farmer's tan

I'm all about last minute. When the company gave us the option to work Saturday and take off Monday to benefit from the national holiday on Tuesday, I grabbed a couple of swimsuits and headed off to Mui Ne to work on my tan. Supposedly, the distance should equate to perhaps a 1.5 hour drive in the states; however, with the infrastructure in this part of the world, this adventure resulted in a 5-7 hour bus ride. In hindsight, I lucked out on the trip there because I was on the fourth bus - one of the sleeper buses, which means that your seat is practically horizontal.

Mui Ne/Phan Thiet turned out to be Little Russia. We were one of the few Asians vacationing in the town. All the storefronts had Russian signs, with a few entirely in Russian with no Vietnamese translation. It also happens to be a very windy area, so while the waves were fun to play in, we also had to dodge the kite surfers. I was talked out of participating in the activity though due to the strong winds and my light stature, which would turn kite surfing into a hot air balloon ride for me. Check out the air that some of these surfers are getting though...so cool! It is still on my bucket list.

I went with three families, and while they did their thing and I did mine, we did join up for dinner. There were a number of restaurants where we could pick fresh sea creatures and have them prepare them any way we liked. It is amazing the differences in species in different parts of the world. Some looked so foreign that it was a bit daunting for some to try what is typically common seafood.

Lobster

Crab

Shrimp/Crawfish

One of the mothers recounted her discussion with her 8-year old son when he was asking her who was going on the trip with them. She had mentioned auntie so and so and her family, etc. When she got to me, he asked about my family and she noted that I didn't have one yet. His response was that there was only one species that can have children without a husband. We aren't quite sure which species that is, but kids do say the darnedest things. I love the innocence and truthfulness of children before they are taught to lie.

As I mentioned in the prior post, I got burnt. I wasn't lucky enough to be in a sleeper bus on the way back and sitting for 7 hours on a burnt bum was not fun. The other families had booked separately since I had decided last minute to join so they were in a different bus. There are benefits to traveling with mothers as they plan snacks and always have the necessities on hand. Unfortunately, I was always on a different bus.

In Mui Ne, my friends were commenting on how travel conditions have improved over the years, including the facilities at the rest areas. They described what some of the facilities used to be like including squatting over a hole and breathing out of your mouth. Well, it wouldn't be an adventure if I didn't get to experience all this right? Just my luck that while the bus that the families were on returned to the initial rest area with the clean facilities, my bus was routed to a different rest area...with the squatter hole. It at least had a bucket to flush. Water, or what I hope was water, was all over the floors. It was interesting to see how many people walked around those facilities in bare feet as well.

What I did learn from the trip though, especially if not traveling with moms, is to never leave home without...toilet paper!