Mui Ne

So, we left Nha Trang for Mui Ne on another sleeper bus which took about 6hrs (advertised as 4 but had another flat tyre!).

What a lovley place this is!!! A real surfer town with a chilled out vibe & loads to do! It is famous not only for its MASSIVE sand dunes but also for its fish sauce which is the reason for the very strong waft you get all over Mui Ne.. NICE!!! The waves make it perfect this time of year for surfing, wind-surfing and in particular, kite-surfing. There is a really pretty fishing village at one end of town also. We stayed at a little place called 'Mellow' and thats exactly what it was!! All the surfer types would congregate in the bar and play pool in the late afternoon. The girls at our guesthouse cooked some AMAZING food too! I had a noodle soup for breakfast one day and no noodle soup has topped it since!! Our room had a shared bathroom and no window .. just literally A BED and thats it. We were only paying 6$ a night though so cant complain. It did mean we had to walk in tiny towels right past the bar area to get to the shower/toilet but hey! We did have a scary incident here though. Our door was a little bit stiff anyway and i had a bit of a problem closing it so i yanked it really hard and it closed... and wouldn't open!!! It was jammed stuck. Suddenly our little room was feeling VERY small.. no windows, no toilet, just walls.!! We were discussing where we would go to the toilet if we were stuck in there for a few days then decided we just had to open it so began kicking/shouting/screaming/banging the door (it was about 1am!) until finally ... after a good hour.. a security guard heard us and came to our rescue! It appears it was a little drunk and we just couldn't get rid of him after that..!! He was just laughing over and over and from his hand gestures we could understand that he thought we were having a fight so didn't know whether to step in or not!! He was just there, laughing at our door for ages! We found it funny at first but quickly became bored of it and managed to shut him out!!!

We booked onto a sunset trip over the red sand dunes on our 2nd day here which was so much fun! We visited the Fairy Stream first which is a stream that runs through a patch of dunes and magnificent rock formations. We then visited the fishing village where there are loads of clay vats in whcih they make the stinky fish sauce! Next, our guide in our truck (which Mike was convinced was an old war vehicle) took us to the Red Canyon. After this we drove up to the yellow sand dunes which were absolutely breathtaking! We walked quite far to get up there - all the way with these very persistant little Vietnamese kids trying to take our hands and wanting to be our guides (in return for money of course). I was amazed at how outspoken they were and how they will try anything for a bit of money. We did however rent a sand board from them - well - a plastic sheet with tiny handles on which we slid down the dunes!! As we walked up the dunes i couldn't believe my eyes! It was like being in the middle of the desert with nothing around but these gigantic sand dunes rolling on forever!!! Oh .. and a few idiots with their plastic boards!! It was so fun though, you can really pick up some speed on those things!!

When we had had our fun there, we were taken to the red sand dunes to watch the sunset. It was a little cloudy and wasn't the most spectacular sunset so we amused ourselves by climbing up a really steep dune and throwing ourselves off doing star jumps, front flips and cartwheels!! It was so funny!! The sand was so soft, like a massive marshmallow that we were just bouncing off!! Got a good few pics too!!!

The only downside of Mui Ne for backpackers is the amount of upmarket resorts there and although they look lovely, they attract the high-budget holiday makers and i think have sparked a boom in prices! Saying that, me and Mike were just too tempted one night and treated ourselves to a dinner of grilled red snapper fish with chilli & salt. It was SO fresh and absolutely delicious!

On our last night we found a proper little traveller place where alot of the locals were too. We ate our usual noodles and drank some Saigon beers which was nice!!

The next day we made our last sleeper bus journey to Saigon. Camel travel have served us well!! Those buses were a cheap and comfy way to get down the coast and I would definately do that again. It was only about 5 hrs to Saigon.

More 2 come in next blog!!!

Hope ur all well & looking forward to xmas!! I forget it's that time of year when i'm in this sort of climate!! Feels very strange... but i'm always reminded by the fake xmas trees in the guesthouses and shops which makes me smile!!

Miss u all!!! (i'm acutally back in Bangkok writing this.. trying to catch up.. i'll update more later... !)xxxxx