Well, here I am back in hustlin' bustlin' Vietnam. This country changes so fast that it feels like a different place each time I come back. Now in Saigon they have this brand new highway through the middle of the city, a bunch of new skyscrapers (well, at least one, and it has a helipad), and a brand spanking new tunnel that goes right under the Saigon River. We (being me and Dan) rocked up on the first day of Tet, which is like Christmas, New Years, and Australia Day rolled into one. All the shops are closed and the beach hotels are full. Even so, we somehow managed to aquire both of us a bike on the first day. Mine, a shiny new(ish) Honda WIN; Dan's, a not-so-shiny-or-new Honda Dream, which he bought off an American dude who rode pretty much all of SE Asia on it. They guy was a medic and had stuck on a red cross to the front of the bike. Quite ironic given that just days later, Dan, having crashed the bike on the highway, would be the one requiring medical assistance.

Right now we are in sunny Mui Ne, right on the beach. The beer is cheap, the breeze is cool, and the Russians are plentiful. The first two day's driving have been fairly unremarkable. Day 1 saw us drive from Saigon to Vung Tau. We tried to take a short-cut to avoid the dreaded National Highway 1A, and instead got a little lost. We got there in the end, only to find that all the hotels were full and what little rooms remained were triple the normal price. f***ing Tet. After more than an hour searching, we finally settled on a small room on the top floor (no elevator) where the AC was next to useless. But the owner was nice and her daughter taught us how to play "fishing", a great little Vietnamese card game that bears no resemblance whatsoever with Go Fish. We left Vung Tau the next morning (or afternoon), thinking it to be only a short drive to Mui Ne along a new coastal road. It took us an hour simply to find the beginning of the coastal 'road', which in reality was any number of small, mostly unmarked roads that kind of followed the coast (sometimes). We were making good progress until after lunch where he hit a wrong turn. Up until then the roads had been mostly empty of traffic and we were averaging about 60-70km/h, which over here is FAST. According to the sign, there was a 'fork' in the road, with the left branch leading to the aforementioned tarmac terror of 1A, and the right continuing along the 'coastal road', right up to Mui Ne. The latter is what we wanted. Right where the sign was, there was a kind of split in the road, but certainly nothing that resembled a fork to my eyes. So we kept going the way we were, hoping to see the split 'just a little bit further'. It never came, and before we knew it we were jostling with the buses, trucks, vans, and other two-wheeled traffic on 1A. f***ing nightmare. And it was there that we had our first accident of the trip. Dan, trying to pass on the inside of a couple on their bike (bad idea), clipped them and lost control. He crashed the bike, mirror glass shattering everywhere, right there on the highway: buses howling past, motorbikes beeping madly as they went around him. He was dazed and a little scratched, but other than than he was fine. Lucky him. The couple on the bike didn't even stop to help. A young Vietnamese man who saw the accident came over though, and with his help we bent Dan's front wheel back into alignment and were soon on our way. We arrived in Mui Ne just as it got dark.

Mui Ne itself is a place I never tire of coming back to. However many new hotels and resorts open up along its beachfront, it still retains its chill vibe. Next we're off to Dalat, up in the Central Highlands. Stay tuned!