian -- they litter the travel agencies and high-end resorts. To be fair, take any group of tourists who don't go abroad very often and bring thier obnoxious but acceptable in their native countries behaviour with them, and it'll grate when you have such a totally different frame of mind.

Mui Ne has a very nice stretch of beach, now cluttered with fancy bungalow resorts. Here was my favourite out of the 30 or so I went in to for Travelfish, Terracotta.

Past the resorts Mui Neski looks like this:

Now, Mui Neski is 'one of the windiest places in Asia', hence a large number of people kite surfing. Forget the tropical breezes, try tropical gale. Here, looking back across the tourist area, you can spot the vast number of kites with humans leashed to them.

This is more the Mui Ne I had in my head:

On my way to the infamous sand dunes I found this sandy street. I don't want to harp on about it, just take a look and make your own mind up.

On the way, these guys wanted me to take a picture of them, so I did. They were fascinated with my brace.

Without doubt, Mui Ne has the largest number of fishing boats you're ever likely to see. Can you guess the highest employing industry in this small town? No.....it's not xe om driver.

Finally, I made it to the sand dunes only to be accosted by young scallywags with rubber mats demanding I slide down aforementioned dunes and have some damn fun doing it too. Chatting with the urchins, I find out they don't go to school. I ask why, they say no money. I have to wonder, is it no money, or make money? My wife agrees. Here is one of the anklebiters on his lookout.

Now to my motorbike. It was called the 'Rooney', bless it, after the famous Manchester United footballer.

Now that's all well and good, but I'm not sure about this one, because the name could be connected to something entirely different. Presenting the 'Pooney'-- who wouldn't want to ride one (of these motorbikes).