Day 11: To the coast

We left Saigon this morning en route to Mui Ne. Danny and I felt like we should really embrace the whole moped thing, so we ditched our motorcycle helmets for some matching Saigon-style motorbike helmets.

Charlie wore the helmet cam to document the madness that is Saigon traffic.  The traffic was definitely a little light, but still pretty imposing.  Nevertheless, vve all made it out unscathed.  Here is a link to the video of us getting out of Saigon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVuLE3zRlXY

The 200k ride to Mui Ne was pretty disappointing. We were hoping to see some of the famed Vietnam countryside, but instead saw a lot of old buildings, trucks, mopeds, and pollution. Highway driving is almost as nuts as Cambodia. We all had a couple close calls with busses and I almost ran over a girl that decided not to look before she walked out into the road.

The scooters cruised pretty easily at 70km/hr, but they're no Honda Bahas. Trading the dual sport motorcyles for mopeds is like switching from a manual transmission BMW to an automatic transmission Saturn. You will get you where you need to go, but it's not as fun, not as fast, and you don't want your friends to see you driving it.

Around 175k, we turned toward the coast and finally caught a glimpse of the Pacific - it's just as beautiful from this side of the globe, but not quite as rough. We arrived at our hotel right around nightfall, went for a quick run, and had a disappointing dinner. All in all, not a terribly exciting day. But we're in Mui Ne now and have high hopes for tomorrow. Dune buggies and wind surfing are possibilities.