Mui Ne

After a brief run on the beach this morning, I stopped in to have breakfast and to confirm my ticket to Da Lat this morning after only half a day in Mui Ne. Mui Ne isn't really a happening town.

After breakfast, I set out to see the one thing that Mui Ne is famous for - the sand dunes. Having picked up a map at the Hahn Cafe (my Open Ticket tour group) that conveniently listed five hotels out of about 100 (most likely the five they get commissions from), I set out. Yesterday I had looked at the map and the dunes didn't seem that far away and I had laughed (to myself, of course) at the guy who offered a six dollar 'tour' of the dunes. I could walk there myself, thank you very much. This place isn't very big. How far could they possibly be? And did you really need a 'guide' to sand dunes?

At 11:00, I set off on the road north. The road ran along the beach and for a time I walked along the beach to avoid the numerous moto taxi drivers who pull up beside you every two minutes to see if you want a ride. Apparently, all the sand in Mui Ne seems to have blown up into the dunes because the beach soon disappeared and I was left walking on concrete erosion control barriers.

Back on the street, I consulted my map, noting that I had past about 20 hotels, none of them on my map. Along with hotels, I also began counting taxi rides refused. "Hello! Moto bi?" "No." "Hello! Moto bi?" "No." "HELLO! Where you go? Moto bi?" "Hmm, uh. No". I wasn't going to pay some guy to take me somewhere that I could easily walk myself; and besides, it was good exercise.

Two hours and 31 refused moto taxi rides later, with the stench of dead fish permeating the air, I was beginning to question my decision. How far was this place?? I'd been following the road along the coast and had been passed up by at least six tour buses, so I had to be going the right way, hadn't I? I decided that at the next turn, I would see what there was to see and take the next moto taxi driver up on his offer back to the hotel. Mue Ni was impressing me less and less.

As I turned the corner, I was greeting by two young Vietnamese boys carrying what looked like long laminated signs. The came up to me and after asking my name and where I was from, asked if I wanted to "slide." Looking up ahead, I saw that I had reached the dunes and sitting below the towering mounds of red sand were about 20 children all carrying these laminated mats. I told them that I didn't want to slide, but I would watch them slide.

Joined by another three little entrepreneurs, I walked up to the dunes and started my ascent. Looking out over the dunes the to west, your eyes were met with what seemed like endless mounds of red sand hills, straight out of an Arabian film (not that I've ever seen one...). To the east, the coast was dotted with homes of the village of Mui Ne and the water was filled with fishing boats. The children walked with me up and down the dunes, asking my name, my age, where I was from, how long I'd be in Vietnam. I countered with my own questions: their names, their ages and where they were from - the last one they all found amusing. I wasn't sold on the slide, but I wasn't going to let the opportunity that huge mounds of sand presented go, so I turned and looked at the kids and said, "Run?" They all nodded eagerly and the six of us took off running.

After a few pictures and a few more runs and climbs (for the assents, I was offered four little hands and one pair pushing me up from the rear) we headed back toward the road where there was some sort of scene being filmed. I asked the kids if it was a movie and they replied that it was a music video. In the four months I've been in Southeast Asia, I have seen my share of sappy Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese music videos, but what a treat to see one filmed! A handsome Vietnamese man of about 25 was singing (or lip synching) to a pretty Vietnamese girl in a head wrap sitting in the back of an ox cart pulled by two oxen. It was just as sappy in person than on TV, but still neat to see. I will have to keep an eye out for it on Asian MTV.

After the video, I walked down to one of the nearby food stalls and bought ice cream popsicles for all the kids. While they were picking them out, one new kid came up and as I asked for four (I had lost one of the kids at some point), said "five." I looked at her and said, "I'm sorry, I don't know you, I don't know if I have enough money." She smiled and nodded. I found a cheap brand that they all said they liked so that I could buy five, but as I handed one to her, she started passing them out to the others, thinking that she wasn't going to get one and not taking one for herself. As the four were passed around, I handed her the fifth and her face lit up into a smile as she thanked me and took the ice cream.

Saying good bye to my new little friends, I rounded the bend and started planning my bargaining strategy for the numerous motos that I presumed would be heading my way. But following the strict law of individual transportation in this region of the world - there are 31 taxis when you don't want one and none when you do. After about five minutes, a young man on a motorbike stopped and offered me a ride, which I gladly took and made my way back much quicker than I had made my way there.