UPDATE: I've been slightly behind on my blog posts as you can see, since we've been doing events back to back, and I've been too tired afterwards to write the entries. Now that we've returned from Nha Trang and are back in Ho Chi Minh City, I will try to post up multiple entries a day to catch up. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Our journey begins inside of a bus.
There’s one major difference to vacation here in Vietnam to vacation in the US. In Vietnam, we generally begin all of our events at around 800. Usually, we don’t get out of the house until 1200 in the US. My cousins in California wake up extremely late, but in Vietnam, everyone seems to wake up at 630 or earlier.
We met at the house at 600, and everyone was there, ready and waiting for us. We went onto the bus and began our adventure down to Mui Ne. This would be a six hour trek, so it was fairly long for my relatives. The bus was also not the correct model of bus, as it was actually decently small. There were four seats to eat row, but there was no hallway area to walk in, making it small in width.
We stopped every couple of hours at restaurants, and I snapped a couple of pictures as we ate. Once again, the price for dishes here is extremely cheap. I was able to get a bowl of bun bo hue for only $1.50. For the rest of the long excursion to Mui Ne, most of my family members slept, and admired the scenery around us. I’m really starting to notice how much harder life is over here. People have to really work hard to make a living, and many of them don’t even make minimum wage every day. On top of that, the conditions are also a lot different. Despite hot weather, not everyone has the luxury of having air conditioning cool their homes. In America as a child, I dreaded the days of going to grandparents’ house, since the days spent there were filled with watching TV, and eating Fritos while sweating in a warm room. Well I finally discovered that it’s a lot better off than living in Vietnam.
We arrived at our destination at about 1500, at a hotel resort called Hon Rom. We headed off to our rooms and quickly changed into our swimsuits so that we could play in the beach.
The sand was nice and white, and the water was decently warm. Since we were within the property of the resort, only people who stayed there went to the beach, and there wasn’t crowded at all. We splashed around in the water for a bit, and then proceeded to find seashells and hermit crabs in the sand. Given my terrible vision and all, I was only able to find any hermit crabs, but my cousins were able to find four hermit crabs in total. We put them into a cup, and carried them to a nearby place where we were going to eat.
Near the beach, there was a plaza area with plastic tables and chairs for relaxing. The family gathered there, and we ate various types of seafood: sea snails, clams, mussels, crabs. The food was actually sold in its live form right within the plaza, as the animals were displayed in large bowls filled with water. Talk about fresh! After the small snack break, we stopped by a souvenir shop in the resort and bought some small toys, keychains, and life vests. We played in the beach some more until it was dinner time, where we showered up and ate some chao.
Showering was quite a fun time. I don’t know if this is normal in Vietnam, but I suppose this relates to having luxuries in America, and not having them in Vietnam. The restroom was equipped with a toilet and a sink, as well as a showerhead. There was no “shower area” though, or bathtub that you would enter. The bathroom itself was the shower area. A small knob below the shower head turned the water on and off. As I suspected, the water was cold. On top of that, while I was showering, I even ran out of water, so washing up ended early. Overall, I just thought it was an interesting experience.
That essentially concludes Day 11. I fell asleep right after dinner at about 2000, and don’t know if anything happened while I was sleeping. Anyway, tomorrow we’ll be heading out of Mui Ne, and to Nha Trang. Until next time!
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