Last Day at the Beach

Today was our last day at the beach in Mui Ne.  Today we went to a little stream called Fairy Stream that winds down from the famous red sand dunes here.  You can wade up the sand bottom stream up into the sand dunes.  It is incredibly beautiful.  I have attached a couple of pictures to this post.  It is also really cool that as you walk up...there is someone's bull that they have tied up next to the stream.  Something else interesting, but not particularly cool, is that along the stream there is place that you can pay to ride an ostrich.  It was not recommended in our guide book, so we passed.

 

The kids really enjoyed playing at the ocean.  We don't have to go to Vietnam to have that experience, so we really need to work it into a family vacation at some point.  The beach that we are at is know for having dangerous riptides, so there are a number of places that we were either discouraged or prohibited from getting into the water.  The waves were awesome and the kids learned the joy of  building sand castles and having the waves come and wash them away.

Today Ryan (one of our fellow travelers) and I took a taxi to Phan Thiet (the nearest large town) in order to buy some supplies for the care center where Julia used to live.  As can happen in Vietnam, we had an interesting cab ride home.  We were a bit squished into a very small cab with ourselves, the driver, 24 large cans of infant formula, and many large packages of diapers.  The car apparently had some sort of transmission issues and the only way that our driver seemed to be able to get the car moving was to start it out in fourth gear (burnt clutch is such a pleasant smell).  Once we stopped at a toll booth, and we almost had to get out and push the car in order for it to get started moving.  At one point in the ride back, it appeared that the most appropriate response to transmission problems was to crank the radio as loud as it goes.  If you have never jammed to Whitney Houston's "Savin' all my Love for You" whilst in a partially disabled taxi full of diapers and baby formula, then I would submit tht you haven't really lived.  Ryan took a bit of video of that moment, and once he puts it on YouTube, I'll have to share a link.

Tomorrow at 9am we will take a bus (5-8 hours...we don't know for sure) back to Julia's hometown, Ben Tre.  Julia is super excited to be there to meet some the ladies who took care of her when she was a baby.  She is also excited to try some of the coconut candy that Ben Tre is famous for.  This is something that this girl has been looking forward to for at least a couple of years.  I think that it will be a wonderful experience for her, and I thoroughly look forward to spending more time in the place that Julia Binh An is from.  We'll talk to you from there!

Takc care,

Doug