I had only a vague plan of what my South to North route thru Vietnam would entail but I did know that I wanted to go to Da Lat. With no desire to take a long direct bus which would arrive at 2 in the morning, or to have to connect thru HCMC, I decided to break it up by first going to Mui Ne. Since this checked off their desire to find a beach Alex and Aliona decided to come too!
From Vung Tau a few hours up the coast is Mui Ne. It’s known for kite surfing, its beaches and nearby sand dunes. While not as popular as Nhang Trang, or so I’m told – I didn’t go, it’s a holiday destination for Russians. In addition to Vietnamese signs and menus in Mui Ne more often than not included English and Russian. As you walked along the main street restaurant staff had an uncanny ability to know which language to greet you in. Aliona, who was born in Latvia, got greeted equally in English and Russian. On-the-otherhand I was always greeted in English. I guess those Irish genes are more noticeable than I thought!
To date Mui Ne was the cheapest place I’d stayed throughout my trip, costing ~ 4 dollars per night. It was also probably the most party like place I stayed since Camille, Liam and I mistakenly stayed at the party hotel on Koh Samui. But it was clean and fun. They had multiple pools, including one which had a daily jousting match with wet pillows. Although he fought a battle worthy of a knight, Alex was sadly defeated. Interestingly, the reception of this place also happened to be ran by the guide that I had when I was at the Elephant Orphanage in Thailand a few months earlier. This running into people I had previously met was a characteristic of Vietnam, but I guess there really is only two ways to go (north or south) so its bound to happen.
There wasn’t much really to do in Mui Ne. Not wanting to spend the time (5 days) or money (300 USD) to become proficient in kite surfing, Alex and I settled for renting jet skis and zipping around the water front for a while. I also went on one of the tours organized by the hostel to check out some of the nearby attractions.
I had chosen an afternoon tour which was to end with watching the sunset on one of the dunes. The tour took us thru the “fairy stream”, to the white dunes, showed us a harbour full of fishing boats, and ended with watching the sunset on the red sand dunes. Only problem with that was that our “guide” was overzealous to return to the town and made us leave before the sun had actually set. But I guess what can you expect for 80 000 Dong (~ 4.5 dollars)
After feeling that I had seen all that was worth seeing in Mui Ne I made arrangements to continue North to Da Lat and probably the best coffee that I had in sometime. It was definitely the most unusual!
The Travelling Scientist 