Well, today was day 4 here in Mui Ne. For those of you counting – that’s 3 more days than I had intended…
I woke up this morning intending on finally going over to Da Lat.
My stomach problems are virtually all gone but when I woke up I was still feeling pretty lethargic and weak. Of course this is the residual effect of the food poisoning as I subsequently ate very little the last couple of days.
So, my plan was clear for today.
Hang here in Mui Ne yet another day and fill my body with all sorts of goodness.
To that end I looked for where the nearest supermarket was. The places to buy groceries around my guest house are pretty limited in their selection.
Turns out the nearest supermarket was 27km away in Phan Thiet.
Only one thing to do…
Rent a bike for a couple of hours and drive over there!
Yup, for only the second time in my life I was gonna ride a motorbike. It was actually a good warmup for the 5 hour bike ride over to Da Lat which, come hell or high water, will happen tomorrow.
The bike I rented today was more of a scooter than the motorbike I had last week in Hoi An. Turns out it’s a hell of alot easier to handle a scooter.
Like, so easy I feel completely, 100% confident on it.
What I’m trying to say is – don’t worry Mom, I’ll be totally fine on the bike the next few days in Da Lat…
Anyway, I reached the supermarket and after figuring out how to park my bike amoungst the hundreds of other bikes, I went inside.
I wanted some cold cuts to make sandwiches, some fruit, lots of water, and some energy drink to replenish the nutrients I was obviously missing.
No luck on the energy drink (seriously Gatorade – get your ass into Vietnam!) but I did buy everything else I needed.
$6 got me 2 packs of sliced garlic sausage, 4 bottles of water and 3 packs of cut up fresh watermelon and cantaloupe.
That was the big day. Shopping for groceries! Amazing how mundane the trip becomes when you’re sidelined by being sick.
At least I was out of the room for quite a while today and it felt amazing riding that bike.
Since I was pretty much laid up for the day again I spent the rest of the afternoon watching a bunch of TV shows I hadn’t seen in a month (thank you BitTorrent) and booked my hostels/guest houses for the next week or so.
Around 8pm I headed out for dinner at the same place I went to last night. Ironically I passed up this place on the first night I was here because they’re menu was westernized and I wanted something more authentic.
Of course, the irony is that the place I ended up at most likely gave me the food poisoning and now I didn’t want authentic Vietnamese food – nope, I wanted some substance to fill my belly.
I didn’t go all out westernized – I did have chicken fried rice with my beef steak and fries…
And that was Mui Ne – Day 4.
I am 100% going to Dalat tomorrow by motorbike and then spending the next 3 days there before heading back here for one night and then onto HCMC for also one last night. This time next week I’ll be in Chiang Mai, Thailand getting ready to hang out with elephants!
Things are about to pick up again on Asia Trip 2014!
