This Christmas was the third one I've been abroad for in six years: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in '09; Buenos Aires, Argentina in '12; and Mui Ne, Vietnam in '15. To those of you who know how close I am to my family, you might find it a strange time for me to spend away from home. However, to me it makes a lot of sense: after all, Christmas falls at an unfortunately cold time of year in England. I don't like winter so it's a perfect time to travel! In Cabo I had a massage on the beach, in Buenos Aires I walked around the city in the sunshine and in Mui Ne, I got a sun tan by the pool. It is sad to miss Christmas at home but it does happen every year.
Having said that, this year was by far the least Christmassy one I've ever experienced. Mexico and Argentina are both Catholic countries so the nation celebrates the holiday too, whereas Vietnam is predominantly Buddhist and while the restaurants did put up a tree and market stall holders pressured you into buying a santa's hat, there wasn't a feel of Christmas in the air.
Despite that, we had a lovely day. We woke up early to watch the sunrise over Mui Ne's famous rolling sand dunes, located about 40 minutes drive from where we were staying. A group of us from our hostel went together in a jeep, driven by a local guide. The sunrise was spectacular, turning the sky all sorts of wonderful colours. The sand dunes themselves were also very impressive, stretching out as far as the eye could see, and not nearly as spoilt by visitors as most sights in South East Asia (there's normally a huge problem with litter across this region). We wandered around the dunes, running down and climbing up, for about an hour as dawn broke behind us.
We then headed to some different dunes, made of red sand, where for 60p you can rent a sled from one of the village children and slide down the dunes.
The next stop on our Christmas tour was to a place called Fairy Stream, which is a stream along a red clay riverbed, and so called because the limestone rocks that tower over the little, ankle-high stream make the place look magical. We waded upstream to climb up yet another dune to look down at the stream below. It really was very beautiful, with such a contrast of colours and landscaping.
After the tour, we were dropped back at our hostel and like the Germans are wont to do, we saved our seats by the pool with our towels to make sure we got the best spots! By this stage it was still only 9am and the majority of the other hostel dwellers were still sleeping off their Christmas Eve celebrations.
We spent the day by the pool, soaking up the 28°c heat. When people did start to emerge and began wishing each other happy Christmas, it came as a shock each time because I'd never felt less like it was Christmas in all my 26 years (apart from probably my first few Christmasses as a baby because let's face it, I was probably just excited by the amount of food around me).
I was still on antibiotics from my intestinal parasite so didn't have a drop of alcohol all of Christmas day, a first for quite a few years. For lunch I had a chicken salad sandwich and for my Christmas dinner I had squid in sweet chilli sauce with plain steamed rice; it was hardly a day of culinary excitement but I was afraid of getting ill again. I am planning on making myself a Christmas-style roast with all the trimmings once I'm home though because it is a meal I'm particularly fond of, mostly because of stuffing.
Boxing day was much of the same, although without such an early start. Played some volleyball, swam a few lengths, read my book and worked on my tan: no complaints here! The weather in Mui Ne couldn't have been better, it was wonderfully hot and clear but there was a definite breeze and less humidity than in the bigger cities we'd recently visited. I even allowed myself a drink or two on Boxing day because I'd finished my course of antibiotics. We walked to the sea front to watch a spectacular sunset and thus ended a lovely, albeit rather un-festive, Christmas abroad.
No comments:
Post a Comment