Mui Ne
The bus to Mui Ne only took about 4 hours. We were surprised to see Jamie and Christian get on the same bus so it was nice to chat to them. The bus stopped right outside the Cocosand guesthouse that we had booked so it was perfect. We were welcomed by a lovely guy who showed us to our room. It was a really cute place and we were staying in a little concrete bungalow with a palm tree garden in the middle with hammocks. We were super sleepy so decided to help ourselves to a couple of beers in the fridge and watch some tv. The room we were staying in was the cheapest which was a double bed for us to share with a fan but was really nice. Our clothes were in need of a clean so we used the opportunity of staying in to do a hand wash. Just as we were about to doze off I suddenly remembered that our clothes were still soaking in the sink. As I was rinsing and draining them out I managed to break the sink off the wall and water was spurting everywhere! In the panic Ruby held the sink up while I ran around the resort trying to find a member of the family that was awake to help! Eventually I found someone and he grabbed his brother to help. I was really worried that we were going to be charged for repairs but just as I started apologising he apologised and took is to the bungalow next door . . . We were given an upgrade to two double beds with air-con this time! After a lovely sleep in our posh room we woke up and went for a morning swim in the sea :) After splashing in the waves for a while we went and ate a scrummy breakfast on the beach front. Mui Ne has a lovely beachy chilled out vibe to it and there are lots kite and wind surfers around.
We spoke to the guy at the guesthouse and asked the best way to see the sand-dunes that we had heard about. He quickly organised us a tour with a private jeep to ourselves for the day. Half an hour later we were picked up by our jeep driver and we zoomed off. First stop was the fairy stream. We weren't sure exactly what this was but the driver told us to walk up the stream and don't pay anyone to show us the way as it was easy. Sure enough a few kids asked to be our guides but we smiled and shook our heads. It was great fun. We had to wade up the stream, with no idea where we were going. It was stunning, It started off with beautiful flowers and hedges lining the stream and then it opened up to these awesome rock formations of white and red rock/ sand towering vertically by the side of the stream, it really was magical. After 20 minutes the stream ended and there was a cool waterfall at the end.
After wading back to the jeep we drove along a picturesque coast road to the fishing town. We stopped up at a cool view point where we could see thousands of brightly coloured fishing boats. It was amazing to see and we loved watching the fishermen paddle out to there big boats in these smaller boats that looked like giant washing up bowls, some of them plastic and some of them wooden.
We were taken to the white dunes next these were a good drive out which was awesome fun with our driver, especially when we were off road he was super fast and we seemed to overtake every single vehicle that we came to. We got really excited when we saw the dunes on the horizon. They were huge rolling hills of golden sand. We spent an hour walking along the surreal landscape of hot beautiful sand that went on for miles. It was hard walking, but well worth it for the experience. We bumped into a couple that we had met on one of our bus journeys and they had a toboggan (sheet of plastic) and we took it in turns to slide down the dunes. It was great fun and we managed to cover ourselves head to toe in sand in the process of tumbling off :)
We whizzed off again in the jeep and headed to the red dunes. They were also stunning and they were such a vivid colour. We were pretty warn out from the previous dunes and walked and found a nice spot to sit to
watch the sun go down. Seeing the colours of the sand change as the sun set was
a fantastic way to end the trip.
That evening we met up with Christian, Jamie and a guy called Rob from Australia. We had been told the best place to eat in Mui Ne was the local BBQ's down the beach. We sat on these little concrete benches and tables and chose our food for the night. Seeing as this BBQ restaurant was called Mr Crab it seemed only right to eat there Mr Crabs! They were amazing and Ruby and I managed to get really satisfyingly messy cracking all the shell and legs to get as much of the juicy deliciously fresh meat as we could. After dinner we all headed to a strange looking bar called 'Dragon Beach' but the name had us sold and we were pretty chuffed as girls got there first drink for free. We had a great night dancing to crazy/bad remixed music. The next day we had our breakfast on the beach and headed off to Nha Trang.