Horay for Mui Ne!

 Greetings from a warm and lovely place: Mui Ne, Vietnam! After the hustle and bustle of beach town Nha Trang, Mui Ne is a breath of fresh sea-salted air! It's a tiny little town, stretching languidly down 10  kilometers of beach. We arrived mid-week, so the tourists from Saigon (about 3 hours away) are all at work right now, so we have the beach nearly to ourselves. We arrived, found the cheapest accomodation in town (right on the beach though!) and set immediatley to work relaxing.

One of the highlights of this town is the Fairy Stream. We rented bikes and rode for a few kilometers to the tiny bridge, nearly missing it, and walked down to the flow. We were a bit confused as to why it was an attraction, since it was muddy and lined with trash, but we gamely waded through the 5 inch deep stream. Soon the trash disappeared and the magic began. The water became clear to reveal bright red sand underneath and the landscape became quite strange: dunes in tie-dye swirls of yellow, white, red and tan appeared to our right, with stalagmite-esque rock formations jutting up. The fun doesn't stop there...

We see a sign next to the river that says: "As skin conditions" and a photo of a girl riding an ostrich. We peer in and see a pen of ostriches with saddles on... "You wan' ride ostrich?" says a small Vientamese woman. "Bow nee-oo deun?" We ask. "Forty thousan" She says. We were thinking about doing it but we decided we were too afraid.

JUST KIDDING! We rode those ostriches so good! Come on, like we would miss a chance to ride an ostrich! It was pretty wild, lean back and the ostrich runs, lean forward and he walks. Our ostrich was a gentle bird, the most mild-mannered ostrich I have ever met, a glorious male with black body feathers and a silky gray neck. Neither of us fell off, and it was totally worth the USD$2. No longer shall I say in shame "I have never ridden an ostrich". After we descended, a jolly drunken sort of man came over from where he was drinking and read our palms, but unfortunately we had no idea what he had declared.

As we waved goodbye to our feathered mount and his tamers, we splish-splashed our way right into a whole patch of four leafed clovers! We decided we were the luckiest people in the whole world. Also near the fairy stream were sensitivity plants, some interesting legumes that when you touch them the leaves clamp together quickly to protect themselves.

We came to a place where there appeared to be a small tributary to the fairy stream and we were a bit confused, since there was only a huge orange dune right in the place it was flowing from. We went to investigate and found that there was fresh water seeping directly out from the dune itself! Water appearing magically, as if from no where! This was truly a magical place! One could very nearly imagine a troupe of glowing fairies playing and flitting near the water. The sun was beginning to set, so we decided to go back. Right next to the stream was a woman selling fresh coconuts. We were very thirsty, so we bought one, for about $.75, and she just lobs off the top with a machete and lets us drink the sweet water inside.

The next day we decided to rent a motorbike and go to the sand dunes. Along the way we stopped at a little fishing village and paid a man USD$2 to row us out in a little round boat that looked very much like a basket. The panorama was amazing, we could see hundreds of boats of similar shape and color, giving the whole scene a very authentic and coordinated look.

Next we arrived at the red dunes. We were immediatley offered plastic sleds by some little boys. Sand sledding? we couldn't resist, and we set off through the desertous dunes with our 9 year old guide. Not quite as effective as snow, but fun nonetheless. We were lucky to have our guide, as we wouldn't have known half as well as him how to get the sled going fast. It was very hot, and the sand was burning our feet. After 10 or 12 slides and hikes back up, we were ready to move on.

We drove on, and Sarah had her first go at driving the bike. It wasn't very hard, and she quickly got the hang of it. We stopped in a little village for lunch, lured by the beach. We drove down a hidden hill and came to the beach where all of the locals were hanging out. The sun glittered on the green water as little naked children ran by ecstatically. We walked along the beach, collecting shells along the way, and molesting some hermit crabs.

After a few more distractions, we arrived at the white dunes just in time for sunset. On the way up the dunes there was a little canteen. Next to the canteen there was a captive monkey jealously guarding some coconut shells against a turkey, who would repeatedly charge the monkey, only to be bonked on the head. It was quite entertaining in a monkey-vs-turkey gladiator kind of way. We bought some ice creams and walked up the dunes to watch the sun set. There was a lake in front of the dunes, the ice cream only had a little sand in it, and the sky was pastel-rainbow stunning. We did a little dance on the dunes to celebrate our marvelous day! 

Marvel at our other pictures from Mui Ne:  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.893441573945.2389419.18403674&l=e3e2f877f6