Before we left a little bald guy with a wimply pony tail had an altercation with the bus organiser about exactly when the bus arrived in Mui Ne, but, because I just got the end of it so I can't be sure what it was all about. When we got out of the hills and onto National Route 1 we turned left, AWAY from Mui Ne and the pony tailed guy went off. He insisted that we should be going to Mui Ne direct, and it appeared we were going to Nha Trang. As it turned out, the bus from Nha Trang was delayed (a not uncommon occurrence) and so the bus we were in just kept going north until it met the bus coming south, about 50 km past the turnoff. It was all a bit unfortunate that the bus staff couldn't explain what was happening, then the passengers would have settled down and not become upset.  We eventually changed busses and arrived in Mui Ne about 3pm. Most of the accommodation near the bus stop was full but we eventually got a room right on the beach at the Red Sun (US$15 per night), remarkably similar to the room we stayed in at Kho Samui, except that this was concrete and aluminium, not bamboo and thatch. TM Brothers have this habit of keeping their passengers captive until they look at all the 'preferred' hotels and guest houses. They really piss off the naive and uninitiated by telling them that the price will be US$8 and have the poor fools find out, once inside, that all the $8 rooms have been taken and only $20 rooms are available. Of course, there were never any $8 rooms, and the $20 rooms are inflated because the hotel pays a commission to the bus company. By the time the bus gets back to the bus stop all the cheap rooms nearby have been rented by smart people like us.

Met our next door neighbors, Glenn and Megan from Melbourne, ate at the various restaurants along the beach and across the road, went for a drive to the fishing village on a rented motorbike and generally vegged out. Spent a lot of time on the beach (and a little while in the water) watching the locals fish with gill nets. Tuesday at 1.30pm we went to the bus stop ready for a 2pm ride. About 3.30pm we finally got away. Arrived in Saigon at 8, had some food near the bus stop and caught a taxi to the Oscar. " Would you like to take our  car to the airport " asked the pretty girl in the gorgeous ao dai? When we checked out next morning we were directed to a normal taxi. "Where is the air conditioned limo" I thought ? As it happened the driver put on his meter and the scope of the scam became apparent. We should have paid US$2.50 and were charged US$7 by the hotel.

Caught the backpackers bus (Bt50 ea) from Bangkok airport into Khao San Road, walked around for half an hour until I found a half way reasonable room (Bt450) in a street parallel to KSR. We have already been to this place before to have breakfast while staying in the Intrepid Hotel known then as the Vengtau, now the Vengtai. Dined well at a restaurant at the end of the street then wandered around KSR for a while. Next morning took the minibus for a tour of the area for half an hour (picking up other tourists) then to the airport. Flew to Denpasar at 12.30pm arriving at almost 6pm. Made a huge mistake by staying in transit. The Darwin plane didn't leave until 2 am, so we had to wait for 8 hours. The restaurants in the airport are expensive (as they are all over the world) and awful quality and the gamelan music on the pa, and the announcements every few minutes " Attention please (very loud) GARUDA INDONESIA ......." Made it impossible to sleep. Home at 6am, house just as we left it, the house sitter had left the lights on, turned on the ac , flopped into the cot, blisssss.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, GO HOME.
VIETNAM CONCLUDED

The bus company, TM Brothers Cafe, included a place called Mui Ne on their itinerary so we decided to spend a couple of days on the beach on our way back to Saigon. I know, Australians don't generally regard any beach any where in the world as good as those at home, but we like the laid back atmosphere.