We got picked up from practically outside our hotel by the bus to take us to Mui Ne, this we were told would take 3 hours. When we got on the bus we realised it was a sleeper bus that went all the way to Hanoi, so very comfortable.
It didn't take 3 hours, it took nearer 6, and he bus driver was a raving lunatic,I’d bet that he’s never passed any sort of driving test or that he was auditioning for Speed 3. The bus spent most of the journey on two wheels bombing through small villages, past schools, orphanages kids and animal sanctuary’s. The only respite was a very unnecessary stop at a restaurant in Mui Ne village, clearly a friend of the bus driver. Once the bus arrived to the main strip in Mui Ne we disembarked to the usual rabble of moto taxi’s trying to scab a dollar here and there. It was about 3pm by the time we arrived. We had no accommodation booked, so I went off for a wander and found a bungalow near the beach for $10 a night.
Now Mui Ne is famous for 2 things (well maybe 3), first is the incredible sand dunes, second the kite surfing and third it would seem that it is in fact Little Russia.
Mui Ne the old town is primarily a fishing village and sits apart from the main tourist strip. Next you have the main drag of tourist shops, hotels and hostels, which is just continuous for about 10km. After that you have the more elaborate and high-end Russian owned hotels, which cater mainly (and probably only!) for Russians. The thing about the South of Vietnam is that a lot of Russian money has and is being invested here. For some reason Mui Ne has become their destination of choice in Vietnam, everything is in Russian, signs, menus, tours, you name it.
That afternoon we took a walk down to the beach, its a 16km stretch. I was really looking forward to this place but the beach was so dirty.
Not just the natural, acceptable shells and dead jelly fish, but also cigarette butts, bricks and, bizarrely, old discarded clothing. Also everything seemed to be dying, we saw dead rats, chickens and cockroaches (who I thought were pretty much invincible) all lying dead on the pavement or the beach.
Nearly the whole stretch was covered with kite surfers, they were fun to watch, but it basically made the beach and the sea unusable.
We booked three nights when we first arrived at our bungalow so the second day we hired a motorbike to see the Fairy stream. The Fairy Stream (Suoi Tien) is a little river that winds its way through bamboo forests, boulders and the dunes behind the village, in parts resembling a miniature version of the Grand Canyon. In fact we did not find this till later in the day, the first thing we came across was the Mui Ne fishing village, this is a famous spot as the Lonely Planet for Vietnam featured this on the front cover of one of their versions. Its a really lovely view, with so many different types of boats and the colours were fantastic.
The next place we arrived at was at the end of a dusty highway that just stopped at some sand dunes. So off we climbed to investigate, and on the other side is the Mui Ne cemetery, which is really quite a sight. I have tried to find out information about this, as from most of the dates on the graves they are from the war, but i cant find out anything. The graves are all candy coloured and some of them are topped with shells, which was pretty. What was more worrying was that some of them had been opened, and it did look a bit like they had burst out like zombies, little scary.
One of the problems with Mui Ne is that because it so developed there is literally no where to get onto the beach without going through the resorts. Believe me resort security guards do not like sweaty backpackers traipsing through their lovingly manicured gardens, so this is a problem. But on the way back from the cemetery we came across a hotel under construction. Here we paid the guard 10,000 Dong (30p'ish), so he let us park the bike in the shade of a tree outside his hut and let us walk through the building site to the beach. Even here the beach was pretty but so dirty, and we came across a washed up turtle which was not very nice. With all the fishing that goes on here there are nets nearly the whole length of the beach and i think that many things gets caught in them, whether they are meant to or not, which is sad.
On our way back from the beach we stopped at a little shack for something to eat, garlic prawns and pineapple rice, perfect!
After resigning ourselves to the fact that we were not going to find Fairy Spring we headed for home, and there it was. The bike guy had told us go 7km and then park in the parking area just after the bridge and walk down, in fact it was only 2km and there was no parking area, but we found it in the end.
It was a lovely walk up the stream, rather bizarrely after walking for about 5 minutes a Vietnamese chap approached us and asked where we were from. This is the usual line for I am about to sell you something, but i want to know where you are from so I know how much to charge you. Anyway it turned out he was selling a ride on an Ostrich, why, i just don't know. Who came up with the idea that that this is a good idea? Anyway it turns out that you don't even ride it up the river but round his little paddock, we politely declined for a few reasons really. Mainly that it seemed cruel, pointless, boring, quite uncomfortable, quite expensive and totally random!
The Fairy Stream is like a mini Grand Canyon, stunning scenery. The water just seeps out of the sand dunes and it goes on for 2km. I have no idea why it is called Fairy stream though!
That was enough for one day and we took back the bike, then had a quiet night with a lovely dinner and a glass of wine. We had to be ready to be picked up by 8am the next morning for our jeep trip to the sand dunes.
The first stop was the white sand dunes, which were about 40km out of town. Now if i thought the bus driver earlier was a nutter, i think this was the guy that taught him to drive. It was quite a hairy ride, and even more so with no seatbelts or doors! I had thought that as we booked a jeep tour he would take us into the dunes, but no, this is why you need to be specific when booking things. The driver dropped us in the carpark and went off to play cards with his friends in the cafe. So off we went again, as we walked we were offered an ATV, a golf cart and again an Ostrich to ride, all of which we rejected as we are trying to budget (really we are!) After walking for about 15 minutes and reaching the bottom of the sand dunes, we realised quite how massive they are. There is no way we would have seen anything walking so we gave in and hired a small ATV for both of is. It was pretty funny, it looked for a tonka toy. Believe me both of us getting on it was no mean feat, and for me certainly not one of my most elegant moments.
There was also kids hiring sand surf boards, of course we had to have a little go.
At the bottom of the dunes is the lotus lake, which was really pretty.
Whilst we waited for our driver to finish his card game, Craig made a friend.
The other stop on the tour was to see the red sand dunes, which were back closer to town. For some reason this did not seem so impressive, maybe because we had seen the other ones or maybe just because there was so much rubbish (which hopefully i have managed not to capture in the photos!).
After that was a very lazy rest of the day, what we like to call a balcony day. Catching up with the blog and packing up to leave tomorrow.
I managed to get some photos of our new lizard pet.
And some of the beautiful flowers growing around our little house.
We get the 7am bus to Dalat tomorrow, so until then.........
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