Mui Ne, I love you.

Today we made the long journey flying from Hanoi to Phan Thiet. We then continued to drive 30 minutes to Mui Ne, a coastal resort town in the Binh Thuan Province of southeastern Vietnam (meaning “sheltered peninsula” in Vietnamese). After the busy city of Hanoi and the long travel day to Mui Ne, I can only begin to tell how much we were looking forward to a little rest and relaxation! We decided to stay in a small guesthouse for about $23.00 a night, instead of those flashy resorts that seemed to line the main part of the beach. The views from our guest house of the South China Sea were amazing! Unfortunately Mui Ne has suffered problems with beach erosion, so at high tide there was no beach/sand in front of our guesthouse, which can make someone feel uneasy as the ocean crashes against nothing but a cement barricade. But nonetheless, we settled in for the night awaiting our day of exploration in the morning.

Mui Ne

After investigating Mui Ne, it becomes obvious that it is Vietnam's most western style resort beach. The city itself is a typical Vietnamese fishing community sporting a fleet of beautiful fishing boats. I’ve never seen something so simple and beautiful at the same time. There were just SO many boats!! The beach beside it, however, is very glitzy and is lined with large resorts, as I mentioned before. The guest houses we were staying in were smaller and further away, but the large resorts were still hard not to miss. As we walked down the beach in the early morning we purchased two glasses of Nuoc mia, or sugar-cane juice. The juice is served from distinctive metal carts with a crank-powered sugar cane stalk crushers that release the juice. It was cheap, unique and delicious! While we sipped our Nuoc mia we noticed a variety of water activities were available along the beach including surfing, kite surfing, jet-skis, and sailing. The most popular seemed to be the kite surfing there seemed to be hundreds of them out on the ocean.

Kiteboarding in Mui Ne

Afterwards we headed towards the frequently talked about red sand dunes! When we finally got to the sand dunes (about a 20 minute walk from where we were staying), we were surprised by the number of tourists occupying the dunes. Many of the tourists were sliding down the dunes on rented pieces of plastic, we decided against this because we wanted to go see the white sand dunes, which we heard were larger and worth the 30min bus ride from downtown. Later when we arrived at the white dunes we noticed that the landscape surrounding the sand dunes was desolate and very arid. Our excitement geared up a notch when we realized they were even larger than the red sand dunes! They were also occupied by fewer tourists and expressed a more peaceful atmosphere that we were looking for.

Mui Ne Red Dunes

After wandering around the dunes and taking advantage of some photo opportunities, we cooled off with another cold drink at a nearby café. We then got back on the bus to return to our guesthouse in time to grab some dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Nothing like the sound of crashing waves and a gentle sea breeze to put your mind at ease (yes, that rhymes..)