Mui Ne........Sand Dune Sledging!

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So we departed the hustle and bustle of the city in search of sun, sand and some chillaxing. We jumped on the bus (using the very good company we mentioned before) and off we went. The journey time from the city to Mui Ne is anywhere between 3-5.30 hrs, it took us just shy of 4hrs and cost us $4 each.

Mui Ne is a city retreat for many of the dwellers to come and unwind on a weekend or holiday basis, when we arrived however it was neither and the place was deserted. We checked into a bungalow on the main road called Mellow, very nice place and only $8 a night, very clean and tidy rooms, with hot showers!!!!!! The whole place is geared around water sports, we went down to the beach and there were kite surfers as far as the eye can see, it looks a lot of fun, but can be very expensive for lessons especially for backpackers like us. So instead of braving the sea we nestled down for some lunch on the beach front at a little restaurant, we had to move inside though as the heavens decided to open literally on our heads!
So the rest of the day we went up the beach and through the town checking everything out. We ended up stumbling upon a massage and beauty parlour that were doing treatments ridiculously cheap, and Katie had really wanted to try some out for a very long time so we signed ourselves up. yes i got involved too, Katie opted for a combination of a Taragin rubdown followed by a half hr massage, and i went for the ever so manly sea salt scrub, also followed by a massage. Katie had the pleasure and slipping into a rather tasty set of plastic knickers! where as i had to lose the lot.....and let me tell you they are not too shy about it out here! We really enjoyed the whole thing and they were really good, all for a bargain of $15 for the both of us.

One of the things we discovered to do in the local area is check out the sand dunes, they have two sets of dunes "white" and "red". The tour companies all do day tours that take in both sets of the dunes as well as some other features. We decided that we would check it out on our own so the next day we hired a moped for half a day and went off in search of them. We eventually found them after some intrepid searching, as soon as you arrive you are pounced upon by dozens of kids all trying to get you to lease their sand sledge from them and bomb down the dunes. So the kids took us up to the best point and the steapest dune for us to have a crack, we paid 50'000vnd (roughly $3) for a go each. It is really good fun but you would soon get bored doing it multiple times, especially when you have to climb back up after each go, which is not easy!

After the dunes we went back and had lunch then decided to move on as there was nothing more to really see and the place was very quiet (and Katie was desperate to go partying) so we booked a ticket to Nah Trang and off we went. We expect during high season that Mui ne is a very different place and that it would have a great atmosphere were it full of backpackers, however that wasnt the case while we were there, and as much as it was very quiet we really enjoyed our 24hr stint there lol.

Scott & Katie

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