Venue: Mui Ne
Date: 17 August 2009
We were off to the road again after a short break, we didn’t have much time. One point worth noting though… the coconuts were sooooo super cheap in Vietnam!
Arrived the next destination within 5 minutes, the red canyon was just around the corner… and it was such a disappointment. At least I was expecting something much more marvelous than that… Death to the touristic posters.
We did our best to capture the grandeur of the place! Those beautiful legs belonged to Yan :)
It was nothing much to see, we were surrounded by the red soil. In Hong Kong you can’t see such red soil, we have many mountains and different kinds of rocks, never this. The sun was killing us but… we decided to take more pictures.
This picture would be great if you could see the whole of my head… but well, I developed this picture in 2R size so as to fit my wallet :) Friendship is a beautiful thing. Some say you can’t see sadness in pictures, I guess it’s one negative way to see things. I say if you had really great eyes, you capture the most beautiful (and natural) moments thus you’ve given the most powerful power to freeze the moments.
Waiting impatiently for the shot. Gee, my Vietnamese colleague said we were really lucky to have the sun with us during our stay. The weather was capricious in August in Vietnam and would normally accompany by packs of rain, however, it was all sunny for us! The sweat and sand, oh, what a perfect combination…
OK, the timer’s blinking, forget about the sun, the sweat and sands on your body, just remember to smile!
Alrighty then! It’s my favourite spot during our trip, the little fishing village, which wasn’t far from the red canyon! When we were approaching, a sick smell filled our nostrils. It was the mixed smell of the sea and dead fishes. Awful to be honest. The village was very colourful and I’ve got many postcards like pictures!
The sieves… well, it should be called a fishing basket, were really really huge. The 3 of us could sit in there without feeling crowded. They bring the basket to their boat after they catch fishes, they then put them in those baskets. So huge!
OK, my very own postcards :) You should have seen the happy faces on the villagers faces. I wonder if they could smell the dreadful smell like we did.
Beautiful place, isn’t it?
The business must be thriving there… look at the seashells. May be it was our looks, or may be it was our behaviour that attracted some young villagers there. They were yelling and whistling, asking for pictures. We said no :p
Finally we saw the ‘work force’ working under the straw shed. The terrible smell was stronger the closer I got. Hm, they were getting the meat from the shells… the whole thing was very… unhygienic. They didn’t pay much attention to me, an intruder, and were totally occupied by the work in front of them. May be it really is better not knowing how the food is prepared.
Here is a picture of a better look at the ‘food processing’.
Strange enough, when I was standing there and looking over at the little dead fishes pool, they just didn’t smell anymore. It was a sight. I wondered where did they export the products, of course the question left unanswered.
Obviously my right hand and my left had different colours, so I changed my seat and sunbathed my left hand :)
On our way to Fairy Spring, we saw those very beautifully dressed Vietnamese students! I want one of those!
Coming up next is… the Fairy Spring! It’s got a really beautiful name and everything justifies it.
First, the very energetic Po and Yan! Did you see the grass growing by the sides? My colleague told me that they only grow by the clean waters! Haha despite the colour of the stream, I guess it really is clean. There was seaweed on the ‘streambed’ and it was really shallow. Extraordinary!
Did you see the little guy on the left? He was our little guide. Right after we stepped into the stream, he came up and offered to walk with us. By then we understood it was his chance to earn some extra money and we were quite generous about it. A minute later, however, there were some other little guys came and offered the same service! At first we thought they were the same gang but well, those latecomers, they started to blackmouth at us after we refused their company. After we refused “their service (by merely walking with us)”, they asked us to pay them to go away. That was insane. We ignored them totally. You just have to be tough when something unreasonable like that happens. Anyways, it was all sand in the picture!
In the end we paid him, how much I forgot already… but he asked us to pay him a bit more because there was a boss there and he would ask our guide to pay him (protection fee????) so we did. There was no need to make this kid’s life uneasy. He plucked 3 “4 leaves grass” and wished us luck. Upon saying goodbye he told us that there was a WATERFALL about 1km away. We, dying to explore everything, went there.
The little guide took a picture of us in front of the 3-coloured sand hill. He insisted.
There was much to see in this Fairy Spring. It was a shame that we know nothing about geography…
Even though the sun were roasting our bare skin, the stream was soothing, it helped in some way. This picture is one of my favourite, haha, Yan was ready to use her sunbrella and I was posing in the far end :) Po was an asshole to focus on Yan!!! (but great picture nevertheless)
My comment is that… the kid had no idea what a WATERFALL is. The “waterfall” in Hong Kong Park is bigger than this sh!thole “waterfall”! But well, we were there and… whatever!
Oh no, we didn’t go down to the stream from this way ;) It’s just a nice picture to share.
We later on came back to the hotel, had some food at the restaurant where we ate in our first evening. Wah, it was so delicious! Hahaha! Special thanks to Nam who helped us get our food in 5 minutes…
He was a really nice guy :) Nam, we will come back one day! Wait for us!
I had really fond memories in Mui Ne… this is the last picture to share for the day. The sun, the beach, the boat and a friendly Vietnamese.
