Day 13 - Mui Ne, Phan Thiet and Di An

Sunrise at Mui Ne

Fresh Shrimp anyone?

You mean he spent all night in

that tub fishing?

Breakfast anyone?

What is dragon fruit?

Rice fields and dragon fruit

That does look like a dragon

What does it taste like?

Is it hot like fire?

That looks good

No, we can't take them home with us

Playing marbles

It doesn't look anything like it did in 1969

Whiskey Mountain

Our Base Camp was up on top of that hill

That was the best dinner of the whole trip

Bao Chau's English class

Are you teaching or trying to learn English?

Thanks Bao Chau, but I don't want the

 job of teaching English.

We started the morning with a beautiful sunrise at the beach in Mui Ne.  The fishermen had been out all night and were the wives were selling their catch of the night.  You can see one of the round boats they use for fishing out in the ocean.  Many people from the local restaurants come to buy the sea food they will sell.  It is a very hard life that they have.


We traveled a few miles to the Phan Thiet area where Andy was stationed in 1969.  It has changed a lot over the last 43 years and almost unable to recognize anything.  As you can see they grow rice and dragon fruit in this area which is East of Phan Thiet and called Thuan Hoa.  The dragon fruit is red and the inside is white with little black seeds.  There is not a lot of taste to it.  It is soft and juicy and a little sweet.


We visited with the local people, some school children and some boys playing marbles.  I tried my hand at it, but you can guess how that turned out.


One of Andy's job in this area was to protect Whiskey Mountain which had a transmission tower on it.


We then went to the South side of Phan Thiet to look for Andy's base camp.  We were able to get close but it is a current military area and they don't like foreigners in this area.


We continued our trip back to the Bien Hoa area and the Diamond Hotel to spend the night.  We did go to Di An where Bao Chau and family live and had dinner with them.  It was an excellent meal.  After eating we joined her in the classroom to talk with her students.  They like to have foreigners come to the class but they get a little shy and it is difficult to talk much with them.  They like to ask questions and not much more.  however, we did enjoy our time in the class.


Tomorrow we are going to Saigon and do some sightseeing and spend a couple of nights before we fly home.


See you tomorrow.