From the beach to the mountains to sledding in the desert

Moi Ne was a quiet one street beach town stretching 7 kilometers. It has more luxury resorts then I've seen the whole trip with huge 5 star hotels doting the western end. We stayed on the eastern side in a small resort on the beach. It was our splurge and included a large pool with a pool bar and chairs and umbrellas on the beach. We were unsure whether we wanted to spend the money, but the receptionist had us the moment she said "breakfast buffet". We spent two days on the beach and by the pool, and the second evening we met a nice British couple, Giles and Samantha, at the pool bar. Unfortunately Samantha had her purse stolen on the beach earlier that day and they were waiting for the police to come and make a report. After speaking with them the cops made it clear that they thought they were making the whole story up so that they could make money from the hotel or insurance company. We later found out its not uncommon in Moi Ne, or Vietnam in general, for the police to be distrustful of tourists accounts of theft because it makes the country look bad. After a few drinks though they quickly forgot the craziness of the day and we all ended up taking our beers down to the beach.

After a couple of days at the beach we took a long bumpy mini bus ride up to the mountains to a town called Da Lat. We stayed in a nice guesthouse with great banana pancakes (didn't I tell you I'm a banana pancake connoisseur?). It was about fifteen degrees cooler there and it was a welcome break from the usual heat. We rented motorbikes and explored the outskirts of the city including a cool pagoda perched on a hillside with beautiful views of the surrounding rice terraces. That evening we visited a silk embroidery studio that was so much more impressive than I had expected. We were taken for a tour to the upstairs work room where women embroidered detailed pictures that looked more like paintings. It takes them 6 months to a year to finish some of the larger pieces.

We returned to Moi Ne to get back on our Open Bus Ticket. We rented a motorbike and headed to the desert of Moi Ne, which interestingly enough is located right next to the beach. The children held their sleds out to us and fought fiercely for our business. We negotiated with them to leave us in peace while we ate our lunch and we would pick sleds when we were finished eating. Their clothes were dirty and they knocked a ball around and poked in the sand. I remember thinking that they strangely reminded me of the lost boys from Peter Pan except harder, more tired. I ended up going with the little boy who had first approached me when we arrived. Another fierce kid got angry at me because he argued he was the first to ask me (bad call on my part to say out loud why I made my choice). He screamed "Fuck You Lady!!" a few times and gave me the middle finger and that's when the Nanny in me flared up. I yelled back at him that he shouldn't ever speak to anyone that way, especially if you want them to buy something. We left the kid fuming and went with our young guides up the dunes. The sand was absolutely scorching hot and I did a bit of a dance as I walked. Accompanying me was a little 8 year old girl with her dirt covered pink princess sweatshirt who put me to shame as she blithely walked through the sand. I asked her if she went to school at all. "No," she replied quietly, "My parents have no money. Need money for school." When we reached the top the older girl of 14 and the boy of 10 deftly dug out a sledding path for us. The girl explained that they pushed away the hot sand because the cool sand underneath made for a faster ride. They took a sled and stuck the front end into the sand, positioned me on top just so, and then gave me a hard push. My first time down I made it to the bottom before falling flat on my face! Ha! It was so much fun!



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