Fishing

We just had the morning in Mui Ne. The bus would take us back to Saigon at 1 PM. I wanted another stroll on the beach, tide permitting. If it was high tide, the surf would come up to the hotel's sea wall, and there would be no beach.

There were some poorer fishermen trying to make a catch. The fleet is still tied up, but they were deploying their nets with basket boats and then dragging them ashore. It's slim pickings. They dredged up a few live fish, some dead, hermit crabs, sea urchins, and a lot of trash - mostly plastics.

Only the live fish were of any use to the fishermen. The rest were left on the beach. The hermit crabs might survive to high tide but the sea urchins would all die. These were wasteful fishermen who complain about the pollution, but don't think twice about preserving the life they don't need to harvest.

The sun was begging me to shoot the coconut trees in silhouette, and I obliged. I found a tree dense enough to blot out the sun's disk, and then metered for the non-shadowed areas. I also shot the small erosion patterns in the surf line. All beaches have these, but some are easier to see than others.

After breakfast, I had a massage. We found a business across the street from the hotel run by a man from Holland and his Vietnamese wife. Over the course of our stay he told us about how Mui Ne works. The most important thing to know is that over 60% of the tourists are Russian. Without them, Mui Ne is not economically viable. I hadn't noticed any Russians until after he mentioned them. I had noticed the Germans, Swedes, French, and of course, our Dutch friend.

The bus arrived on time. It was a "sleeper bus" which means you are given a bunk which is supposed to allow you to sleep. I've tried this on trains, and it is quite comfortable. However, my bunk was designed for a much shorter person. After two hours, My Lovely Wife noticed hers was taller than mine and insisted we trade. The new bunk was better, but we both were not comfortable enough to sleep. Sleeper buses are not on our preferred list.

In Saigon, it was time to start the final shopping. There's a soft drink here not available in The States. When very cold, it tastes as if you are drinking licorice. I've been trying to locate a box of 12.

It turns out there was a small logistics error. My sister-in-law arrived at midnight. We expected her to arrive 24 hours later. So it's good we didn't extend our stay in Nui Ne. Otherwise, she might not have had a place to stay.