Bug bites in Mui Ne

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Now I must admit, I wasn’t planning on heading to Mui Ne or anywhere else for that matter for a couple more days. I got into Saigon on Friday Sept. 22nd and was planning on enjoying the city sights, doing all the highlights and THEN taking off for the countryside. However, I met a very cute J boy who happened to be utterly lost without my help in translating, and come on…twist a girl’s rubber arm, we went to the beach together for three days;) So, that means I’ll write about Saigon at the end of my time in Vietnam!

Mui Ne is 200km NE of Saigon on the coast of the South China Beach (it took more then 4 hours by bus…). The beach was full of white sand, but unfortunately the water itself was a putrid shade of brown (but you KNOW I still went in…)

We got ourselves set up in a bungalow right on the beach and of course started shoveling cheap fruit shakes down our throats. The rain didn’t exactly handle itself as I’d like, but we still had plenty of time to enjoy lounging the sun and subsequently get burnt.

Our second day there (at least I think it was our 2nd…), Yusuke and I hired motorbike drivers to show us the sites. Onto the back of an aging bike I climbed and we rode along the main strip to the entrance of the Fairy Spring and waterfall. A small 10 year old boy grabbed both our hands and led us into the forest. We had to walk through the river against the current to get to the falls, I’m just thankful there weren’t any leeches in there! Phew! The deep red/orange colour of the canyon was unbelievable. With that sand flowing into the ocean, no WONDER the water in front of our hotel was brown!

At the tip of Mui Ne’s peninsula sits a quaint fishing village that we were hoping to see a little more action on…but alas a storm was brewing on the horizon and the locals were all bringing in their boats when we arrived. The boat colours were still pretty cool to see, and the large bamboo baskets lying around…You know I’m just trying to make a deserted beach sound cooler then it actually was, right?

Next we got dropped off at the Red Canyon where HOARDS of small children attacked us, asking if we would choose THEM to show us through the canyon. Two little boys prevailed when they spoke some Japanese to Yusuke and told me in Japanese I was beautiful. Hahahahaha…oh those ladies killers, they know JUST what to say to a girl for a $0.50 tip! We struggled through the narrow crevices of the canyon, working our way further and further to the top of the mountain. Tough work when you’ve been lying on the beach for the past 24 hours! The view from the top was breath taking though (as it usually is!) With the storm clouds coming in, we could just barely make out the difference between the ocean and the sky. But after ripping my pants on some jungle thorns, I’d had had enough. “Back to the bikes fellas!” I told the boys that Yusuke had their tips and it worked! Hahahaha, I had total advantage over THAT situation. Gohd, my morals really have gone down haven’t they?! Oh well, that’s what being a SFT has taught me! (“Single Female Traveler”, I keep adding new people to this blog so I have to keep defining what my self-created acronym stands for)

One more stop until we called it a day. The infamous sand dunes, of which Mui Ne claims its fame. And sand-sledding of course! Yet again, as soon as we disembarked from our bikes-o-fun, the kids came running:
“Wow! you very pretty miss! Take my sled up the dunes, it’s the best!”
“No Madame, my sled is for you! #1!”
“You speak Japanese? Wow, you’re so smart! Take my sled! Any price okay.”
(make a girl blush why don’t ya! hahahahaha)

“Okay kids slow down! Let us figure out what we’re gonna do!”

It took us a while to climb to the top of the dunes (yet the kids could climb them no problem…) and the sand was flying everywhere, probably mixing with the Gobi sand in my camera already. (sore subject…every time I open my camera I hear it grinding from the Mongolian Gobi sand…)

We finally reached the top (a TAD out of breath) and without us making a decision, the eldest of the boys laid down his sled at the top, covered the back end with sand and demanded that I sit. A little nervous of killing myself or getting the worst rug burn of my life, I took my time putting my camera away, tightening my backpack and checking to see if Yusuke was planning on going first. Yeah, nope. It was up to me to test the waters of this Mui Ne ‘sand sport’. I sat down and with a more-then-hard-enough push from the kid, I was off and SAILING down the sand dune! WWWEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! Seriously, if it wasn’t such a crappy climb back up, I would have gone again!

That night, we met up with some new friends of ours for happy hour and a wicked meal. Yusuke and I had met Daniel & Owen (Brits) briefly in Saigon and were pleasantly surprised to meet up with them again in Mui Ne. Richard & Karina (from Australia) were staying at the same hotel as us and we had begun chatting the previous morning. The six of us had a great time, mostly just taking the piss out of each other. Or should I say 5 of us. I was neglecting my translating duties a little as I hadn’t really spoken proper English in 4 days, and Yusuke was a wee-bit bored for most of the night. Oh well, I deserved a little break!

The next day was laziness to the nth-degree. Slept in until noon, ate on the beach, read our books and drank our fruit shakes. It had been a long time since I hadn’t been off culture-invading (or “culture-sharing” as my father wants me to say), so it was a welcome break to do absolutely nothing. SAVE for the two hours it took me to track down a night bus for Yusuke and I to take back to Saigon that night. But of course, Krysta prevailed.

After a sea-side dinner with two NEW friends (Cornelia and Nadia from Switzerland), we waited around until midnight for the bus to pull up along the dark main-strip. I’ve really gotta stop taking these night buses, because I swear they’re out to get me. After TWENTY minutes of driving, we parked for TWO freaking hours for the bus drivers to eat and DRINK! WHAT THE?! Jeez…anyways. At 2am, we finally left (again) for Saigon. Got in at 6am and crashed back at the hostel in Pham Ngu Lao. One day in Saigon and then off to Vung Tau!

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