Long Hai to Mui Ne

Sad to say but getting out of lovely Long Hai let a bit of a taint on our otherwise great experience there, and, unbelievably, it had to do with transportation. After packing up, our landlady called us a cab to take us to the bus depot. I asked that she get us a meter taxi, as there are lots of un-metered cabs that just charge what they want. The cab arrived and our bags were loaded when the driver says, "100,000 Dong". I tell him to use the meter and he just repeats 100,000 Dong. It goes back and forth like this until it is clear that if we are going to the bus depot it's costing us 100,000 Dong. 

We arrive at the depot and the bus to Mui Ne is waiting. Remember from our last blog post that I had been to the depot and knew, from the signage, that the bus leaves at 10:30 and the cost is 74,000 dong. (Mui Ne is 180km from Long Hai and we had just paid 100,000 Dong to travel the 5km from our room to the depot.) As it is Sunday, there are no staff at the ticketing office so one deals directly with the driver. I approach him to let him knew we will be travelling to Mui Ne and he lets me know the cost will be, per person, 400,000 Dong. I drag him over to the sign which states the price as 74,000 Dong per person and he smiles, shrugs, indicating how he understands my frustration, but if we are going to Mui Ne...... After more intense back and forth I was able to negotiate the price down to 100,000 Dong each for Kim, me, Kim's bag and my bag (our bags got seats). After 

This bus is clearly intended to transport goods - having people in the seats is just a plus for the shipping operation - and we stopped dozens of times to pick up packages, drop package, sit around and wait for the guy who needed to ship something but was delayed getting to the transfer point. A real milk run, but we made it to Mui Ne. After a bit of shopping around we found this little gem.

The view from our balcony.....

.....the view of our balcony.....

.....from the pool up to our room.....

.....the walk from the pool to the road.....

.....the reception area.....

.....the second pool.....

.....the view from the second pool out over the water.....

.....and Kim enjoying our breakfast of coffee, dragon fruit, mango, passion fruit, fried eggs, baguette and cheese, all purchased fresh from the street moments before this photo was taken.

Oh, and the room? $20 a night. BINGO! We might be here for a few days.