MUI NE 21ST-26TH DECEMBER 2006

Mui Ne is a peaceful beach town and offers a chilled and wlcome change of pace. We wanted a relaxed christmas and a nice beach, and had only heard good things about Mui Ne which is why we decided to have christmas here. Mui Ne gets great waves and is Vietnams premier kite-surfing venue, so it awesome watching the ocean. Also the weather is great here... we've actually found sunshine in Vietnam! The surrounding sand dunes help protect Mui Ne from the rains and bad weather so we are managing to get our tans back.

The town is basically a narrow palm-lined road that runs for about 10km along the seafront. There is a fishing village at the tip of Mui Ne peninsula and from here, cheap accomidation which changes to expensive hotels down the other end. Whilst in Mui Ne we visited the enormous sand dunes which the town is famous for and you can hire little sledges (or flat scraps of plastic i should say!) from the local kids that dont leave you alone. We also hired a few mo-peds which are very useful getting you from place to place as evreything is quite spread out. We spent most of our time sunning ourselves and playing in the sea. Oh and venturing to the next town along for some all important christmas shopping; tinsel and christmas hats to get in the spirit. There are lots of trees, DIY nativity scenes and giant santas around town but it doesnt quite feel the same with the sun burning down. We're a bit homesick and really missing a cold english christmas with friends and family!

We stayed at a cheap guesthouse when arriving in Mui Ne and moved to a lush hotel with a gorgeous pool from Christmas eve to Boxing day. The hotel was called Tien Bien Hotel and we booked a ground floor room, about five steps from the pool. When we arrived on Chistmas eve they had moved us to a room above the one we booked and wanted which resulted in us having a huge arguement with the manager who, after an hour, said we could move downstairs the next morning and could have one of our nights free of charge, which saved us $42 so all worked out good. We also got a complementary christmas cake delivered to our room.

We met a really nice couple in Mui Ne called Nikky and Hannah and we spent a very messy drunken christmas eve night and a pleasant christmas evening with them which was nice.

We left Mui Ne for Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) lunch time on boxing day by bus.