Vietnam - Life is a Beach :)
Nha Trang
After an overnight bus from my beloved Hoi An to Nha Trang, I think I almost instantly decided that I didn't like Nha Trang. Compared to Hoi An it was brash, loud, dirty and much more of a bustling city than I had imagined. Everything about it screamed that it was trying to be an Asian version of Miami, and failing at it...
I didn't really give it much of a chance, something with hindsight I probably should have done. But in the moment I went with my instinct, and my instinct was very much get me out of here. I took myself off for a run to explore the beach. The weather in Hoi An had not really allowed any beach time which is a tragedy as photos of the beaches there on a sunny day looked stunning - again another reason to return again one day :) The strip of beach at Nha Trang was nice and long but built alongside a really busy road, with heavy traffic at most times of the day. The beach was full of people, even early in the morning but the ocean was nice and flat which meant you could swim easily. I did my first run in possibly 8 weeks... My legs and glutes did not thank me as I encouraged them to run faster each mile that we went. But it was done and I have the movement back in my legs once again, and my lungs didn't collapse - phew!! I miss running, I miss the adrenaline kick that comes racing through your body, and the instant energy that you get as you run harder and faster. I spoke to Coach after about how slow that run had been and how hard it was to push myself. He reminded me I am supposed to be on a break and resting, and to take each run while I am on this journey to simply explore a new place. Not think about my garmin and how fast or slow I am going, just enjoy the journey itself. He's a wise man my Coach :) He also taught me to follow my instinct, so shortly after my run I took myself to the bus station and changed my ticket to leave Nha Trang the next morning instead of two days later that I had previously planned.
One thing that I really enjoyed about Nha Trang was that there was really nothing else interesting to do there except sit on sun loungers at the fancy Sailing Club on the beach. A good friend Claire, and school friend Tanya had introduced me to the idea about the Sailing Clubs in Nha Trang and Mui Ne. Very nice settings and very accessible, even to the backpacker. I sat right on the beach and ordered a large beer :) I noticed that all of the backpackers from my various bus journeys this last week were there too. All drinking the cheapest form of alcohol on the menu! Haha! Seeing them all there makes me feel slightly better about stretching my budget for the day sitting there. It was my piece of sanity in the crazy concrete jungle of Nha Trang. During my day here I met a couple of girls who helped me out with a handstand photo on the beach and we swapped stories as we do as backpackers. I also chatted to friends who had been in Vietnam previously and made my plans to move to Mui Ne the next day. It was funny hearing everyones views on the beaches - some people thought if I wanted beach time I should stay in Nha Trang which has a calmer beach, some people thought if I wanted rustic i needed to move to Mui Ne. I took the decision to move on the more rustic lifestyle which I felt was much more me than the concrete city.
Mui Ne
I woke up early in Nha Trang and waited for my bus to take me to Mui Ne. I learned that the hostel offered a breakfast so I ran across the road to collect it and explained I was taking a bus and bless them they made me an on the road breakfast. The french stick was so amazingly fresh and warm, and they had packed jam and butter for me, and had poured a boiling hot black coffee into a plastic container for me with a lid and straw lol! It worked perfectly for me :)
I knew as soon as I arrived in Mui Ne I would enjoy myself! It had that beach bum calm settled feeling, which I knew I would settle into very easily. I quickly found my hostel - Mui Ne Backpackers, which was more expensive than the others but had such great reviews that I really wanted to stay there.
As soon as I arrived I realised that there was an organised tour about to leave to see the white and red sand dunes in Mui Ne. I couldn't remember if people had recommended them or not but the afternoon only cost $7 so I literally dropped my bags and jumped into the jeep with 4 very friendly chinese girls. I had mixed feelings about going to the sand dunes in Mui Ne. as I had had such a wonderful experience in the Sahara with Frenchie in March 2011 that I didn't want to risk ruining my memories. As fate would have it I really didn't have to worry about this at all as the rain followed us and as soon as we arrived at the dunes the heavens opened. Weather aside, as much as the dunes were fun and quite pretty they didn't even slightly compare to those in Morocco where we had spend many a day walking for hours and seeing nothing but sand, not to mention the hours we had spent running up and down the peaks of the sand and breaking up the clean tips with our wonderful footprints. Ah such special memories of our time in Morocco :)
I spent my first night sleeping in a 6 bed dorm room, and immediately made friends with a guy from Germany and a girl who had been backpacking for 22 months so far! We made dinner plans, and during our evening we went to a very cool local restaurant next to the backpackers where I ate rice and chili prawns for absolutely no expense at all! During dinner two english girls who had helped me earlier to find the backpackers joined us, and it was lovely because we all clicked and got on so well. The two girls were on medical training for their medical degrees in Ho Chi Minh and were taking a brief break from the city in Mui Ne. Alex had invited his friend Fabien from Switzerland also and he was really well traveled also. The evening was really fun, and so much positive energy amongst the group. We found a bar which offered free drinks for the girls, and cheap drinks for the guys then settled back into the bar next to the backpackers and gossiped our way through the evening. We followed the exact same pattern the next morning also!
I had told everyone about my handstand 365 challenge and everyone was so excited for me, giving me tips on opening up a twitter account, how to get my handstands more widely recognised and all wanted to stay in touch to follow me! Let's face it, the group of friends had all been involved in so many of my handstands during our time together! Before bed that first night we had taken photos of me by the pool in the dark. During our time waiting for everyones' buses the next day (everyone left me the very next day - sad times), we saw a random girl wandering around the backpackers in a wedding dress... As soon as we saw this girl, Candice and I just smiled at each other and said that's a handstand photo right there! So I asked the girl if I could have a photo and she said yes and looked very, very confused when I jumped onto my hands into a handstand. As soon as I posted the photo all of my friends confessed their love for the image! So funny, such good memories from Mui Ne. I am sure I will keep in touch with many of the friends I made here, and hope to see Candice and Tori in Ho Chi Minh later in the trip for dinner.
Mui Ne was a wonderful 48 hour adventure filled with meeting awesome people, swapping travel stories, planning the future of 365 handstand challenge, doing lots of kick ass original handstands, watching kite surfers, surfers and windsurfers and spending time super close to the ocean which is such good energy for me :) I had hoped to rent a stand up paddle board to do some yoga on but the weather became quickly quite vicious which is a shame. The weather prevented us being able to head to the beach at all, and contributed to my decision to head to Ho Chi Minh a day earlier than originally planned. Not a whole lot of point being in a beach town when the weather is a raging storm every second of every day lol!
Life is a Beach - even more so when the sun shines ;)
xox
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