The first of the first two thousand and eleven

I'm sitting on a beach, it's 8:40 pm and the waves are slapping at the sand in the dark. I've eaten fish in a restaurant across from the slightly run down resort I'm staying in for the weekend. I have Monday off because of the New Year holiday so I've got out of HCMC and am in Mui Ne, a fancy beach resort 5 or so hours out of the city.

I was up at 6am and into a taxi from Phu My Hung to catch my 8am bus to the beach. It's a refreshing break from normal life even just for a day or two. The bus turned out to be a sleeper bus and anyone who read my previous blog will know how I feel about them. The passengers were a mix of backpackers and Vietnamese people and it crawled it's way for hours through the northern suburban sprawl of the city eventually finding the countryside and then the coast.

Mui Ne is classic seaside resort territory with a long long strip of hotels, restaurants, shops and holiday bungalows catering for all pockets. As I'm habitually mean, and not yet used to my current high salary, I'm not in the 4 star resort complexes surrounded by gifts shops and bars but my place is fine, it has a pool shaped like a teardrop and its own private beach. Across the road there's a great restaurant where two ladies squat by the roadside and barbecue fish for you. There's windsurfing, jet skiing and jeep safaris to be had just like back in Europe. Sadly no hammocks in the grounds of the resort, which are otherwise lovely and tropical. There are coconuts floating in the water and little crabs scurrying up the beach and popping into their tiny holes in the sand.

Tomorrow I plan to rent a bike and explore, or maybe not, just doze by the pool.