Ho Chi Minh to Mui Ne

what's going on??!!  so, charlie and i are now in mui ne.  we spent about 2 days in ho chi minh city; it was mad.  charlie said it best, it's like playing Frogger trying to cross the streets.  There are SO many motorbikes and then buses and cars, it's unreal, and most intersections people just charge, no rule no order, just go.  ho chi minh wasn't bad, we spent one day trying to walk to the Jade Emperor Pagoda; got lost as shit and then took our first motorbike ride.  that was pretty much the best part of the Jade Emperor Pagoda.  we both thought it was going to be like this like sacred temple and there would be people leading you through or some kind of monastic seriousness to the whole thing.  NOPE.  it looked like people were living there, there were dishes stacked all over, empty sodas with like a sip left, and the one dude carrying a TV around with his shirt off smoking.  it wasn't bad, just totally different than expected.

so, the next day we decide to wake up early and do the Chu Chi Tunnels, which was alright.  it must have took 45 minutes to get out of ho chi minh, just this sprawling metropolis.  the first stop was handicap handicrafts, so all these people who got fucked up from Agent Orange and bombs and mines making handicrafts.  it was weird, i felt more like the people who owned it were just getting cheap labor for this shitty artworks.  but maybe i'm jaded.  we make our way to the tunnels next and the they sit us down and go through this whole schtick about how the tunnels were built how many levels there were, 3 just so you know and just kept pounding it us how much smarter the Viet Cong were than the US G.I.'s cuz we could only kill the people in the first level by dropping bombs and that the VC used red chili's and pepper to mess up the dogs sense of smell trying to find out where the tunnels were.  the history of and crawling through the tunnels was really pretty cool, the propaganda of the tour, not so much.  but whatever.  so, it's also hella late in getting back to Ho Chi Minh, and charlie and i had booked a bus to leave to Mui Ne at 3.

so, we get back at like 3:15 and have to charge to the travel/tour office and they get us on the back of motorbikes and are like, cool, we gonna charge and catch the bus.  it was insane, literally bananas.  we have to race back to the hostel pick our our backpacks and then get on the back of these motorbikes to charge across town to catch the bus.  these dudes were nuts, running red lights, mashing, it was suicidal; but the greatest fun ever.  both of us have giant backpacks on, i'm holding on with one hand holding my day pack with the other going like 45 km/h.  we catch the bus, adrenaline straight pumping and get on.  hahahah, it was surreal. 

what is supposed to take 4 1/2 hrs to Mui Ne takes like 6 at least and we get here at 10 at night with no place to stay.  first order of business, get a bed.  the bus worker who is on there, basically just to make sure things run smoothly says i got a place you can stay it's 10 USD.  so we're like we'll check it out.  turns out it's 5 a night and just a dump, charlie and i are like perfect.  so, we're paying and this south korean lady is trying to complain that there's cockroaches in her bed.  pretty nasty so that's the first thing we check in our room.  it's stinks in the place but we don't really care.

we been two days in Mui Ne and so far it's been awesome.  yesterday we mostly chilled, had a stellar breakfast with all sorts of tropical fruit including what looks like white kiwi and is super delicious.  drank some beers at the beach and then played hacky sack with about 5 kids who were collecting bottles from tourists on the beach.  today, we had breakfast at the same place and then immediately rented a motorbike and charged out to the red sand dunes to see em and do some sand sledding.  again, some kids showed us the way and took pictures, it was pretty cool.  on the way back to pick up the motorbike we haggled the price with the kids, they ask for some massive amount to money and charlie and i talk em down.  charlie and i have pretty much perfected it by now and just play good cop bad cop.  they say their price and one of us will say something way lower and we both walk away.  they chase after and try for the original price, again way lower.  but now one of us will stay and be like, "no, he wants it for the lower price."  and so on and so forth until we come to an acceptable price. 

it's been fun so far and there's still a ton to come.