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New Year’s Eve was an extremely strange time. Expecting Mui Ne to have at least one or two things going on we were stunned by the silence around us. Restaurants were relatively empty and the usual flood of people to the beach to watch the fireworks laid on by the posh hotels was just a trickle. Then we found out why. Not a single posh resort had fireworks to justify the $75 tickets for the New Year Bash…….cheap skates!!

However, we made the most of it with Marsela and Daniel, a German couple, who are travelling for a year. We sat on the beach, chatted over wine and watched a couple of Austrian women do their traditional thing……waltz on the beach to The Blue Danube that they sang to each other…..aaahhhhhh.

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Mui Ne is a strange little place. It’s stretched out over around 15kms, with just one road running the whole length. There is no beach for pretty much most of its length, just a long concrete storm wall protecting the beach but, thankfully, the stretch by our hotel is fine. The hotel is also great value at $22, with a fab pool and pretty gardens. We looked in some places asking considerably more money for a lot less value. Well done Cheryl for persevering to the very last place as Neil had just about given up looking and he had planned to get the next bus out.

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We also caught up with Catherine again who came to Mui Ne just the day before we left. We had a really good evening with her, Dani and Marsi and Michelle from Belgium who, apparently, has bumped into Catherine all over Vietnam. We all enjoyed the fresh fish and cheap wine and more cheap wine at the local restaurant whilst listening to an 80’s soundtrack.

Sad news today, January 2nd. Clive’s father died in hospital this morning in his sleep. Neil has so many memories of him…..at the rugby, driving Clive and him home from the pub on many occasions and, of course, always charming the ladies!! RIP Bert, you were a lovely man.

This is our third and possibly final trip to Vietnam. When we came the first time, 3 years ago, we left vowing never to return due the incessant hassle and noise. Within 2 weeks we decided we had to return because there were more things that we liked than disliked about the country and we had lots we still wanted to do.

Sure enough, the following year we spent 2 months exploring new places. This time we have had another two months doing some new stuff and going over some old ground. Sadly, the continuous noise from the roads and the fact that Vietnamese people are just plain LOUD has paid its toll! There is no awareness of others and no thought as to the consequences of their actions. This reflects in their insane driving and the fact that at 06.00 a.m. in a hotel dominated by western people, it’s OK to shriek from one end of the hotel to each other. When you point it out to them they appear genuinely sorry for their actions but we have this sneak feeling that the apology will be short lived. So, finally, it is Goodnight Vietnam and thank you for the experience.

Next stop is a night in Ho Chi Minh City before flying to Kuala Lumpur to catch our onward flight to Sri Lanka.