20.02 Day 36 Saigon to Mui Ne
Day 36 - Tuesday 20th February - Saigon to Mui Ne
The heat is oppressive with no end in sight. When there’s no pool or other amenities we can soon end up tripping over ourselves if we stay in our room, no one has any privacy, and Seb being a bit younger requires a consistent drip feed of entertainment or food.
From today, nothing is booked until we fly out of HaNoi in almost 6 weeks. We had thought we would head south initially to the Mekong Delta, but prospective continued temperatures at 36 degrees there too dissuades us.
Instead, after checking out we taxi to Saigon train station - a most unassuming and low key station for a metropolis - and buy tickets to Binh Thuan, 4 hours North East where we can shave 5 degrees off the heat. The online portals of 12Go / Balaou hadn’t let me buy tickets last night, but on the 15 (?) carriage train that will wind its way to Hanoi over 36 hours straight, we realise that’s not a problem when our carriage of 60 seats only 10 are taken. There are sleeper carriages with compartments of 4 or 6 berths but we’re happy in our soft reclining seats.
As we leave Saigon, 100’s if not 1,000’s of scooters and some cars are forced to wait behind the road barriers as we trundle out of the city. Everyone naps at some point and as we get closer to Binh Thuan, along with the banana trees we are familiar with, are fields and fields of trees/bushes looking like an upturned mop but the strands are firm green spiky leaves. Finally we spot their fruit - Dragon Fruit. Miles and miles of them either side of us.
We’re ready at the carriage door as we pull in, upsettingly our front carriage overshooting the platform so we jump down and pass down the bags. We’re four of less than ten people that get off. We know we need a taxi for the final 30 kms to Mui Ne, a small fishing village. The touting taxi drivers know too. From 620k vnd, we settle on 550k (our return trip on the meter is 450k). The 4 hour train ride costs less at 430k vnd ($30).
It is what it is, and after skirting past Phan Thiet, the nearest biggest town, memorable only for the giant Dragon Fruit supporting a billboard on a roundabout, we are dropped outside Mi Nhon Em Hotel. Up a narrow alleyway we check in at the restaurant area, the area covered with bamboo rooftop.
Our room opens out onto the pool and as soon as the bags are down, we’re all in the pool which is significantly warmer than at LannaRich in Chiang Mai. Half a dozen rooms surround the pool painted in warm pastel colours and shaded seating area above. Frangipani trees overhang the pool as do some coconut trees. The pool is quickly ranked No.1 on the trip so far. We opt to walk no further than the in-house restaurant for dinner and enjoy a coconut curry and burgers.
