Vietnam-style Gaudi and conmen cyclo drivers

Howdy folks.
This one is for Janet: I bet you never thought you'd see Antoni Gaudi's work in Vietnam?! I certainly didn't (see pics 6 & 11). Well, it's not actually his work but you get no prizes for guessing who the architect has been heavily influenced by...
This was aptly called 'Crazy House'. It's actually a hotel: you can stay in the bizarre rooms and if we'd had time (and funds) I think that would have been a hell of a lot of fun. Each one has a theme: one of them had a giant wooden bear in it, while another had an eagle... you get the gist.
This was in the honeymoon capital of Vietnam: Da Lat. Evidently the Vietnamese have a strange notion of romantic! ;) The same architect, Madame Hang Nga, built the 'House of 100 Roofs' too, which was pulled down for being a fire hazard, but actualy it was deemed too anti-socialist! Ironic for a woman whose father was Ho Chi Minh's right hand man and the first President of Vietnam after the reunification. There is a tribute cafe to that lost piece of art which is even more bizarre than the 'Crazy House'. Almost like a cave inside, it was dark, dingy with lots of wood and strange shapes. It was not one of Madame Hang Hga's creations but almost as strange.
That was the highlight of Da Lat. We left there on Monday for Mui Ne. This was a lovely beach region. The trip was hot though, and we had to change from a coach to a mini-bus half-way through. On the second leg of the journey we had a driver who decided he had all the time in the world to get to our destination: even if we didn't!!
He was a bit crazy when it came to driving (ie driving at the traffic on the wrong side of the road), which obviously took it out of him cos when we stopped at a roadside drinks shack, he promptly climbed into one of the hammocks and fell asleep! Even when one of our fellow passengers tried to rouse him, he simply rolled over! We did eventually get back on the road and arrived in Mui Ne. It's very pretty and very hot. We ended up in a guesthouse which was ok: it was the first time we were about to walk away from a place (they originally only had one room with hot water) when they offered us better rooms for the same price. The room was a little devoid of furniture but it was a nice big room, if a little warm at night.
We moved the following day to The Watering Hole, just next door! It was only $10 a night, brand new, did nice food and even had mini sewing kits with the name on the packet in the bathroom! Both establishments backed onto the beach: there is essentially one road in Mui Ne, which connects the fishing village to the town of Phan Thiet. Our guesthouse was sandwiched between the two and we had to get a motorbike if we wanted to visit either. But beacuse all the guesthouses and resorts (there are some majorly swanky resorts there let me tell you!) back onto the beach there's always a private area with sun loungers etc. Really nice. We got a great sunset too (see pic 7). We did get up for sunrise but it was too cloudy. :(
So we chilled for a few days, visited some sand dunes, upon which Shaz and Andy went 'boarding' down on bits of lino flooring that these kids were renting out (see pics 3 & 4 ). I refrained and stuck to taking the photos. Sadly the sand decided to stick to me (thanks to insect repellent!). It was all over my legs (see pic 5). At least it wasn't in my mouth: Andy swallowed a load when he fell off his 'board'. He was affectionately nicknamed monkey (as a result of his beard) and Buddha (as a result of his belly) by some of the kids! ;)

The only horrible thing about where we stayed in Mui Ne was that they had a pet monkey (see pic 1) chained to a tree! The poor little mite had nowhere to go. I didn't even spot him until the third day. He would cry and sounded like a baby. Now if that's not animal cruelty I don't know what is.

There were some rather horrid things on the menus too - see pics 9 & 10. Unneccesary! ;) Especially as turtles are endangered. Disgusting. They don't seem to have much respect for animals here - apart from the working animals like water buffalo.
So after a few days of chilling in our nice resort (we even had drinks at a swanky one called Coco Beach in Phan Thiet - log chalets, would LOVED to have stayed there at $85 a night - next time!) and we found Sheridan's Irish Bar (see pic 8) in another swanky resort: except it had closed. :(
And we're now in Saigon, aka Ho Chi Minh City. The bus was late - surprise, surprise. A flat tyre apparently. Although it was on time picking us up, we got deposited at a cafe while the bus disappeared (with all our bags on it!) for over an hour to get it fixed. Thankfully everything was in tact upon its return otherwise there would have been hell to pay.
It' won't be long before we head out to Cambodia. It will be a sad farewell to Vietnam as I've really liked it here. The people were great: well, apart from a cyclo driver I had yesterday who tried to con me big time. He said it would be 50,000 Dong to take me round Saigon and then at the end of 8 hours tried to charge me 50,000 per hour! That's probably more than he makes in a month, if not a few months. He was really crafty and asked to be paid before we got back to the hotel. I went back to the guesthouse and asked how much it should be and she said half of that was fair: so I paid him just over half. He wasn't happy but I don't like being conned so I just walked away. Cheeky sod! It cost more than a night's accommodation for crying out loud! I'm not taking anymore bullshit from anyone. I'm approaching 30 and I'm going to speak my mind from now on, if people don't like it, sod em! No more apologising.
For the money I got to see the Reunification Palace with its helipad, bomb bunker and President's private rooms etc (see pic 2). I also got to see the Ho Chi Minh City Museum with lots of ceramics (?!) and a bit about the history of the city; a couple of Chinese-style temples; the War Remnants Museum which was a no holds barred account of the Vietnam War with some shocking photographs that really pulled no punches. The horrors of war really were horrors. Of course all of these were American soldiers' war crimes: I'm sure the Vietnamese did their share of horrors to American POWs. Like the A Bomb Museum in Hiroshima, it was a little biased. There are no excuses for those crimes that were committed though. It was awful. I did have to fight the tears at several points. What I didn't realise was that many journalists were captured, killed or missing by the end of it. Shaz made a very competant observation: the journalists were the real heroes of the war because they recorded things and were put in situations that they weren't trained for, and many of them died. I may be a journalist but I certainly couldn't do that. It was a very sobering museum.
So it was a day that stretched across many emotions: fascination, depression and then anger at my guide! A busy day all told.
Shaz and Andy have gone off to the Cu Chi Tunnels (more war things) today to squeeze down them and shoot some guns. It didn't appeal to me so have stayed here to chill and post some things home.
We leave tomorrow (I think). Not sure if we're going to the Mekong Delta or Cambodia. Time will tell.
Anyway, ciao for now! ;)