Mui Ne

After the excitement of HCMC, we decided to move on and see a bit more of Vietnam, so we booked ourselves on the bus to Mui Ne, which is a seaside town and very famous for its beaches.

The journey was interesting - we were jammed on a bus with lots of other people and we watched Karakoke videos all the way. When we got out, we were very happy.

Mui Ne is quite non-descript. It seems to consist of one street with shops and hotels at either side of it. Then around the town there are about 3 million high end resorts and golf clubs. That's not what we were expecting really...

Since we can't afford to stay in a resort, we trailed all over town up and down that silly street calling at every hotel to see if we could stay there. What a pain! We were followed the whole time by a gang of motodrivers who were all shouting at each other and at us, telling us to take their services as they would bring us to the world's greatest hotel which was just 10 miles out of town... I don't think so.

Finally we found a place with a room left and so the three of us decided to share and were installed in a shack on the beach. The beach itself was cool and the water clean and nice but unfortunately it was very cold and windy. It seems to be a mecca for kite surfers and wind surfers but as we weren't there long enough to take lessons and stuff, there wasn't that much else for us to do except to wrap up warm and chill out on the beach. There are worse things in life!

Excitement did find us even in a sleepy little place like Mui Ne though. We were at this restaurant on the beach, getting ready to have some lunch when Phil jumped up and brushing himself down. We realised that a snake had fallen on him and was on his leg!!!! We were all screaming and jumping out of the way and the snake was looking peed off - it had its head up and was looking mean and wanting to bite.

It then decided to make its way across the place and wrap itself round a pole, but it was then that we realised it was just a little green snake, very pretty and after its initial irate reaction, it was quite chilled out and minding its own business. I got a straw and got it to start to climb up it to get a closer look and Tom was taking pictures of it and Phil was also leaning in for a better look when the rest of the restaurant caught on to what was happening and got involved too. The commotion attracted the staff at the resto and when they saw the snake they all went mental!

Turns out the snake is mega poisonous! AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!

We were so lucky that we didn't get bitten, especially Phil when it was on him. I tell you, I was properly shaken and was thanking God, my mum, my guardian angel, lucky stars, four leaf clover and rabbit's foot while knocking on wood that none of us got hurt. There would have been no way we would have made it to a hospital for an antidote.

Then, a couple of Vietnamese guys came running along with a plank of wood and then went and bashed the snake on the head and then threw it away on the beach. ?!?! Some poor thing will spread out their beach towel to have a nap and find a dead snake next to their head - yowz!