Mui Ne Felt like walking into an oven again after our few days of relaxing in cooler Dalat. Back to high 35-40 degree temperatures we arrived at the hostel to be told their was a power cut throughout the whole town, therefore no air conditioning. Because of this we found the nearest pool bar and submerged ourselves under water for the rest of the afternoon. Mui Ne very much reminded us of Colombian Palomino; a small town stretched down one very long road which runs parallel with the beach and sea, probably around 5km long. Along this road are hotels, shops and restaurants which have a variety of different cuisine from Vietnamese, Italian and Russian. The best restaurants by far however where the little street food shacks that lined the promenade which specialised in sea food. About 200metres of these restaurants and each with tanks full of live sea creatures awaiting the BBQ, swimming around happily unknowing their fate. You could eat anything from Sea snake, Fish, Turtles, Frogs and a variety of crustaceans of which you can choose your victim before you eat it. Due to one of them looking increasing enticing we stopped at 'Mr Crab' for supper one night. Another 1kilo lobster to share and a plateful of BBQ'd prawns we heartily tucked in and it was very tasty. We had also heard about another great restaurant which we visited twice (as it was so delicious). A pile of fresh Calamari, dishes of marinated beef/chicken/pork and a plate of around 30 clams cooked in lemongrass was some of our greatest finds and a bargain as each 2 course meal including drinks was totalling £6. Truly one of our best restaurants so far in Vietnam. Lazing by the pool and eating far too much we decided a tour of Mui Ne was in order. The Fairy stream and Sand dunes looked popular so we decided to spend an afternoon visiting them. The fairy stream consisted of a small sandy stream cutting through a red rock looking canyon. Walking barefoot up the stream it did have a fairy-ish quality to it, however it would have felt more special if there was no other tourists there. It would have been a great place to photograph however the flocks of tourists made it quite difficult to get any people-free photographs. Jonathan and I have seen many sand dunes (the most amazing being Cape Verde) so we was looking forward to seeing if they would be as good. The sand dunes where huge and looked like they had just been dumped in the middle of the country side. A bright blue lake surrounded by abit of green foliage fronted mounds of Golden sand, it did make an impressive picture. Not as dramatic as the Cape Verde sand dunes but still a great place to visit. A quick glance at the fishing village rounded off a pleasant afternoon. It was lovely to see the many local fishing boats in the bay; Some fishing boats looked like giant blue bath tubs and on a night-time the sea was dotted with lights as they set off fishing for squid and other delicacies of the sea.
After a few days of sunning ourselves we was ready for our onward journey to Saigon, our last stop in Vietnam. How the time has flown! Hayls and Jonathan x