Vietnam - Days 7- 9 - Mui Ne Sand Dunes & Kite SurfersApr 10, 2012
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Dragon Fruit Plantation
Vietnamese coffee, we are hooked
Kitesurfers everywhere on Mui Ne beach
| Mui Ne is known as the 'Sahara' of Vietnam, with the most dramatic sand dunes in the region looming large. As soon as you arrive in the town you usually smell and see the pungent source in clay vats along the palm lined road. Mui Ne produces the world's largest supply of fish sauce. It also has 70% of Vietnam's tourist resorts and the city right next door, Phan Thiet is the world's largest producer of dragon fruit. We were so excited to discover that the cactus plantation farms we were passing by on the bus to Mui Ne were actual dragon fruit plants. Ha! Who knew???...we didn't and it was so cool to learn something new, the cactus plant looks like an upside down tree, some had huge yellow flowers blooming on them, others had the signs of the beginning buds of the dragon fruit and others had the large pink fruit hanging ripe and ready for the picking. How wonderful. There were huge warehouses filled with hundreds of crates full of dragon fruit ready for transport. Mui Ne activities abound with the seasonal winds, and kite surfers come from all over the world to ride the waves. Luxurious resorts, boutique retreats, restaurants and budget guest houses line the streets. It's a popular destination for Russian tourists and many of the restaurants and resorts are Russian-owned. At a population of just over 12,000 it is a little oasis by the sea. We are staying at 'Small Garden' which is located directly on the beach of Mui Ne. We have a little bungalow with private bathroom, TV, fan and a/c for $20 US per night, accommodations are more here. The beach just off our resort is beautiful, we walked down a stretch of beach (20kms total length) and found much of it was not as well kept up as it was towards our end. The waters are full of kite surfers, waves are a pretty good size and the winds blow here at a constant 15 - 20kms per hour. Lovely little spot. We spent our two and a half days here relaxing on the beach, watching the kite surfers, walking around town and sight seeing the sand dunes. We rented a motorcycle and traveled to the 'Yellow Sand Dunes' located just outside of town for a sunset viewing. We passed by a stretch of ocean beach known as the "fishing village" of Mui Ne. What a spectacular sight, hundreds of fishing boats lined the shore. Little round boats that looked like cups also sat in the water with their owners oars sticking out the sides, ready to go. It looks like chaos with all these boats but they appear to be tethered to lines in an orderly fashion, probably ready for the early mornings mass exodus out to sea to catch their load of fish. Fish sauce is hugely popular in Vietnam, one of the local favorites to dip their spring rolls in. We are not lovers of fish sauce, however depending on the dish you're eating it can be very good. The photos taken of the sunset over the yellow dunes were amazing. We also got up early one morning and drove out to the 'White Sand' dunes to capture the sunrise. These sand dunes were much larger, the sand was cleaner and a lot lighter in color. We lucked out, we were the only two people on the dunes except for the group of 5 Asians who were just leaving, a couple just got married and were getting their pictures taken. Once they left we had the entire place to ourselves, man did we ever have fun. We played in the sand, setting up the camera to take multiple photos, we ran around and jumped and played like two kids - it was great. One classic shot of Jason, his head is in the sand like an ostrich and his ass end is stuck up in the air. He had just done a nose dive into the sand head first when the camera took the picture, he just put sun screen on so he was full of sand after he got up! Jason had found an abandoned crazy carpet, he quickly snatched it up. Once on top of the hill he went for a world record land slide, he rode down on that crazy carpet it like it was a bull. One hand in the air, thinking he was speedy Gonzales and making it look so easy. Once done, I took the challenge. Jason got the camera recorder ready, said a few nice words and off I went. I seemed to pick up a bit more speed than Jason, once at the bottom I hit a sand hill (invisible to the eye) and flew head over heels into the sand, sun glasses flying off and landing a ways away. It was a good laugh for the both of us, I could hear Jason busting a gut up on the hill, always his source of entertainment I am. Our time spent in Mui Ne was great and we liked the little town. A bit too touristy for us but the beautiful beaches and sun made up for it. Tomorrow we leave for Dalat, a little town nestled in the mountain ranges of Vietnam. |
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