Vietnam: Mui Ne

Our bus dropped us off at the bottom of a steep hill which led up to Mui Ne Hills’ numerous hotels; one of which was Mui Ne Hills Backpackers which we had booked into. This didn’t seem like a hostel as we had 3 pools to choose from and a hotel-standard restaurant. It seemed like more of a resort than a hostel, all for a budget price of 85,000 dong (£2.80) per night! Our first day was spent on the beach topping up the tan whilst watching the many kite surfers, followed up by lounging around the pools.

We also booked onto a mini bus tour the next day of the fairy stream, a local fishing village, white sand dunes and red sand dunes which was a good day out.

The Fairy Stream is actually an ankle-deep creek you walk barefoot through to the small waterfall at the end. The stream arguably gets its name from the crevices in the rocks alongside the stream, which look like hiding places for fairies. Another theory is that from above, visitors walking the stream barefoot look like children of nature. 

We only had 30 minutes to explore the stream, but at a leisurely pace it would probably take about an hour to walk to the waterfall and back, even longer if you stop for fresh coconuts from the various sellers along the way. Our next stop was to a fishing village, but we only had 10 minutes here to take a quick photo. We don't even know what the village is called! The photo doesn't do the scene justice at all - the different colours from all the boats were stunning in the midday sun. Several cafes along the roadside had various fresh fish and seafood in buckets outside for visitors to try.

We then travelled for about 15 minutes to the white sand dunes. We'd been excited to rent quad bikes here, but we were being quoted $24 for 20minutes to have a quad bike each! We also realised a staff member sat on the quad with you and guided you around a set track, so this quickly lost its appeal and we trekked up the sand dunes to get a good view of the area. Again we only had 30mins here, so by the time we had walked up the dunes and taken photos it was time to head back.

Our final stop was the red sand dunes, where we had an hour to watch the sunset - or so we had assumed, being on a 'sunset tour'! We actually left about half an hour before the sun set, which we were all quite disappointed about. But again there were gorgeous views from the dunes as they were right next to the coast, and we grabbed an ice cream from a nearby cafe before returning to the bus.

We really enjoyed the holiday feel to Mui Ne and it was great to be back by the sea again. Next stop; Dalat! Accommodation: Mui Ne Hills Backpackers, 85,000 dong per night for a bed in a dorm room, 3 nights. This was great value for money as it felt more like a hotel! With three pools and a reasonably-priced restaurant, the fact this hostel was a five minute walk to the beach made it such a great stay. However, the dorm room fans and air con were really ineffective - it was actually cooler stepping out into the morning sun than it was in the rooms! But this wasn't a massive issue; we both slept well despite the heat. There also wasn't much of a backpacker atmosphere, so if we came here again we'd probably stay in the Mui Ne Backpacker Village a few kilometres down the road, but it's great if you just want a few days to relax. 8/10. 

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