Mui Ne, Vietnam

Last night, February 24, we arrived in Mui Ne, Vietnam. This place is amazing! The town is a small touristy area filled with resorts, shops, and restaurants all along a three mile stretch on the ocean. Absolutely beautiful! There is a restriction against high riser buildings so it maintains a laid back beach community. It must be a popular area for europeans and russians... it seems everyone was from there. You could definitely distinguish the backpackers from the vacationers.


Our first full day there we headed to a travel agency to book a jeep tour to some near by sand dunes. When we got to the agency we saw a moped for rent and thought "heck we can do it ourselves, no need for a tour." And that's when our little adventure began.


The map... oh a little hand drawing on the back of a business card showing two roads to get there.... easy we got this! We wanted to see the red canyon, white sand dunes, and red sand dunes. We stopped to ask a man if we were going the right way and what we understood was "it take you two hours... good luck" ohhhh dear (the travel agency quoted us a few kms, nothing close to even an hour). Hmmmm... Sure enough after a few u-turns we were on the right path. We drove right next to the ocean... it was amazing! Along the way we flew by a sign and all i could read is parking so we turned around to read the sign and wiola we had succesfully made it our first destination...red canyon. We walked through the red sandy canyon for awhile etching our names into the side and taking it all in.


Next stop: white sand tunes. We drove down the road for awhile and saw the white sand dunes in the distance... a very cool sight to see. Luckily we saw a jeep from a jeep tour pull off this sandy, gravely road so we knew where to go next. Off roading with a moped, probably not the best idea, but after a few minutes of contemplation we were headed down the path. We were almost to the dunes when the next thing I knew the moped was on its side. We had tipped over when we hit a giant hole in the sand. But we were okay and tried to pick the moped up before anyone saw... too late. A local came by on a dirt bike and clearly we were the highlight of his day. He was laughing so hard that it made us laugh just as hard despite Marks bruised big toe. The white sand dunes were awesome. We rented a sled which is just a big piece of plastic and rode down. It was so crazy to see the giant white sand dunes in the middle of no where.


After the white sand dunes we hopped on the moped and took off for the red sand dunes hoping to catch it during sunset. I threw off my sandals near a light post and ran up the dunes. We watched the sunset from the red dunes, which were not nearly as impressive as the white, but still very cool. When we got back my flip flops were gone. I just couldn't imagine who would want to steal three dollar flip flops from old navy. I looked around and only saw a family... not likely candidates. But then at the top of the sand dune were three local kids playing probably about eight or nine years old. I ran up there and noticed only one in flip flops and asked to see her flip flops. Hmmm... old navy... my size... weird. I asked her for my flip flops back and she smiled and handed them to me. As I turned around she said "a tip?" It's called stealing child and people normally dont tip the person who takes their belngings. Since this is a popular place for tourist and most people remove their shoes... I imagine this was not her first time doing it. At the same time Sparky was arguing with a gentlemen who was charging us to park after he said no charge and made us move our moped to his side of the road. Interesting! We lost that battle and forked over the dough. Typical scams to be expected in touristy areas, not leaving an overall great impression on us of the red sand dunes.


We cleaned up and got the 8lbs of sand off us and decided to get dinner. I got on the moped and pulled up to the side of the road. Sparky hopped on back and when he did so he slipped and fell forward on to me grabbing my forearm which was on the throttle. We drove staright across the road where there was a woman coming right at us on her moped. Mark let go of my arm and I was able to break before we went up the curb into the sidewalk. The woman on the moped swirved out of the way and the tourists on the sidewalk looked frightened. We started laughing so hard we couldn't move the moped and on coming traffic was honking at us non stop. We pulled ourselves together got on the moped and made it dinner. It was a fun day and an awesome place to visit. Looking forward to tomorrow! Over and out.