Vietnam - Vegeta Gym, Mui Ne

Location: Vegeta Gym, Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Mui Ne
Google maps: Click here
Website: N/A
Opening hours: 9am to 8pm
Price: 20,000 VND

Review:

If I am honest, I didn't like Mui Ne much at all. Touted as one of the premier beach towns in Vietnam, I had high hopes for the place and decided to spend Christmas there with Emily. What I found, however, were dirty beaches in a heavily Russian dominated area, with not much to do. Mui Ne remains an active fishing village, which means the beaches are full of rubbish dumped by fishermen, such as floats, nets and bits of old rope. Add to this the smell associated with fishing, and the level of rubbish in the sea in general, and it all adds up to a pretty underwhelming experience.

However, we weren't going to let that stop us from enjoying Christmas! So we chilled a couple of bottles of the cheapest sparkling wine we could find, filled my protein shaker with ice and headed to the beach on Christmas morning to drink bucks-fizz in the sun. It was strange spending Christmas in the baking sun, but it turns out a protein shaker acts almost exactly like a cocktail shaker. Who knew? Anyway, this is me at about 10am on Christmas morning. Don't judge me, its Christmas! Well, it was then.

Perhaps the saving grace of Mui Ne for me was the decent gym I found, called Vegeta Gym. There was another smaller gym about 10 mins up the road from this, but that one was 50,000 VND and it didn't have as much equipment in it. Whilst training, I got chatting to the owner of Vegeta, who told me that the gym has been open for about 2 years. His english wasn't great, but I managed to convince him to come take a photo with me. This is always the most awkward part of these blogs, where you have to convince a random to come take a photo with you, so you better appreciate it! Yes I put a filter on this photo. Shut up.

The gym itself was pretty well stocked and most of the equipment looked to be in good condition. The somewhat limited collection of dumbbells are the old school metal type, which I actually prefer as they always make me feel like I am in some kind of time warp olden days gym. 

Equipment wise this gym has: 

• Dumbbells up to about 25kg
• Adjustable benches
• Squat rack 
• Olympic bars 
• Flat barbell bench
• Incline barbell bench 
• Cables 
• Easy bars
• Hammer curl bar 
• Preacher curl bench 
• Lat pulldown 
• Seated low row 
• T bar row machine 
• Lat pulldown
• Treadmills 
• Static bikes 
• Swiss balls 
• Drips / leg raise platform
• Lower back raise platform

Overall, this is a good old school gym and honestly it is the best public gym you are going to find in Mui Ne. On both of the days I was there, I saw boxing lessons being given by one of the Russian guys, so you may be able to book a lesson if combat sports are your thing.

The gym also had some cardio equipment too, which looked to be functional, if slightly dated. But a treadmill is a treadmill right? Personally, I would rather run along the beautiful coastal road which runs through town, but whatever. Cardio sucks where. (Sorry cardio bunnies)

The gym sells water and other drinks and does have some supplements by the front counter. Again, I tried to enquire whether you could buy a protein shake, but the owner responded  by telling me that he buys his protein from Hoi An. I felt to embarrassed to continue asking, but he might sell you a shake if you can ask in Vietnamese!

Who is this gym for? Russians. Mui Ne is pretty much little Russia and the whole town can feel pretty unwelcoming if you are used to European levels of friendliness. Also, I am pretty sure that I saw a Russian guy head-butt a lamp post for getting in his way. I am not even joking. Most of the clients in this gym seem to be Russian and whilst I was not made to feel unwelcome, you get pretty much ignored. However, the gym felt like a safe place to train and was full of guys and women when I was there. I would recommend this gym to anyone looking to train in Mui Ne. 

Tips: The gym is open fronted, so if you are going to be working out in the evening you might want to put on your mosquito spray before you hit the gym. I didn't and got bitten a couple of times but I think this was on the walk home, as apparently mosquitos can smell and track sweat. So spray up before you head out and stay safe. Malaria really sucks apparently. As do Vietnamese hospitals.

Photos: