Mui Ne

We snaffle a "beach bungalow" where the bus dumps us in Mui Ne. Not as glamourous as it sounds but affordable. The town is basically one long road which stretches for miles parallel to the beach, all the hotels are on the beach side and restaurants and shops on the other. We decide to explore this shortly after arriving on foot, judging by the number of offers of "moto" we got the locals obviously thought we were bonkers, they'd be right as it did take a long time. We walked til the shops ran out then turned back, stopped for an ice-cream & a drink then carried on til an internet cafe. Mark and I leave Innes there (he was sneaky enough to bring USB cables etc without telling us) and we head back to get our stuff. We think we're about halfway back when we realise Innes has the room key, we carry on in the hope that we'll be let in with the spare key/ we'll give up and drink some beers. Unfortunately our guesthouse is set back from the road and in the twilight must've looked a lot different- we walk straight past it and walk for ages in the other direction, coming right out of the built up area, up a small hill with a view of a different beach. We have another problem which is neither of us can remember the name, so we can't even hail a moto! With the help of a map in the reception of a posh hotel we narrow our choices to 2 that sound familiar and eventually arrive back an hour after Innes, with really tired feet.

The next day we wake at 4.30 (argh!) and creep into our jeep to watch the sun rise over the white sand dunes, the peacefulness is soon shattered when he starts the engine and his radio kicks in- we're like a mobile rave. Our driver drops us in a dark car park, points towards some trees and says "that way" then says "sunset over there" we get our torches out and follow the little path through the forrest, picking up some little kids on our way. I settle on the top of the first big dune we climb and the boys head to the second, its a while before I notice the sky behind me is pretty colours as I'm looking in the opposite direction to the "sunset" waiting for sunrise! opps! After that we get a bit of sand sledging done- lying on the plastic mats the little boys hand us and waiting for them to push us off the top. Next our driver takes us to the red dunes, we pass on the sledging here as the dunes aren't as steep (& I'm a bit knackered) then head to the fishing village. Women are sorting shellfish on the beach and men & boys are steering coracles out to sea, small children wander over to try and sell us postcards and bracelets but don't pester us too much, they ask where we're from and are very curious about my freckles- they don't like them! (Everybody wants pale skin out here, women especially are very covered up, skin whiteners can be bought in shops and the lowest factor suncream is 40) Next we're dropped off at the fairy stream. We leave our flipflops with our driver and climb into the shallow stream, its like a path made from sand with a thin film of water on top. We soon acquire a child guide although the way is pretty obvious, where the water gets deep we climb out and walk along the bank until we see the waterfall. Walking back we see loads of tourists coming the other way, good timing. Our driver has gone and left our flipflops behind, another driver loads us into his jeep and bombs it back to our guesthouse. We spend the rest of the day chilling on loungers on the beach, the sea is very close and loud as it crashes on the sand.