Mui Ne and sand sledging! (13th & 14th April)

Monday 13th April - Mui Ne

Mui Ne is a beautiful and relaxing spot on the coast inbetween Saigon and Nha Trang. Not everybody stops here on the backpacker trail, it is more likely to attract the kite-surfer or wannabe kite-surfer crowd (I fall into the latter category!)

What an amazing day so far especially considering I got zero hours sleep! Got on the bus which ended up leaving at 8.30am and taking 5 hours. After a bit of traipsing around with backpacks we found a room right next to 'Mellow' for 9 dollars between 3 of us. We had met a 23 year old guy on the bus called Austin, from Seatle in America. He's here for 6 weeks, following working in Mexico for 3 months as a scuba dive master. Wicked yeah. Arrived and saw Rory, who me and Tom had met the other night with his friend Sam at the cheapo beer place, who had nicked the last room at 'Mellow' the backpacker place we planned on staying at!
We were very very happy to arrive at the beach - sigh - and sat at a gorgeous place (where the rooms go for 59 dollars!) on the beach front and had a pancake and beer before moto biking off to red dunes to sledge and jump in sand and be big kids basically. It was sooooo much fun, and the little kids that rented us the boards for a dollar helped us dig up the deeper wetter sand to transport to the top of the slope to thrown down the hill. Then you stick your feet up, plonk your bum as close to it as possible and then lean back and GO!!!

There were also 2 American girls and therefore a good crowd to have fun with although I have to say it was verY hard work climbing back up to the top of the slopes and I am noticing my lack of 3 or 4 times a week gym workouts!

Am very happy. With a good crowd and all is good. Only thing is all my clothes are covered in red from Rathinkiri in Cambodia so I long for clean and different clothes also my epilator broke NOT happy as I havnt shaved in 10 years and dont intend to start now. Hope there is cheap waxing here... Anyway, upon return me and American Austin went for a swim in the sea and I cracked him up being so jumpy at my overactive imagination thinking lots of small creatures were after me when it was in fact the loose bindings on my bikini....
Will be good to see Tom and Dave later. This place is wicked wicked wicked and they also have jet sking and kite surfing so BRING IT ON!!!!

Had drinkies in the evening and very cheap diinner. I also had a huge plate of fruit and yoghurt for desert for a ridiculous price on the beach front. We shared bottles of rum for 30,000 with some lime juice and ice. Went to bed about 4am was suprised I lasted! Looks like there won't be much kite surfing as the wind is hiding. I am pretty gutted but there is at least jet skiing so will have to make do with that instead! Also want to do the white sand dunes but is further away and even though we have rented the motos really just wanna chill and do nothing for a day.

Money spent: 5 USD bus, breakfast 1 dollar, snack 1 dollar, beer 15,000 cigarettes 12,000 motorbike hire 50,000 sledge rent 17,000 pancake 30,000. SLEDGE 1 DOLLAR.

Tuesday 14th April - Mui Ne Day 2

Today was pretty much chilled, reading and listening to music on the beach until 4 when we took a loooong motorbike trip to the white sand dunes this time. It was soooooo awesome, it was like being in the desert and we were pretty much the only people there which added to the atmosphere aided by a lovely sunset. It was quite hard work, but worth it to slide down on our bellies, a new technique discovered by Dave! Four of us trekked a bit further to go down a steeper and longer slope and it was such good fun doing activities like this I get such a buzz out of!! These are my favourite times, great location, great crowd, great fun!

In the evening I had a lovely shrimp and squid meal with noodles over a bottle of rum with Tom, leaving the others at Mellow for a little while. We ended up chatting the evening away and I was suprised it was 10.30 before heading back to Mellow to play pool and drink more rum! I am soooo tired I havnt slept properly in over a week but at least I actually slept last night even if only 5 hours! It was a good evening and me and Elli
headed back to the room at about 1am.

I can't really remember the rest - I think we got a day bus to Nha Trang, the crowd decided to all move on together but I think me Rory Sam and Ellie ended up on a different bus to the others so we all arranged to meet at a hotel in Nha Trang which had been recommended to me by two different people.

I never got to do my kite surfing sob sob as there was no wind... but another time...