The bus ride was going well until we actually started moving. Again, the bus is the lion of the road and the mopeds are merely the packs of dogs. I guess the first part wasn’t so bad. I was listening to the headphones and off in my own little world and D was reading about the next place we were heading to. Not so bad and we had our own seats in the back of the bus and nobody was really bothering us. That was about to change. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught that D had a sort of concerned face and was taking a gander to the seat behind us and on the left side of the bus. I looked at Denae and she gave me a darted look and said, “What is wrong with that lady?” Not really knowing what she was talking about and not having heard anything but Pearl Jam or Elvis or whoever I was listening to for the past 30 minutes, I took out my headphones and looked back to the rear of the bus where I noticed a little Vietnamese lady. This little lady was kind of curled up and holding her stomach and was right at the feet of the 2nd bus driver who was sleeping along the whole back row of seats. She was making this sort of groaning noise and had a look of pain in her face. D looked at me and said, “I think she’s having a baby!” I couldn’t see as to whether or not this lady was in fact pregnant, but she was holding her stomach so this could very well be possible. Oh crap, I didn’t want to see or smell a newborn baby during this segment of our trip…not that way anyway. All I could think of after D mentioned that was the film they show you in the 5th grade, The Miracle of Life, and how nasty the process actually is going on all over the back of the bus. Those were my initial thoughts anyhow, so I pointed to the 2nd bus driver in the back and asked him if she was alright. He said a few words to her and she sort of groaned back something and nodded her head. “She’s alright” he says back to me, but I wasn’t buying it. There was something wrong with this lady, but I felt like I couldn’t do much at this point.
I went back to headphones while keeping an eye on this lady. A few minutes passed and D shook me with a bit of concern and said “Oh my gosh, I think she is crapping in a bag”. Immediately more concerned that I had been about this stranger, I investigated by glancing over to see that she was fumbling around with something below her pant line. That was about enough for me. I went to the front of the bus and told the driver and asked if we could get her somewhere where she could get something for whatever it was that she had. “We’re not stopping anytime soon”. Holy Crap, you have to be kidding me, I have crap lady in the back with us who might give birth or die at any moment, and they won’t stop because they want to play lion of the road with the mopeds and other passing cars. I went back to the back and opened the window. It didn’t really smell like she had crapped or anything, but I think I didn’t want to have to go that far with it so we stuck our noses out of the window and put our face masks on in case it was the infamous Avian Flu. Eventually, the 2nd bus driver woke up from his slumber and said something to this lady in a sort of a, Get the Hell Outta Here tone of voice. And she got up and went back to her seat where it looked like she sort of curled up there.
So, with the first part of the bus ride out of the way, we got to stop at a locals place to rest and use the bathroom. D and I were the only white people there, and there was no shortage of stares heading our way. I thought we blended in with the locals, but D and the 500 others around me informed me that my thinking might have been skewed by Ms. Poop-a-loo in the back of the bus. A quick break and we were back on death race again for another two and a half hours. The last hour seemed to drag on as we fought traffic with the rest of Vietnam who was heading in the same direction that we were going. It was the TET Lunar New Year Holiday—which is the largest holiday in all of Vietnam. Everyone heads home to be with their families sort of like we do for Thanksgiving. What should have taken 4 hours to get to where we were going, ended up taking about 5 ½ due to the TET Holiday. We finally made it and checked into the hotel around 130 am. We had a little trouble with our room, but we were so tired that we ended up in a room with two twin beds and slept magnificently after our wonderful journey.
Mui Ne -Is rated one of the best laid back getaways in Vietnam—this town has a consistent windy breeze that brings kite surfers from all over the world.
The next morning at the Blue Ocean Resort was quite nice although we had to switch rooms due to the fact that the hotel gave us a room with two twins beds instead of a single bed for the two if us. Not a big deal on our end, but it is nice to get what you paid for. After the move, we crept out towards breakfast near the beach and enjoyed the spread of fruit that they had there. The fruit is pretty awesome due to the climate, and Vietnam is the only producer of Dragon Fruit (Mui Ne is where they are all grown), a pink on the outside white on the inside with millions of little black seeds about the size of small sesame seeds and tastes like water with a weird sort of consistency. Maybe the description doesn’t do it justice at all, but it tastes fairly interesting. Some people say that it doesn’t taste at all, but it’s up for debate. I sort of liked it, but wouldn’t go to the ends of the earth to find it. Anyhow, breakfast was great, and D and I walked around to find a nice spot on the beach to relax and that is what we did for the day. We relaxed right on the beach and watched the kite surfers speed through the ocean and catch some good air while others were just getting the hang of it. I looked into it, but far too much for my budget to get into something that would take up a lot of my time. I passed and just enjoyed watching everyone else have a great time although I did join them in the water for a swim.
Blue Ocean Resort (a Life Resort Hotel) 
(The Kite Surfer Instructors)
(I see Batman)
We can’t sit still for too long, so I decided to take a break and go look to see if there was a tour place that could take us to see a few nearby places that we had read about in Mue Nei. Not too far from where we were staying were some red and white sand dunes that we wanted to catch at sunrise and also a fishing village that was supposed to be pretty picturesque. While I was out, I booked a place to pick us up at 0500 in the morning in a Jeep to take us for sunrise at the White Sand Dunes. I was surprised to see that many of the places, including the one that I booked through, catered to the Russian tourists and most of the signs around this strip where we were written in Rooskie. I also ran across a massage place that did Thai massages for $11 for an hour, so I took note and cancelled the one we had at our resort right across the street that was for twice as much.
(A picture of our room on the far left bottom)
The spa place where we went towards the end of our day at the beach was a small little joint. We walked in and there were a few people there getting foot massages on the first floor and we told them we wanted Thai massages so we climbed the stairs to the 2nd floor and each took separate “rooms” although we could still hear each other breathing through the curtains that separated us. If you don’t know, a “Thai Massage” is composed of a high pressure massage where the masseuse applies large amounts of pressure over the body and then loosely massages them out afterwards. I had never had one of these massages before, so this was going to be an experience for me. As I lay down on the bed in my underwear, I could see only the ground through the hole that massage beds traditionally have. I could hear the masseuse, a 90 lb Vietnamese man, moving stuff around and preparing for the next hour that he would work.Before I knew it, this little man had jumped on the bed and was standing on my back. Quite a bit different from the last massage that I had. Usually my massages go like this; a woman in a quiet room with some low playing soothing music rubs my body for around an hour and sometimes I have to tell her to apply more pressure so that I feel like I’m having a good massage. Not this time, little dude meant business and somehow, while standing on my back and balancing with one foot, used the other foot to push on my arms until there was an excruciating pain on the back on my tricep. “Ouch”, I thought, “What the hell was that? That was probably a mistake and the next time it should feel nicer….right?” Boy was I wrong. This guy, although small, continued to use his feet, hands, and whatever other torture devices that he had in his satchel to deliver more pain to my body in a one hour session than I had ever paid for in my whole life. I paid for it…..right, I know, I’m crazy. That’s what I was thinking just as he cracked all of my toes and then began to punch the living *hit out of my feet. Demons out. This guy had probably performed a few exorcisms before in his lifetime I thought this wasn’t his first rodeo.
Suddenly, I heard a huge thump on the ground. Come to find out, D had the 150 lb. man and I had the little 90lb. devil. D’s guy stood and stomped all over her back—jabbing his foot into her arms—and she was in a lot of pain. He somehow lost his balance and fell off her back and onto the ground. How did she get the bigger guy who was almost 50 lbs. heavier than her? Back to my massage: at one point, it hurt so bad that I started laughing because I couldn’t cry. The remarkable thing is that after all of the pain and malice on each appendage, he would softly massage the part out, and it would feel like a million bucks. Like you would expect it to feel. This feeling only lasted about five seconds though as he started to move to another spot on the body and you could only anticipate what he had done to the left was coming to the right and it might be worse now that you know how it would feel. The anticipation of the pain left me more tense than relaxed during most of the massage, but afterward, I must say, I felt like I was floating about 10 feet off the ground. I’m not sure if that feeling was enough to make me want to go back to the exorcist again, but it was nice after it was done. (P.S. I ended up with 2 bruises that turned into scabs the next day….Final Score: little man one, B zero).
After the massage, D and I went out for drinks and some dinner. The benefit of being right there on the beach and near a fishing village is that you get really good and fresh fish. D and I walked along the restaurants that were doing Vietnamese BBQ (grilled fish), and we stopped at one that had a good spread of fresh fish. We checked the eyes out to make sure they were clear and decided on one of the Red Snappers that was left and watched as the gentlemen at the restaurant grilled it right there. The fish was about a 3 ½ to 4 lbs. of fish and probably more than we needed, but it was one of the smaller ones that they had there and the others didn’t look as fresh. Whatever sort of sauce they put on this fish did the trick and D and I were amazed at how good this fish was. The whole meal, to include sides, salad and a couple of beers was less than 20 bucks and we wouldn’t have to eat for another day or so.
(Amazing Red Snapper and morning glory)
The Jeep driver was there promptly at 0500 in the morning and we met him in order to get to the sand dunes early enough in the morning to see the sunrise. The ride was nice and bumpy as most Jeep rides are, and the temperature was nice that early in the morning. We arrived at the first stop on the trip which took about 40 minutes or so to get there. We were the first Jeep there, but we were closely followed by a few others who had the same idea. A total of about 10 people or so walked up to the dunes to a spot that was good for photos, and we made our way there with the help of about 7 or 8 stray dogs. 
(The beautiful White Sand Dunes)
These dogs seemed to be out there just to have fun and wake up a little bit in the morning with some company. It was like we were their cup of coffee. They stretched on the dunes and played around and even showed us the proper technique for sliding down the dunes. I would have taken one home if I didn’t have to worry about getting them back or the diseases they probably carried along with them. Instead, we took a few photos to remember them by. By the time the dogs had finished introducing us to the dunes, the sun had risen just right to get a few great photos.
The sky was clear and bright blue with pinks and purples strewn throughout. The contrast of the white sands and the hard lines of the peaks had created a sight that seemed to have a sort of peace and awe about it all. 
As it is at any tourist site around there, there were a few children there selling rides on their sleds, which were sheets of hard plastic. Since I hadn’t had the chance to go skiing yet this year, I thought this might come close. I was pretty impressed with how fast you can go sliding down the dunes. It was a good fun, but coming back up was enough to take the breath out of you. D and I each took turns and then tipped the boy for letting us use his sled.
(Red Canyon)
Back to the Jeep, we passed by Lotus Lake that was at the base of the White Sand Dunes and headed to the Red Canyon and Red Sand Dunes. Although not as stunning as sunrise, the Red Dunes were still fairly impressive. When we got there, we were “greeted” by swarms of children who wanted to sell you all sorts of trinkets and rides on their sleds. We didn’t buy anything, but we did have a handful of balloons for the kids there. There we about 5 kids there when I pulled a few balloons out of my pocket, but immediately thereafter, a few more showed up to collect a balloon or two. I was a little upset to see that a few of the kids were grabbing and stealing other kid’s balloons. I made sure that everyone got one and that’s D’s new friend Tuey got two for being so nice. 
(Below: D’s friend Tuey. She would have taken her home if we could have. Her English was so great. She told us that she learns English not in school but only from tourists. She also could tell that we were Christian by looking at D’s rosary bracelet. She said, "I'm Buddha." It's amazing how much these children who don't have much but the basic necessities in life can learn so much from tourists visiting the dunes nearby their homes.)
The rest of the Jeep trip was to a market that was as crazy as Hanoi and a stop to the fishing village for a few great photos. Knowing that we had to catch the bus later, we cut the tour a little short so we could actually do what you are supposed to do on vacation and relax a little bit for the last time on the beach.
(The Fishing Village)
(Cleaning the debris out of the fishing nets)
(Video of B sledding down the White Sand Dunes)(There goes D!)
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