Day 2 - Ride from Vung Tau to Mui Ne

Day 2 - Ride from Vung Tau to Mui Ne

I woke up around 07:00 and got ready for the day’s ride. The day’s ride would be about 100 miles up the coast to Mui Ne.

As usual, I skipped breakfast. Early on my trip I developed the habit of not eating anything until I’d checked in to my hotel. My problem is that I love beer (cheap beer, I don’t like that fancy stuff). I drink beer almost every day and it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for food. When food does enter my system, it usually tries to find the quickest exit possible. The quickest possible exit being my ass. It only takes one hot and steamy trip to a Thai bus bathroom to realize that hunger pains pains are a small price to pay to avoid using public toilets for sit-down jobs.

In Laos I was forced to use an outdoor bathroom at a forestry department type of building. I was on a bicycle trip with my boat driver when I realized that I couldn’t make it back to my hotel. My driver saw the building and looked around. A lady was in the back washing clothes next to a little building. She told the driver that I could use the bathroom which was the little building that she was working next to. The bathroom was an outdoor shelter that didn’t have full walls going from the floor to ceiling. So I could hear what was happening outside, and unfortunately the poor lady outside could hear everything going on inside bathroom. After that I stopped eating unless I was within walking distance of my hotel.

Example Toilet. No sink, just a bucket.

Leaving Vung Tau was enjoyable. The early morning coastal air was cool and heavy, but traffic was light and the city had a nice path system for all of the people on scooters.

I don’t remember much about the day’s ride. It was mostly next to the ocean which I enjoyed. I remember being surprised by how many Christian churches that I saw. I don’t think I saw a single church in Thailand, Laos, or Cambodia. In Vietnam I saw 2 or 3 on my first days of riding.

I also remember being surprised by all of the new resorts being built along the coast. Their construction wasn’t a surprise because most of Vietnam appeared to be under construction. What surprised me was how deserted everything seemed. It didn’t look like any of the newly finished resorts were getting any business at all.

I arrived in Mui Ne and spent 20 minutes driving around, trying to find a hotel. I found one and dropped off my bag. I went into town and got my first of many oil changes. The lady had recommended that I change the oil almost every day. I think oil changes cost about $3-$5 on average, so it wasn’t going to break the bank, but finding mechanics and spending time on oil changes would quickly become a hassle.

Mui Ne was strange to me because of how many Russian tourists it had. Many of the businesses had Russian language signs. And there was no shortage of overly large, sunburned, white guys with criminally small bathing suits and thin gold chains. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising because of the history Russia and Vietnam share, but it was unexpected.

After the oil change I dropped my bike off at the hotel and walked around in search of food and beer. I found both and spent the rest of the evening drinking. I knew that Mui Ne was too touristy for me to want to spend a lot of time in, but for an evening it was pleasant. And I love boats, which Mui Ne had plenty of.