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Published: November 27th 2016
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Blog 4 Mui Ne
I arrived late in the evening from Saigon on the sleeper bus. Despite what the lady at the company said in Saigon, this company will not pick you up from your hotel/hostel. I believe the company is called Viet Nhat. And from what I've heard they are one of the worst companies. I mainly chose them because they were cheap, and they'll get me from point A to B but they don't tell you what stop you're at, when the bus comes, or what destination that bus is for. You have to be proactive and talk to the driver first to make sure it's your bus then tell the luggage guy not to chuck your stuff in or else they will just automatically load it up and leave without you. I had booked a campground/dorm style place (with tent and mattress provided) called Long Son Mui Ne about 20 minutes out of Mui Ne but because the bus was 1 hour late to our destination I missed the last city bus to get there. Luckily I met this Russian guy who spoke very little English and he offered to give me a ride to
the place on his motorbike.
Long Son Mui Ne was a cross between a resort, hostel and camp ground somehow but I wasn't complaining. I got a tent on the white sand beach for $4. They have daily bonding activities there and the one that day was pop quiz night. So I joined a team and we ended up coming in second out of 6 or 7 teams. Overall I met some pretty sweet people that evening and I would recommend it. The one potential drawback is that it's far from town and has so much there including it's own restaurant, bar, activities such as beach volleyball and pool tables that it could restrict travellers from going out to explore.
The tents are a good choice because I was able to wake up to see the sunrise directly over the water. I joined some people and we did yoga on the beach and then went for a swim to clean off the sand. The hostel (for lack of a better word) is located in a fairly small village area so I walked about 20 minutes down the back roads and found a nice place to get breakfast. It
was just two old vietnamese ladies there but the food was amazing and cheap and we tried to interact with each other with limited success. Further down I got a vietnamese coffee at another place like that and met Trinh, the owner.
A big topic that people were talking about and Trinh confirmed was the corruption of the police in Mui Ne. It's worth noting that ifyou are going to rent or bring your own motorbike through Mui Ne, you will likely have to bribe a cop at some point. They set up shop at certain places on the highway, which is often the only route depending on where you're going and will just wave down anyone that looks like a traveller. They will either claim you were speeding or do not possess an international driver's license. They usually ask for 1,000,000 to 1,600,000 VND (about $50-$75 US) or they will take your motorbike away or arrest you. Even if you do not have that much on you apparently some people have been escorted to the ATM by an officer to pay your "fee". It worried me because I planned on renting on the next day to see the
sand dunes and the town. Trinh gave me her number though and said that if a cop stops me, i should put her on the line with an officer and say she's my friend to reduce to fine to about 200,000 VND ($10US).
So from there I took the local bus which went right from outside the hostel to Mui Ne. I randomly ran into an Israeli girl (Lilly) and an Aussie guy (Jason) that were on the Mekong Tour at the fruit market. Jason can speak Vietnamese so I we were able to get sbout half price on lunch, fruit and motorbike rentals. I went to Jason's hostel which I would also recommend called Backpacker village and had some beer and played pool for a bit with some others. I explored the adjacent area called Phan Tiet and watched the sunset over the ocean. I then got a seafood dinner with Jason and ran into a couple other people I met in Saigon as well. Some of the people went out after, but I biked back to my hostel as I planned to do in the dark to avoid the road blocks. FaceTimed with Molly for a bit
and went to sleep.
The next morning I got up early to catch the white sand dunes at sunrise which were about 45 minutes north by motorbike. If you're in the area I would defeinitely recommend this because the dunes are massive and pretty awesome, they stick out like giant sore thumbs in the jungly ecosystem there. You can rent ATVs, sled down them or just chill at the top and enjoy the view. I went back to Trinh's after i spent a couple hoursat the dunes, Skype my mum and then said bye to some peeps at the hostel and checked out. Took my bike back to Mui Ne and caught the bus to Nha Trang.
I would highly recommend renting a motorbike in the area, i spent a ton of time on it just exploring some neighbouring rural areas and you can enjoy the scenery a lot better that way. Plus it's usually only $5-10 a day including your petrol costs.
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