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Published: August 29th 2013
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If your not in to kite surfing or wind surfing then 2 nights and 1 day is enough time to enjoy what Mui Ne has to offer. Having said that, getting to see it all is hard work since the town stretches all the way along the 20km coast... not a problem with a ped of course.
We based ourselves right in the middle of this stretch of the map and explored north in the morning and south in the afternoon stopping back in the middle for a beer at midday. North, through the local village we stopped by the sand dunes which is apparently popular for sliding down on mats which you can rent from the local families. We were so pressured on parking, renting 'slides' and buying from the cafe that, feeling annoyed, we declined and walked the dunes instead which was good fun all the same.
On the road we passed by a fishing boat moored up on the beach and local lady heading towards them invited us down to have a look. Running quite a slick operation, there were about 20 people, men, women and children, all working at different tasks about the boat. We
later speculated that this boat and business was owned by perhaps 2 teamed up families as everyone seemed to be equally invested in the cause. Just off the boat, the young men and some women were hauling the huge fishing net across the beach and onto the boat, cleaning out debris at the last stage in the shallow water. The older men were aboard the boat organising the net and giving the orders. Math offered some help and joined in for a while moving the net in sections - he said surprisingly heavy work... we could see why such a team is needed. Slightly further up the beach some of the other women, and intermittently the children, were crouched on the ground sifting through baskets of the last catch. The lady who invited us down was getting the first pick of the goods. She told us she paid 15,000 dong (45p) for her basket full which seemed a small wage for all these people's time. Further up again was perhaps yesterdays haul, about 50 nets spread out drying shrimp in the sun along the roadside. Again we speculated that types of fishing were alternated on different days.
Heading south we passed by a smaller hamlet then just into the next town but there wasn't much to see. On return, a wonder down the small breakwater to watch the 'tanh ca bang vo luoi' fishing (net stocking fishing - similar to elver fishing) was pleasant. Then, beach combing was amazing... as well as an array of lovely shells, we identified a star fish, a sting ray, a sea urchin, a jelly fish and hundreds of hermit crabs.
Other than either end of the town, the beach is only really accessible from through the hotels and bars on the one side of the main road which means you are tied to staying, eating or drinking at one to be able to get on the main stretch of beach. Luckily, we had got our beach fix in Nha Trang so we weren't too bothered, plus after the heavy rain the day before, the sand really needed some time to recover anyway.
If there was one thing we could stay in Mui Ne for, it would be the food. Almost all 20km of the other side of the road is lined with restaurants so there is lots of choice. The night we arrived we paid a little more (20% maybe) to eat in a selected restaurant rather than a day to day locals cafe and it was very very good. I had a lovely vegetable curry and Math sweet and sour squid (he'll be turning into a squid soon). Night 2, after our exploration, we went to another restaurant, again paying a bit more but well worth it. Math selected his fresh squid from the front display and had it cooked on the bbq and served with a pokey sauce. I ordered a recommended local dish Banh xeo hai san, an eggy pancake, almost an omlette but very light cooked with spring onions, squid and shrimp and served with salad leaves, herbs, chilli dip and rice paper wafers. The waitress earned her tip by showing me how to wet the wafers, load them up and roll up like a spring roll. Being told that my pancake was just one pancake but omitting that it made 8 rolls, I also ordered fried rice to share and spring rolls as an appitiser but we needed neither. The best meal yet and whilst we did pay more, the whole bill including 4 beers still only came to 300,000 dong - £9.
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