Even though we could have stayed in Nha Trang for ages we decided we should keep heading south to make sure we don’t run out of time to see Cambodia, Laos and Northern Thailand.
We got a bus to head to another beach spot, about 200kms South of Nha Trang. What we just don’t understand is why travel takes so longin this country! Logic would say 200 km at 100kph shouldtake 2 hours. It took us 5 hours on yet another stinky hot bus with crappy air-conditioning and random stops to overpriced food stalls.
Thankfully we booked some accommodation ahead of time and got a gorgeous little bungalow right on the beach. We were in Mui Ne for 3 days, we checked out the spectacular local sites, ate, drank, swam, chilled out and worked on our tans.
What are the spectacular locals sites you may ask… well.. Sand Dunes! On our second day in Mui Ne we got up at sparrows fart (5.30am), hired a cool blue ‘Venga Jeep’ (called a Venga Jeep asour driver played loads of oonce oonce music) and stoppedoff at various sites where the local children fought over who would be our tour guide!
First stop was the white sand dunes – these were spectacular. Because the sunrise people (who got out of bed at 4am) had left and the day trippers hadn’t arrived yet we had the dunes to ourselves. The kids took our cameras off us and several shots were taken of us hooning down the sand dunes:
Next stop was to the ‘Red Canyon’ – the pictures pretty much say it all, the canyons are made of red sandyrock… it was very cool and worth the walk up the steep sandy hill to see them.
Third stop was to the ‘Fairy River’ where we had a group of 4 kids aged between 11 and 15 (who all looked 7yrs old) take us on a guided tour. The kids were so cute, they chatted away practicing their English asking us lots of questions. We shouted them all Cokes at the top of the stream and we had yummy coconut drinks. Afterwards, theytook us off the beaten track though someones farm (with ascary guard dog), past a tree snake that was eating a babybird and several prickly cacti – very dangerous stuff!
On the way back to the Venga jeep they took us to the smelly fish sauce farm where there were loads and loads of fermenting pots of fish sauce… eeeew, smelly.
We gave the kids 25,000 dong each ($2.50) for doing such a great job and being so lovely – it was so lovely to see the smileson their faces! We are thinking before we hit Cambodia weshould stock up on little things like pens, hair ties…etc.to give the kids.
On our last night at Mui Ne we went for a meal that definitely ranked in thetop 5 meals we have had in Vietnam… it was a lovely BBQ seafood place down the road from our bungalow and had a few more cocktails (of course).
We are now in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), we will be here a few days before going to Cambodia via the Mekong Delta. Will post again soon!
Travelling Kiwi 
hey j and m,
sounds like you’re having a ball. Yep be sure and get lots of paper and pencils for the wee ones. Stickers… anything. It is kinda weird cos I think it fuels expectations but simple things like pencils should be a right.
Have fun… the work goes on here.
Tony
Hey there
Looks like some serious fun is being had by all over there. Good on you for taking the time to write it down and great photos. Real spring weather here with warm sunny days followed by southerly fronts and am looking out my office window at the light dusting of snow on the hills above Eastbourne…
Keeping in touch with big blister and all is well.
Take care and remember you can never have too much fun…
Ian
I am pleased you changed to picture at the top. Every time I saw Bangkok traffic I got depressed – now I see a sandy beach and I am still stuck in the Bangkok traffic – Oh well.
Guess I will go to the beach as well
Dad