Mui Ne - The beachless beach resort

The first thing I did when I arrived late in the afternoon in Mui Ne is check out the beach… Only to discover that there wasn’t any! The guesthouse I was staying in had a beachfront without any sand; the ocean directly hit a small dike! Also the other guesthouses and resorts I could see, until far in the distance, didn’t have any beach. No!!! Why have a beachless beach resort town? It didn’t make much sense. After dropping my bags in my room I ran into Dave, one of the people I met on the mountain in Da Lat. He comforted me by telling that there actually is a small beach in the morning. Apparently they built the resorts too close to the water front, resulting in no beach at high tide. I went to Pogo bar to check my e-mail and do some work. The bar is close to the waterfront, and needless to say it’s relaxing to do some work with the ocean in sight and a cold beer on the table. I sent a message to Simon’s mobile phone and a little while later we had a small reunion with the people I met in Da Lat: Simon, Yentl and Dave. Dave brought Bill along, an American guy that shared the room with Dave. Even though Bill’s 58 he had no problem chatting and drinking in pace with us guys. At night there was a party on the sand dunes, about an hour drive from Mui Ne, but since we were all a bit tired we decided not to go. And that was a good thing because we later heard only 60 people made it to the party.

The next day was Dave’s birthday and we agreed to meet in the afternoon at the bar of a fancy resort he moved to to celebrate his birthday. In the morning I swam in the ocean and my resort’s swimming pool before walking over to Dave’s place. We really didn’t do much, just watched kite surfers and swam a little, but that’s the point of Mui Ne: relax. After we played some pool Simon started chatting with a Russian girl. The girl had a wedding ring, and Simon found out shortly that it’s not a good idea to chat up married Russian girls because their huge husbands might be nearby. The Russian guy ignored Simon as an elephant ignores a fly; luckily he was not the aggressive type. Afterwards we went for some seafood, and since Mui Ne is a fishing village the fish was perfect.

After a day of relaxation the five of us decided to rent a jeep and driver for the next day. For 4 euro’s per person the price was a laugh. The jeep took us to the local sights worth seeing: the white sand dunes, the red sand dunes and the fairy stream. At the white sand dunes Bill, Simon and I decided to do some sand sledging using improvised sledges rented from some local boys. It was more funny than fun and after getting sand in all our clothes and wherever else we returned to the jeep. In the evening there was more seafood; and of course more beer. All in all some great days of relaxing in Mui Ne!

---

---