Mui Ne

We've spent some time relaxing and checking out some of the scenery around Mui Ne.  We tried sledding on the sand dunes and it made me actually want winter and snow to go real sledding.  That's how pathetic it was, it was more funny than fun.  We had a lovely day today at the beach, it wasn't too windy so we weren't sitting in a whirlwind of sand.  The kitesurfers were probably sad though, we didn't see any kite out today.  Mui Ne has been really nice minus the rain tonight and our ant issues yesterday. We head to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow morning.  My only complaint is that my feet and ankles are riddled with bug bites :( I'm learning a lot of self control by not scratching :S

Nov 3 – Sand Dunes

We woke up this morning to an unpleasant surprise. Ants. They had found our stash off candied ginger and were all over the inside of the bad... booo! We found them else where in the room so we decided to change hotels. After breakfast we moved to the hotel across the street, it's on the beach side but doesn't actually have beach access, which is fine since there is access just down the street. We rented a motorcycle so we could check out the sand dunes. Our first stop were the red sand dunes. We were flagged aside and told we could park for free if we bought a drink after. Beers were a little overpriced but not too bad. We haggled for our plastic slides, they wanted 50,000d/slide we got 2 for 50,000d. A kid led us and our slides on to the sand dune to go sledding. We walked along the dunes and stopped at a specific spot which was apparently the sled run. Beau kept asking if we could try in other areas but the kid said no. He took our sleds and threw sand down the hill and then put a bunch on top of the sled. Beau sat on his sled and got pulled down the hill. It was no where near as thrilling as sledding on snow. I did a little better, able to get more speed, probably because I'm lighter. We tried a few runs and gave up. It was very underwhelming. As we walked back the kid kept asking for a tip, we gave him 6,000d but then while we were drinking our beers he and his friend kept asking to buy him a Coke. At 20,000d it was not going to happen so we just ignored him. We were very hot, sweaty and sandy; the beers went down nicely. Beau asked if there was a place to swim and we were told there was a waterfall 5min down the road. We were headed that way anyways so we set off skeptical about finding a waterfall. It wasn't the right terrain. We didn't see a waterfall but we found a spot to go swimming in the ocean. It was very nice to cool off. We were in a quiet little cul-de-sac so I got to try the motorcycle. It was fun but scary, I'll leave learning more about motorcycles till I get back to Canada. We continued on to find the white sand dunes. They were a bit harder to find but find them we did. We were offered sled rides again or to rent an ATV (which was extortionate). We just walked over and took some pictures though. We headed back into Mui Ne for a late lunch, we had our hearts set on Mexican but the prices were much too high. We found another place down the road and ordered, I got curry and Beau some shrimp with cashews. The food arrived and what did Beau see in his rice...ants. Today was not our day for ants. There were some in my rice too and also in the other portions Beau was given. Ugghhh! The food that didn't have any ants was very tasty but we weren't satisfied due to the lack of rice. We had it in our minds that we wanted to see a nice sun set, we headed to the east side of the beach to watch the sunset. It was cloudy so there wasn't much to see. We came back for a shower and headed to the night time seafood restaurants. Scores of little places pop up as the sun sets, all selling fresh seafood. We had tiger prawns and scallops. They were delicious. It cost more than a noodle bowl would but was sooo worth it. For about $10 we had 0.5kg tiger prawns, 0.5kg scallops, a plate of noodles with vegetables and a couple of beers. We are doing it again tomorrow night!! After dinner we headed back to Joe's Bar, where the live music was, and enjoyed a couple more beers while listening the keyboardist. He was very good but I think we both prefer the guitarist, he's back tomorrow night so you can guess where we'll be.

The Red Sand Dunes

Beau about to go sledding

Beau getting pulled down the hill

Me motorcycling

The White Sand Dunes

Nov 4 – Relaxing at the Beach

We had a nice leisurely start to our day complete with some mango for breakfast, Yum! We thought to try a different kind of vermicelli bowl for breakfast but instead of crab vermicelli I ended up with crab soup complete with tofu, pork sausage, and beef blood. Not quite what I expected but I guess it was okay. We sat on the beach for most of the rest of the day. Aahhh relaxing. We went swimming and watched some fisher men netting some little fishies. We had lunch on the beach and a little afternoon nap/read out of the sun. We headed back to the seafood restaurants for dinner. Tonight we had steamed and bbq clams, steamed snails, bbq crab, some veges with garlic and of course beer to drink. We had 1.6kg of sea food all for 12 dollars. It was amazing. As we finished our meal it was starting to spit, we stopped off at our room on the way to Joe's to wash the sea food off our hands and the heavens open. It poured so we waited it out inside. When the rain stopped we checked out Joe's to see if the music was happening still. It was but the dry seats were taken and it seemed it might rain again. We came back to our hotel and played some crib in the restaurant with a beer. As we were finishing up our game it started raining again, fortunately it was just a quick dash to our room. We've had a couple of power outages but a generator has kicked in so we have power again. I just hope it does go all night since we are right next to it.

Mountain Climbing and Back to the Beach

We are back at the beach in a town called Mui Ne.  It's a windsurfers/kiteboarders haven! Dad would love it :) Before leaving Da Lat we tackled Lang Bian Mountain, which was an all day hike for us.  The drive between Da Lat and Mui Ne was terrifying and bumpy but we arrived.  I'm looking forward to some beach time if the wind ever dies down.

Nov 1 – Lang Bian Mountain

With the research we had done on Lang Bian Mountain we thought it would take us 3-4 hrs to hike round trip. We set off for the mountain after having “egg bread” for breakfast. We didn't end up picking up more food as since we thought it wouldn't be that long of hike. We arrived at the bottom of the mountain around 11am. You can pay 40,000 dong per person for a jeep to take you up to the radio tower and back down. The guy at the admission counter said it was 6km and 3hrs round trip. We decided to walk. We started walking up the road but figured there had to be a path to walk up so we started walking through the trees. The forest here is similar to home with lots of pine trees. After about 1.5hrs of bushwhacking and “trail” following we came to a labelled fork in the road. The sign pointed to the left saying radio tower 2km and the right saying peak (2190m) 3km. We knew we wanted to get to the peak so we went right. This part of the hike started off nice and flat, a relief after the uphill we had just climbed. It did not stay flat though. We started going up again and the vegetation changed to be more jungley. The up became vertical and we had to climb over roots and fallen trees. Finally we made it to the top. It took about an hour from the fork, I'm pretty sure we hiked more than 3km! The view from the top was awesome. We were in much need of a break and sat down for some snacks. Another couple had braved the hike up but other than that we were the only people on the peak. They had taken the walking path up, we would have if we could have found it. It isn't well signed at the bottom. We took some pictures and after catching our breath we headed back down. Down was just as hard as up because we had to try not to slide all the way to the bottom, it went much quicker though. Once we reached the fork Beau wanted to go over to the radio tower. It was only another 2km. The radio tower is where all the jeeps take people. It was an easy walk over to there and surprisingly the area was almost deserted. There were no tourists at that time. We contemplated eating up there but decided after another rest to head back down. It was around 4pm by this time, we figured we should try to get back before dark. We asked the staff about another walking path down and actually found it. It was just a break in some shrubs. Along the path the way up was marked with spray painted arrows. The way down was pretty steep. By this time my legs were quite sore and tired. We made it back to the bike in about an hour and headed back into town while the sun was going down. We had some dinner back in town, returned the bike and headed back to the hotel. We were both pretty tired. The hike was worth it for the view from the top but they could do with better sign postage for the walking path. I guess they just want everyone to take the jeep up.

The mountain as seen from the fork

Going up up up

The view of Da Lat from the top

At the top

Nov 2 – Mui Ne

We caught a bus to Mui Ne this morning. We were sad to see Da Lat go but we have to keep going since our visas expire on the 10^th! Our bus was actually a minibus with 16 seats and 2 people on stools. We also didn't have A/C this time. I think the roads were the worst we have been on so far. Huge, deep post holes everywhere, parts of the road gave out some time ago and the weeds have grown in, the brush along the side of the road was badly encroaching. We almost hit a motorcycle that was in our lane coming around a corner. That put our hearts in our throats, even the locals seemed disconcerted. We fortunately made it to Mui Ne in one piece. The area we are in is called Mui Ne Beach and is essentially one road that runs along the beach with hotels and restaurants on either side, Mui Ne Village is further along. The bus dropped us off around 11am and it was hot. We checked out a few hotels and found one for cheap. It's not on the beach but we only are spending $9. We put on our beach clothes and set off for some lunch and beach. We ate at a little seafood restaurant on the beach and then walked along it. It's very windy here but it's becoming one of the hottest places in Asia for windsurfing and kiteboarding. We walked towards the kitesurfers and watched them for awhile. We asked at one place how much lessons were but it's way out of our price range. There weren't many places to sit on the beach because of the wind and the highish tide. We decided to see if we could find a cheap place on the beach. We looked at a whole bunch but none seemed to have a nice beach front with reasonable priced. Pfft like we were going to pay $30-50 a night for a beach front resort. We had dinner at a restaurant on the beach, sand included. Pretty sure my feet were eaten by sand flies. After dinner we went to a bar down the street that had live music. The guy was really good, just him and his guitar. We had a very enjoyable night listening to music while drinking beer!

Mui Ne Beach

Kitesurfers Galore