Date: 11th June 2011 Place: Mui Ne Weather: hot again  It was an early start for the bus today from Da Lat to Mui Ne. Of course we sorted out our breakfast and lunch before rushing off to get on the mini bus that was picking us up from outside the guesthouse. We thought this was taking us to a coach like they normally do, but after an hour and once we were well outside the city we gave up on this hope and accepted that we were on this super rickety little mini bus for the full journey. The views around Da Lat are awesome but it was hard to take them in properly because of the bumpy journey. It wasn't a long journey; we were there by 1pm after leaving at 7.30am ish. When we arrived in Mui Ne we stopped outside Mui Ne backpackers where a rep style guy called Jamie got on the bus and said has anyone got a reservation. Thankfully Carm had emailed him at midnight the night before just on the off chance he would get it and he had and he said there was a room reserved for us . We could only stay on one condition though; that we were going out with the whole hostel that night for dinner and drinks. Whilst we were checking in we noticed there was a trip to the sand dunes and fairy stream at 2pm so we decided we would get on it straight away. It was an awesome trip. First stop was the white sand dunes. We hired quad bikes there and it was such great fun except that ours broke down half way through the 'desert'. I ran back to the centre and felt like I was in a movie because all I could see, whilst desperately trying to run in the heat, was sand! By the time I got there and started to get a lift with the guy back to where Carm was, she came over the top of the hill on the quadbike. They wouldn't give us any extra time though even though we had literally been on it for 2 minutes before it broke down and only had 5 minutes left out of our 20 minutes. Naturally we didn't go back down until they came to get us! It was so much fun but super scary being on the back because it feels like theres hardly anything to hold on to. We had a go each by ourselves and bombed it round everywhere! They did come and get us pretty much on time though but we just head back out there on foot with some plastic sheets to go sandboarding. That is an art in itself. You have to dig a little hole at the top of the hill and put your board in it then sit on it, lift the front right up and wiggle yourself to start. I did this and then fell off the board halfway down. We were late back to our guide in the jeep by half an hour but he was fine and just laughed about it. Next stop was the red sand dunes which were terrible compared to the white ones. The white ones had been beautiful with hardly any people on them but the red ones were absolutely packed with people which made it just look like you were on a hill when it had been snowing and its all wrecked, The driver then took us to a fishing village where we were going to stop and wait for the sunset by the beach but it would have taken too long. So we head straight to the fairy stream; don't ask me why its called this. There aren't any fairys! It's a very shallow stream though that you walk through and there are lots of red sand stones all around it. A guy that was on our trip rode an ostrich a long the way which looked like fun but I just didn't like the look of the ostriches face. When we got back Jamie was putting a sign up saying that if you didn't show up to come to dinner $2 would be charged to your bill because he had to turn so many people down for staying at the hostel. We got ready and met everyone down in the common room at 7.30pm. Jamie couldn't work out how we were going to get everyone on the bus because there were about 64 of us all in total. Carm came up with the idea of all the girls sitting on the guys laps, so the guys were told to get on the bus first and then we all got on. It was so squashed but so funny! Whilst on the bus Jamie asked if anyone wanted to do the Burger Challenge at Phat Burger where we were going for dinner. The rules were you had a 1/2kg burger and a bowl of chips that the guys had 20 minutes to eat it all in and the girls could share it between 2 and have half the time. If you finish it all in the time given you get the burger for free and then unlimited free beer and free drinks in the other bars. A girl called Niggi said she would do it if someone would do it with her. I considered how fast and much I can eat and the fact that I would love a free meal  Carm actually said Lucy could do it before I even said a word…so I volunteered! When we saw the size of the burger come out though I was nervous! It wasn't just a 1/2kg burger in a huge bun, it was also filled with fried eggs, bacon and loads more which I just cant remember because it was going down too fast. I came up with a battle plan with Niggi. First we would squash the burger right down so that it was easier to fit in our mouths. Next we cut the burger in quarters so that we could hold it with one hand and put chips in our mouth with the other. There was also a small bottle of water between us in case we needed to wash anything down. Then the time began!! Everyone was standing around watching 2 pairs of girls and one guy going at their burgers. I felt like I was eating in a terrible way but apparently I was doing it really neatly. We were powering through it though and I could hear loads of people saying wow the girls are going to do it! I was on my second half of the burger and struggling but once that was down the chips were easy! We even had time to get some ketchup on them  The challenge was completed in 8 minutes and 7 seconds. About 2 minutes under the previous record! I felt sick. Free beers at the time did not seem like a good idea until someone suggested they would make me burp and probably help with the bloating. It actually worked! I was in pain though for the rest of our time at Phat burger whilst everyone else was eating their dinner. It sort of went down at the first bar but I couldn't drink much there. Then I got a free bucket at the next place but drinking that was bringing the filling feeling back so Carm had to drink most of it! She had a few free beers at the first place that I got for her as well since I couldn't drink them. At the last bar, when I could finally dance again, it was really good . The hostel basically made the bar atmosphere because without us no one would be there! Carm got extremely drunk though and came up to me in the night with another drink and when I asked her why she had another drink she said she threw up on the DJ set so they gave her a drink. Made me laugh to bits. We were going home and I got some help from 2 girls we had met that day. I think they must have been a bit drunk too because when the motorbike drivers started hassling us trying to get us on the back of their bikes they were going to put Carm on one! I couldn't believe it and even when I protested they were still adamant they were going to. I kept her off it though. We got back to the hostel and were speaking to a few other people staying there, one girl was Irish I think and she was doing a load of different accents; she wasn't very good. Carm managed to get to bed without to many injuries. She did well.