We've visited here before, but decided to go back again, this time without a tummy bug. We caught a bus on Friday morning, and so began the 220km, 5-and-a-half hour journey. We had booked into a larney resort (Phu Hai - thanks, Agoda for the AMAZING deal!), which was a little out of town, and fortunately the bus company - The Sinh Tourist - kindly offered to drop us off close to where we were staying. The short, 700m walk from the main road proved to be a pleasant opportunity for us to stretch our legs after the long trip.
We strolled into the resort's front gate looking somewhat out of place with Ross carrying a large backpack containing our clothes, and Mel, carrying another backpack containing our camera and laptop (to stream the all-important Currie Cup semi-final between The Lions and The Sharks). We were greeted with big smiles and friendly faces. After checking in, we were treated to a delicious glass of lemon iced tea in the reception area to help us cool off.
Before long, we had classily gulped down our complimentary drinks and, we were escorted to a golf cart which was parked outside the reception. The man drove us to our room (yes, it was one of those types of places), and when we walked in, we were immediately stoked with our decision to spend the extra money and go somewhere nice. There was a real shower, the room was spacious, the bed was enormous and we even had a little stoep!!!
We dumped our bags, changed into our cozzies and hit the beach (a short, 100m walk from our room). The resort has a few thatched (well, banana-leaved) gazebos on the semi-private stretch of beach in front of them. We shared the beach with literally, a handful of people - the other guests staying at Phu Hai, and those staying at the resort next-door. We enjoyed a swim in the warm ocean, and then lay on some deck chairs and soaked up some much needed sunlight on our ever increasingly white bodies (we spend the majority of our days in the office or classroom, away from the sun).
We thought that we might treat ourselves to a beverage, so walked up to the pool area - and pool-side bar. We ordered some drinks and plonked ourselves onto some loungers. We continued to enjoy the sunlight and drinks for a while, and also dipped into the pool to cool-off.
We got there at a beautiful time of the evening, and the lighting was spectacular! They had beautiful fairy-lights distributed among the surrounding trees. These, along with the candles at each table and the rich, blue, evening sky set a lovely mood for us to enjoy a relaxed and intimate dinner.
After dinner, we took a walk around the resort. The pool looked beautiful, all lit-up, and we walked down to the beach to see the lights of the fishing boats out to sea.
We had a goal for the next day - to ask the bus company if they could pick us up close to our resort (the same place that they dropped us off), so that we didn't have to wake up so early, as the bus company's office was quite a distance away from our resort. We decided that we didn't need to wake up super early, so we had a (little) lie-in and then wandered up to the restaurant again for some breakfast (a buffet selection which was included in our room booking - thanks again, Agoda!). After we had pigged-out and eaten our full, we went down to the beach for a little swim and a relax in the sun. The sun was out and there wasn't much wind - it was glorious! However, we had things to do, so after about an hour, we went back to our room and got ready to go into town.
The bus company's office was ridiculously far! So far, in fact, that the taxi fare was almost as much as one of our bus tickets for the weekend!! At the office, we were told some rather worrying news - we were the only 2 on the morning bus back to HCMC the next day, so they were going to cancel that bus and send us on the afternoon bus. We weren't too thrilled about this, but the lady phoned to confirm and told us that we could take the morning bus after all.
We then decided to make the most of the beautiful scenery, and weather, and stopped off at a sea-side restaurant for a beer. One beer led to two, and so began our day of bar-hopping and sinking cold ones with the sea breeze in our hair (well, Mel's hair anyway) and the sunlight on our backs. We ended up going to a number of restaurants/bars before ending off at Hoa Vien Brauhaus (Brewery) for the sunset.
After our last beer at the brewery, we headed back to the resort to grab some dinner before the big, Currie Cup semi-final. Once again, we had a wonderful dinner as we were serenaded by a duo singing a range of older songs.
We retreated to our room after dinner, and Ross tried to find a stream for the rugby... And he tried... and tried... The internet was not being kind, and neither were the usual streaming websites. He had all but given up, eagerly checking updates on his phone, when Mel found a live broadcast on RSG (Radio Sonder Grense). Yip, we had to listen to the game in Afrikaans! (Thank you, younger self for choosing to study in Bloemfontein!) About two minutes in, Mel gave up listening, saying that the guy was just talking way too fast.
The next morning, we woke up early and were the first guests at breakfast. We finished quickly and took a few last photos before we headed to the reception to check out. While waiting for the bus, at the designated pick-up point, we pondered over whether we would be the only two passengers, or if they had found some more to join us. Our thoughts were answered soon enough, as a private, Sinh Tourist taxi pulled up to pick us up. They had organised us a car to take us back to HCMC - cudos, Sinh Tourist, you guys are AWESOME!
Overall, we had an absolutely amazing time. Round two definitely trumped our first trip to Mui Ne!
