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Every where you go in Vietnam you get accosted by easy riders offering to show you the "real vietnam" get off the tourist trail and show you whats its all about. After a few weeks of pestering we gavce in and they agreed to take us to Mui Ne via dalat on a 2 night/3 day trip of a life time.
Early on the morning of departure we boarded our bikes and set off. They pile your rucksacks onto the back of the motor bike so that you can lean on them and be comfortable...some of the way!
The first day we did about 8 hours on the back of the bike although you stop every hour or so and we saw a fishing village, a brick making factory, a mushroom grower, a flower farmer and lots of other things, not to mention the views that we saw along the way that were breath taking. We drove up through the windy mountain roads off the main tourist trail of the 1a highway. It was somewhat nerve racking the first few times we took a sharp corner by the edge of a cliff but you soon get used to it. Our first night they told us that we would be staying in a long house with some locals, and we were ready to rough it...so when they pulled up to this 3 star hotel set by the side of a beautiful lake, equpit with swimming pool, and in the room satalite tv, aircon and a bath tub (basic things i know but how i have missed a bath!) we were incredibly impressed.
The best thing about this by far was that we ate with them, food wasnt included in the price but when you eat with the locals the price drops by so much its amazing, we were having lots of new dishes like beef hot pot and whole deep fried crabs and all of it was fantastic and a huge spread would costy us less than a pound between us including all of our drinks!
The drivers were nice too Sy and Tham, only thing that we had a run in about was littering they kept trying to throw plastic bottles etc on the floor and i kept trying to get them not to and picking up after them which of course they found hillarious!
The morning of the second day we went to the minority village where they have unusual marriage customs (ie a woman is announced at being ready to marry and stands behind the door of her house, all the men that want to marry her gather at the bottom of the stairs and beat the crap out of each other until one or other of them gets to the top and opens the door, thus he is the winner), we also visited a village called the chicken village, no not as you would think beacuse they have a lot of chickens, but beacuse in the middle of it is a huge concrete chicken! Years ago legend has it a young couple wanted to be married, but the womans family didnt have enough money to give to the mans family as a dowry so she went off into the woods to find some more and she died and her husband went after her found her and died of a broken heart. The people here were so nice and so keen to show us round.
The final day's driving was mental, as we approached Mui Ne the wind picked up and was trying to blow us sideways so both our drivers went faster and faster until taking corners made you hold your breath and pray. Mui Ne as a beach resort wasnt that great but the sand dunes were amazing. Out of the middle of no where these huge red dunes appear and by the time youve climbed to the top you could be in the Sahara its beautiful, abnd you can go sledging down them on a peice of plasitic, which was surprisingly not as fun as it sounds! Then a huge row broke out between us and the children selling sledges over money so we were not happy.
Our hotel at mui ne was nice enough hammocks to chill by the beach but we were bored and it turned out that we had been dropped at the far far end of town so thats was why there was nothing to do near us! Oh well off to the bright lights of the city and Saigon or ho chi minh city next!
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