Hi all
Well my 8.30am bus turned up at 8.05am and nearly missed it. Time to go to Mui Ne a less developed beach area a 5 hour drive down South. On got the Brits from my bowling team in Luang Prabang although they were going straight to Ho Chi Minh but it gave me someone to sit with at our rest stop. For the second time that day the bus started to leave without me, but got on just in time.
I could tell we were getting close to Mui Ne when I could see sand dunes appearing at the road side. As the bus stopped for lunch for the Ho Chi Minh passengers, I had arrived. The bus company recommended some accomodation and they came to pick me up. At $15 I have a bungalow located about 15m from the beach. The room isn’t great (a damp smell probably due to the sea air) although the toilet roll holder in the bathroom does have “Sally” on it so made me feel at home and the location makes up for it.
The sand dunes in Mui Ne create their own micro climate, so when it’s rainy season in Natrang the surfs up here. Unlike Natrang the beach is not on the road it’s just lined with palm trees and every now and again has small low rise resorts or guest houses which from the beach side are not obvious at all. There was a lovely breeze, the tide was out and so I decided to walk about 5km down the beach. In total the beach is 22km long and pretty empty. I love it !
It’s now late afternoon and unlike the mad tourists the local children wait until then to come out to play football or swim. I’ve attached a picture of some by one of the boats. They made me take several as they thought it was brilliant that they could immediately see what they looked like on camera. Unlike the large towns they didn’t expect anything in return. Just more photo posing opportunities.
After my tour I found a way through to the road and walked down to find something to eat. The place seems really quite quiet apart from the locals. I ended up eating quite near my hotel. Oh and what food! My squid and prawn salad cost 60p – and we are talking a lot of seafood. I then had a mini charcoal bbq put on my table and the fresh fish was brought out and cooked in front of me. Then in a Vietnamese form of Fajita you roll it up in rice flour pancakes with salad and dip it in chilli, soy and tomato sauce – another 60p well spent. I then just chatted to the locals and drank copious amounts of fresh lemon juice (I’m addicted to it).
I went to bed early determined to get up for sunrise on the beach and a whole day of dedicated sunbathing. Everyone looks a lot more tanned than I do. It rained during the night. I woke up before sunrise and then fell asleep and missed it. I did get up at 5.45am and there were other people who’d had the same idea and succeeded. Damn. Back to bed then a gorgeous breakfast of the best omelette so far followed by fresh melon and pineapple and my sunbathing plans were thwarted. It was overcast, so I relaxed in a hammock and finished my book. “When heaven and earth changes places” by Le Ly Hayslip. If you want an understanding of how the “American” war really affected the Vietnamese then this is brilliant.
Finally at 1pm the sun came out so 3 of us went on to the beach. The usual cockle pickers were out, so were the crabs and even a herd of cows, but attached is the view from my sunbed.
I had been promised sunshine by the restaurant for the following day so thought I could some more sunbathing before departing for Ho Chi Minh. Not so, it was overcast and then rained from about 12, just as well I missed the sunrise again. I did have the company of a rat with breakfast though – thankfully on the sand rather than my plate.
Oh well time to go to Vietnam’s old capital of the South.
In the words of Groove Armada from “At the river” -”If your fond of sand dunes and salty air” then Mui ne is for you…it’s definitely for me.
Transport count
Plane = 5, Bus = 9, Train = 2, Boat = 2, Sunglasses = 3, Mosquito repellant = 4
Take care
Sally x
