I just arrived in Madrid, Spain today together with my group from the Institute for Foreign Study, after a 19-hour trip from Manila via Doha, Qatar. Our destination is the Mediterranean city of Valencia, four hours from Madrid by bus.
You and a friend can fly to Baler, Aurora and go surfing with two SEAIR tickets up for grabs! Ivan About Town and the SEAIR Adventure Club is giving away round-trip tickets to Baler and free surfing lessons for two to one lucky person. All you have to do is leave a comment in Summer fun in Baler and tell us why surfing is fun and why Baler is such a great place by Sunday, 4 May 2008, at 8:00 p.m.
The bus from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia is usually straightforward. We spent US$15 for it. The six-hour land trip is a very common route. And you can easily buy tickets anywhere in Vietnam. But for this trip, we encountered some problems.
What I thought would be an easy border crossing turned out to be an irritating one. At the Vietnamese border, the immigration officer treated us shabbily. We were standing in front of him for almost 30 minutes and he was not minding us. At times, he was smirking. When asked if we were in the right line, he would answer "I'm busy" while passports of the people behind us were brought to him. We didn't budge until finally he entertained us after we reminded him that we could be left behind by the bus.
At the Cambodian border, we had to wait over an hour for our passports to get processed. But the highlight of the day was the four hour wait for the bus to get on the Neak Leoung Ferry that would transport it across the Mekong since there was no bridge yet. Since the Cambodian New Year holiday had just ended, everyone was rushing to get back to Phnom Penh which explains the traffic jam. We finally arrived in Phnom Penh, close to 5 hours behind schedule. But it's all part of the adventure.
The different sand formations around Mui Ne are a major attraction after its beaches. The sand ranges from pure white to gold in the Bau Trang (White Lake), to a fiery red in other areas.
We visited several sand formations including the red sand dunes in Fairy Stream and Red Canyon, the white sand dunes in Bau Trang as well as the yellow (gold) sand dunes. If not for the cluster pine trees by the lake, one would think it's a desert in Africa or the Middle East. In Bau Trang, you can ride a horse up the dunes or slide down on a makeshift sled which small kids will tout to you.
We booked this afternoon tour in Ham Tien Beach. It was US$14 per person but we had the 4x4 all to ourselves. The ride around was a blast as I enjoyed the wind hit my face as we stood behind the jeep.
I've always enjoyed taking the road less traveled. And this time around, that road led me to a fishing village five hours northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. Yes, I found myself in Vietnam once again. And I was going to the beach! How we got to Mui Ne in Binh Thuan Province was an adventure in itself.
Because one of our low-cost carriers arrives in HCMC or Saigon at such an unholy hour, there is a big risk especially if you need to travel outside city limits. Our problem was the first bus to Mui Ne wasn't going to leave until 6 a.m. So we had to wait several hours before we could even start our five-hour journey by land. We decided to wait in Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker area of HCMC.
While asking around, we were badgered by xe om (motorbike for hire) drivers who said that they knew of a bus to Mui Ne that would leave much earlier in the Binh Thanh District of HCMC about 8km away. It was a risk, but for some reason, we trusted them. And they dropped us off in front of a bus station that looked closed and told us to wait in the coffee shop in front of it. At least it was a bus station. And so we waited and had some local coffee. Until finally, a van passed by and people inside started shouting something in Vietnamese. Unable to comprehend, we asked the lady at the coffee store if that was the vehicle to Mui Ne. And she signaled us to get on board.
All was well until they stopped somewhere to load newspapers at the back. It turns out, aside from taking in passengers, they deliver newspapers as well! So we were on a newspaper van that left at 4 a.m. We arrived in Mui Ne at about 7:30 a.m., earlier than expected. Mui Ne and neighboring Ham Tien Ward are very popular for their beach resorts. But what struck me about this town were the colorful fishing boats in Mui Ne Harbor and the vicinity. And I leave you with pictures of them.
