Mui Ne is a sleepy little fishing town which isn’t very touristy, or not from what I seen.
A friend recommended me to stay at Mui Ne Hills, a rather large backpackers hostel for a cheap cheap price of $1 a night! Yes, $1!
While I was staying there it was the off season and very quiet but I met a couple of guys in my dorm, we quickly made friends and a day for exploring was organised.
We had all arrived at the hostel in the afternoon the first day so we used to our advantage as a rest and chill day!
At night I grabbed food with Germi and had a couple of beers on the beach and accidentally stumbled upon a work event.
Some large Asian companies will hold an event for their staff simular to a team-builder except on a larger and better scale compared to the UK. They had a full on festival stage, singers, music and games for the employees to play. The beach was covered in large swimming pools, inflatable items, water pistols and other items for different activities. They had security watching the place and no phones were allowed, at all!
A proper way to build a team, keep spirits high and engage with your colleagues. I wish we did stuff like this in the UK!
We drove back to the hostel got some rest for the night and prepared for the day of exploring.
Fairy Stream
I met the Sonny, Loz and Germi for breakfast then we ordered a car to the fairy stream.
The car stopped at the side of the road and the driver pointed to a set of stairs leading underneath a bridge. We looked at each other questioningly but proceeded to where he pointed.
We slowly wandered up the stream, the water a murky orange colour from the sand. It was warm and about ankle deep, and surprisingly no rubbish in sight!
After a couple of minutes we came across a number of stands on our left where people were selling food, drinks, little trinkets and souvenirs. On our right we found a little farm, but we decided to continue up the stream first before investigating it further.
It was quiet walking up the stream, maybe a handful of people maximum. It was beautiful and serene.
We walked another 5/10 minutes up and found a massive red sand dune. There was no question about going up, what view might we see?
We started the trek up the dune, did I mention it wasn’t small? Our feet were sinking deep into the sand but we raced up until our legs couldn’t take anymore. Upon reaching the top we were sweaty, hot messes.
The view… surprisingly it was more sand and some fields. It wasn’t terrible and I don’t know what we really expected to see.
We headed down the other side, slipping and sliding through the deep sand. On our left the sand was a bright white and stood up in tall pillars like stalagmites. Everywhere else the sand was bright orange/red.
The stream started to get a little deeper in sections and we came across another farm.
We stopped for some refreshments and ice-cream then took a look around.
It looked pretty sad, the animals were kept in small enclosures and the monkeys looked like their soul had left their body. In addition there were many jars of liquid with animals inside, it was apparently some sort of drink. They contained see snakes, centipedes, roots and seahorse!
We exited and continued another 10 minibuses to another farm. This looked much like the other one but we took a look round to find different sad looking animals, apart from the chickens which were running around.
By now we were even hotter, sweatier and in desperate need of some cool water.
We started the half an hour trek back, and the stream was suddenly teaming with tourists. It was safe to say we were lucky going early and getting it all to ourselves.
A Quiet Beach and a Bizarre Menu
We ordered a car and strangely the same driver appeared!
He took us to the beach where we went for a little swim and cool down. There was no one on the beach except for us, amazing!
The hunger started to calling so we made our way up to the main road where we found a small warung.
The menu was bizarre.
They were serving options like turtle, snake, shark, alligator and cat! Joking, cat wasn’t on the menu but the rest of them were. Sonny, Loz and me tried to order a chicken dish… no chicken left… then beef… no beef left… we finally had to settle for pork and it was amazing!
Let’s Get Sandy
After some delicious lunch we walked 10 minutes up the road to the red sand dunes.
We were excited for this one, sledging down the dunes and becoming absolute sand monsters.
We rented some sledges from the first people we seen for 100 dong for 4 of us. Was this expensive? We have no idea!
Off we went up through the sand dunes, these ones weren’t so steep or deep! We looked around for the biggest dune and settled for one off in the distance.
Upon arriving we were quickly approached by some locals who insisted on showing us how to sledge down the dunes successfully. I was a bit skecpical as I thought they might be wanting to scam us somehow but we proceeded. I will be honest they were very slick in their approach, it would have been hard to say no or ask them to leave.
They told us to sit close to the front of the sledge, and lean far back.
Sonny was first.
Zoom!!
Off he went, flying down the side of the sand dune and landed in a heap at the bottom. Covered in sand from head to toe.
I went next, then Loz and Germi.
Next they asked if two of us wanted to go down together.
Loz and me jumped on a sledge and off we went.
We went shooting down and crash landed at the bottom.
Sand went into every crevice, some I didn’t even know existed!
The locals asked for some money for helping us sledge… I knew there was a catch.
We gave them some change then headed across to another sand dune.
This one was ever bigger and steeper!
The boys tried to surf down the dunes while I broke a sledge doing down the steepest section. Oops.
After a couple rounds, we were tired, hot, sweaty and covered in sand.
We walked back to the main road to return the sledges and went back to the beach to clean ourselves up before jumping in a car back to the hostel.
Trying to Leave
1am I was rudely awoken by one of the loudest and worst thunderstorms ever!
It was thundering and crashing above us. Loud bangs echoing through the accommodation, dogs barking and yelping.
After at least half an hour, if not more, the storm passed over and it got quieter. Te rain was still pelting down but it was definitely more soothing than the thunder.
That morning I was due to leave.
I walked to the main road with Germi to get a car to the bus station, we hopped in and off we went. Half way there and the whole road was blocked. The storm had shifted loads of sand and debris from the dunes above the town and deposited it all along the road. It looked like a tsunami had swept through!
There were dumper trucks and diggers trying to clear the path and it looked like they were barely making a dent in it.
After taking the long route round we eventually arrived and we said our goodbyes and I hopped on the bus.
As the bus navigated out of the town you could really see the impact the storm had. Even the hills up to the main road and the highway itself were also affected but not on such a bad scale as the bottom road.
The bus picked up the remaining passengers we were on our way to my next stop, Dalat.