When researching Vietnam there are a few things that I understood and expected. I knew that we would see crazy bustling cities, beautiful island-filled bays, dramatic terraced farmland, and new modern cities in the South. What I didn’t expect were huge sand dunes.
We left Dalat and took a roughly 3 hour bus to the coastal town of Mui Ne. This area situated on the southern coast near Saigon is known for its resorts and huge Russian expatriate population but we didn’t intend to come for these reasons. We wanted to see the sand dunes. We arrived in Mui Ne in the late morning and found a taxi which brought us to our hotel. This hotel was one of the least expensive we have stayed at, costing about $9 per night, and it ended up being a huge highlight. We arrived at the hotel to find out that they had overbooked, and decided to put us in the higher-end resort portion of their hotel. We found ourselves in a large room with a beautiful balcony near a pool they had which offered a beautiful view. Happy with how the day was going we changed into some lighter clothes that would be better in the heat and set off to rent motorbikes and get some food. We walked down the street from our hotel and found some of the least expensive bikes yet. At just under $4 per day we took two and went into town.
The town of Mui Ne consists of a long road near (but not looking at) the ocean which stretches about a mile and contains all the shops and hotels and restaurants. Not much branches off of this road. Because of the large Russian expat population we found a Russian restaurant named Alex which was extremely delicious. I got some hearty and flavorful potato and pork steamed dumplings and Bryden ordered a fried chicken dish which the owner said was his favorite and ended up being delicious as well. We then set out for the dunes.
Because it was already the afternoon by the time we set out, we decided to visit the red sand dunes which are close to the city, and then visit the more expansive (and distant) white sand dunes the next morning. We found the red sand dunes which ended up being somewhat crowded with Vietnamese tourists, but once we walked further into them they became quieter and more beautiful. We hiked and jumped around them for a while, but in the distance we saw some large daunting clouds begin to form and the wind picked up quite quickly. We enjoyed the dunes for another hour or so after the first signs of a storm, but then our ankles began to hurt from the sharp blowing sand and we decided to play it safe and return to the hotel.
We spent the evening in our mini-resort’s pool and ate an amazing multi course meal at its restaurant. We had a ton of food and dessert and it ended up being the most expensive meal so far on the trip. We really enjoyed it and happily reflected on how we had become accustomed to such inexpensive food and a 250,000d meal ($13) felt like such an indulgence. Vietnam is so cheap.
The next day ended up being quite exciting. We stuck to our plan of exploring the white sand dunes, which turned into quite an adventure. We took off early in the morning and rode 45 minutes north to the mountainous dunes. These dunes were much bigger and more impressive than the previous ones, and we set out by foot with the goal of hiking up to the highest point. This wasn’t too hard of a task, and after 30 minutes of walking, surrounded by a few other Vietnamese tourists buzzing by on rented ATVs we made it and found an impressive but unexpected view. The weather throughout the morning had been great but as we approached the top we began to see some extremely large and disastrous looking clouds. We thought they were far away, but as we summited the dune the wind began to pick up quickly and rain began spitting down. We sprinted down the side of the dune realizing that this storm was quite imminent and did all we could do make it back to the bikes quickly. The rain did not hold back and after a couple minutes we were absolutely soaked. As we were about to announce defeat a knock-off land cruiser drove by and after a fair bit of hand waving we were able to flag the driver down and sit in the trunk as we returned to the dune entrance.
Sadly we were taken to the wrong entrance, and I had lost a flip flop in the land cruiser type car, so we had to walk back 15 minutes to the correct entrance looking as defeated as possible (although we were honestly quite enjoying this). I had one flip flop on, we looked as if we just stepped out of a pool, and we were trying to keep our miraculously still working phones as dry as possible during the torrential downpour. We returned to the main entrance to the dunes relieved, and grabbed a great hot meal of Pho and coffee while we dried off. Once we were comfortable again (and after I bought a new pair of flip flops) we headed back to town on a slightly rainy but entertaining and quiet ride.
As we returned to town the weather began to let up so we headed to a creek which we were able to walk up. Wading through the water we passed small farms and touristy restaurants as well, while heading through a beautiful clay canyon.
After returning our bikes and packing up we found a bus that would take us to Saigon, and waited at a small bus station. We had some time here so we first went in to a grocery store for some snacks, but then found a little woman selling banh mi sandwiches next to the road. We normally didn’t get food like this (with meat and fruit that had been sitting out in the sun) but for some reason she seemed like she would offer something special. We ended up getting sandwiches and smoothies that were so good I would go back to Mui Ne for more. Maybe I was really hungry or exhausted, but I still think it was the best street food I have had. We then took a bus to Saigon where I will pick up in the next post.
Overall Mui Ne was a great place to spend a night, but it didn’t have the interesting Vietnamese culture and friendliness that other places had. We really enjoyed it and found some great adventures while we were there, but it didn’t feel as Vietnamese as I had hoped (possibly because it’s largely Russian…).