Lawrence of Arabia !

So we left Saigon , on our sleeper bus which picked us up from our hotel .... luxury , we were also given the best seats on the bus !! it is our wedding anniversary after all .. I thought they were a bit close to the loo, and wanted to sit by the window .. Brian copied and then decided to keep moving and faffing about.. he eventually decided once we were well on our way to go back to the original seat ... Now then , these buses are full.. then make random stops to pick up I can only guess to be family and friends who then lay the whole way up the aisle , often you wake up to find a friendly face smiling back , I have never woken up next to so many different men before !!! anyway , yes you guessed it Brian woke up next to a man !!!! check out the photo, Brians body language is very different to his friends ... ( arse soh !!)  The trip was amazing.. men strapping goats onto mopeds, pigs and chickens on the back of bikes ... Different shops , one selling coffins !!! and lots of very small ones , a stark reminder of the child mortality rates over here, number one killer Malaria !
Anyway 5 hours later we rocked up at the sleepy beach resort of Miu Ne and checked into our 4 star hotel, of course we had been upgraded.... flowers wine .. its getting a bit embarrassing now ...Went into town for a meal.. you know how much I love food .. not !! the choice was grilled frog / snake / turtle or crocodile ... I opted for prawns ... cant believe how much weight I have put on eating so little !!  might be something to do with drinking my own body weight in beer .....

The next day was the sand dune trip day ... I was very much looking forward to it..  we walked along the beach in the morning and watched families of fisherman bringing in the catch, which is a real team event .. everybody helps, they caught lots of little silver fish which they then ferment for a year to make fish sauce ... fish are dried along any available spot.. mostly the side of the road ... we were picked up for our trip in an old russian jeep !!! we were joined by a lovely Korean family... the added advantage of the trip which was thrown in for free was the free foot spa as there was hardly any floor to the car... that was the least of our problems as the doors all kept flying open.. I was clutching on to the kid next to me to stop him falling out whilst Brian was having his feet ex foliated .. weird that we all thought it was fine and never once asked him to pull over !! even when he stopped to tighten up a wheel nut did we question any safety !!! all just smiling anxiously at each other, and Brian crossing himself and swinging his rosary beads.. We eventually arrived at the fishing village where we were shown the fishing vessel being a coracle.. Brian was keen to try it out ... " the oracle in thee coracle " but then decided keeping it on dry land was a better option.. these things are woven out of bamboo and are very eco, no engines just one oar and very tippy.. After this we headed onto the dunes .... they were beautiful.. In the middle of all this Jungle there are these Sahara -like dunes ...  It was incredibly hot and tricky to climb... I stormed ahead to head the best shot of the dunes without the highly excited Korean family in them... It was really hard to walk up these very steep sandy dunes in the mid day sun.. I dare not even look back to Brian  to hear what Brian might have been saying and the mild language seeping from his pursed , dry , chapped lips !!   I actually thought ... what have I done ... there is no way we are going to make it to the top , when I heard the oh so satisfying " put put " behind me ... and there in a sandy dusting of sand was my knight in shining armour ... or rather very sweaty Irish man in quick wicking, easy dry non iron clothing !!!  on some kind of disability mobility ... Hop on he shouted, and off we went up the dunes.
Suddenly a local nutter with no teeth shouting hollering and waving his arms in Brians face, Brian told him to " get teh !!"  10 secs later we were stuck,, the looney came and took the gimp mobile off  us and drove it around getting it unstuck for 5 mins , he then gave it back to us and wanted some money !! Brian said " thanks very much " and off we went ...  it was very scary, the mobiltity scooter was over on its ear, and I was praying it would all be over... it then got well and truly stuck , both front wheels were in the air, and the back ones were spinning.. No bother ... I walked up the mountain of sand and after Brian had chased it down the dune he came to my rescue.. he really is my true hero........ after he had safely parked it back into it's disabled space !! and the locals were praying we were late to charge us more , we were back in the safety of our floorless, doorless Russian Jeep , we could all relax !!! A very funny day with the bonus of seeing this awesome country.. what country offer Jungle , sand dunes, beach , exciting cities.. we really love Vietnam...  off to Nha Trang  tomorrow and very excited ..