Sun, sea and sand, lots of sand.
Mui Ne is a popular beach destination on the Vietnamese coast. Bursting with plenty to do: surfing, paddle boarding, sailing, kayaking, kite surfing… you get the idea. There are plenty of water sports to go around. Surf schools line the main road in Mui Ne, that runs parallel to the coast.
For the lazy traveller, there isn’t a better place to sunbathe, chill out, and listen to the crystal blue waves crash into the shore.
Mui Ne is a quite a small place, so when planned, you can cram plenty into just a few days here.
THE not to be missed activity is the half day tour around the fairy stream, sand dunes (white and red) and the fishing village. Which costs around $6 in total.
An army style jeep will pick your group up. Our first stop was to the fairy stream. Located unassumingly behind a row of convenience stores and restaurants, the fairy stream is walked down, flip flops in hand, with striking compressed sand formations either side.
On entering the stream it is initially green, shaded and narrow.
Once past this, it begins to open up…
Spot the Miles…
Around half way down the stream you can choose to go ostrich riding in a small pen for a few dollars, and flounder around awkwardly on the worlds largest bird.
Next we stopped for a photo op overlooking fishing boats spread across the bay.
The unique thing about Mui Ne, is the juxtaposition between the breezy beaches and the roasting sand dunes that could be mistaken for the Sahara.
Adrenaline junkies’ paradise: the white sand dunes.
The best way to experience these dunes is by quad bike where you can ride almost endlessly across the sand dunes and all the way down from the top.
Quad biking around the dunes is a lot of fun, though it taught me that these bikes aren’t exactly designed for the sand. Something I discovered as mine got stuck in the sand and almost began to sink deeper into it. I got off and saw a cog plonked in the sand, that I was certain wasn’t there before I arrived. The chain came off too. Mechanic Miles tried to fix it, two filthy greasy hands later there was little progress. Luckily one of the guys from the quad place came by to help out.
Alternatively, or additionally you can rent a sand mat and slide down the dunes.
Last stop of the tour, and of Mui Ne, were the red sand dunes. Which weren’t all that different from the white ones (which aren’t actually white). Again you can rent sand mats from locals but not quad bikes. We walked up them as the sun set behind the clouds, which made the sand more bearable on my partially burnt feet.
Other tourists seem to take an almost obligatory sand kicking photo, so I joined in too…
Next stop, Ho Chi Minh City.
