Mui Ne is a small coastal town found 5 hours East of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
It's a popular destination for backpackers,
as it's a place where people can go to enjoy long beaches, water sports,
eating locally caught seafood, and most famously,
visit Vietnam's one and only desert.
Okay, desert may be a bit of a strong word,
but there are some really really big sand dunes here.
Today I want to explore everything that Mui Ne has to offer,
although the weather had some other plans.
God, the rain has just got harder and harder and harder.
Despite the rain, we're gonna find out in this video is Mui Ne worth adding to your Vietnam itinerary?
Or like my old university friend said, are the sand dunes here just a bit shit?
It's 5 30 a.m, and in true British style, we're gonna start this adventure with a rant.
I woke up at 4:45 this morning to go to the sand dunes,
which I thought was 15 minutes away, turned out to be 45 minutes away.
I don't know why I thought it was 15 minutes away, but I did.
Oh well, that's not the issue.
The issue is, it's raining,
and I don't have anything waterproof to wear on the bike,
nothing comes down the front of my face to stop the rain just slamming me in the eyeballs.
I really hope not, but this one may be a write off.
I'm about halfway to the white sand dunes, so it's not the end of the world, but pray for Ryan.
I was thinking about what to do, whether to crry on
or go home and go back to bed and see if the rain stops later, but...
I'm only here for one day,
I don't think I'm gonna b coming back anytime soon, so...
the sunglasses are going on to protect my eyes from the rain.
Good morning!
Thank you.
That way?
Thank you.
How much?
700,000 for one car.
It's okay, I think I'll walk.
If you don't want to rent it, you can walk.
Yeah, yeah. I think I'll walk, it's fine. I've got lots of time.
Thank you!
I made it to the top!
I'm at the top of the sand dunes!
And there's no one here because 1- it's late, 2- it's wet but...
it looks amazing actually, it looks really really beautiful.
I think it would definitely be a lot of fun to rip around here on a quad bike
if you've got that in your budget.
I think that could be a lot of fun.
Oh, it looks like there's people hike up here as well
who are renting out these like plastic sheets and you can pay to take one of those,
and then you can use it to like toboggan down the sand dunes.
Again, I'm probably not gonna do that.
I don't wanna get that sandy today, especially when it's wet.
There's a really cool sand dune over there that has like no one on it,
and no one's been over there and I think if I could fly the drone
in the rain, I would go over there right now.
But I think I'm just gonna sit here and enjoy the view for I don't know, maybe 20 minutes,
15-20 minutes before I head off to the next spot.
I need to grab some breakfast and then we're gonna be heading to the Fairy Stream,
to the fisherman village, to the red dunes,
and then there's some ruins that I really want to go see as well,
so I'm hoping I can get all of that squeezing today
before I need to go catch my bus at around 2:30 pm to Da Lat.
But yes, because of the weather, this is going to be a very raw vlog.
I hope you're looking forward to that, probably mainly shot in the GoPro today.
If it stops raining, I will get the camera out, but I'm not going to risk my gear.
It's my life.
So a completely raw vlogm here it is.
If you guys come here and the weather's better for you than it is for me right now,
then avoid the Jeep tour,
get the ATV if you have the money, it looks like fun,
but if you're a budget backpacker, you're probably not going to do that.
Just walk up to the dunes, walk to the top, scale out other dunes as well,
because there's plenty of other dunes. I think this is the main dune up here where they watch the sunrise
because the sun rises over there,
but yeah, just find your own dune, get your photos,
enjoy the view, enjoy the sunrise,
check out the lake,
stuff that I can't do in the rain.
But hey, it just means I'll have to come back another time.
We're not gonna let this rain get the day down, we are going to have an action-filled day anyway.
Good morning.
So what we're going to do is I'm still going to give it another 45 minutes or so,
but I'm gonna see if they have a raincoat, because I don't have one.
Hi!
Do you have raincoats?
Rain jacket. I think they do, they've gone behind to get something.
Perfect!
Thank you!
Is it free?
Oh, free! Perfect. Thank you very much!
Okay.
I've got myself a rain jacket.
There's another massive coach loads turning up.
It's now 8:30, so I think after the sunrise tour,
this is when the Vietnamese coach tours turn on.
Maybe. I think from my experience, my limited experience.
So just be aware of that if you come in.
Okay I waited my time.
It's still raining and there's a bunch of people here, it's really busy now I want to go home and take a nap,
so I'm gonna take my free raincoat
and head home on the bike and just brave the rain.
But I think there's 2 different places where you can like get the Jeeps and ATVs from,
I think I walked back to the wrong one.
This is the one I want, I recognize the dodgy cobblestone road on the way in.
Almost killed my ass.
My Heineken bike.
I've literally just ran out of fuel
from filling up earlier.
Right here. Literally right here.
You can't ride this stuff.
At least I only had to push it like 4 meters.
So about 45 minutes of driving,
and a very short 30 minute nap, packing and checking out,
I'm now back out again, the rain has definitely calmed down a bit,
but it's still raining and the weather looks very very unpredictable,
so it's just me, the GoPro, the bike and my poncho.
I pulled over on the side of the road at this little Armenian place,
and ordered fried noodles with chicken.
But it looks really sad here. I'm riding up and down this main road and there are so many closed shops,
shut down businesses, this place obviously hasn't really like recovered yet from Covid.
- Thank you. - Pepsi okay?
Yeah, Pepsi is fine, thank you.
Vietnamese people were lovely as well.
But I've scrapped the idea of the red sand dunes today,
I just don't want to do sand again to be honest,
I've been home and had a shower. It's a shame that weather's been so bad here,
it just means that I'll have to come back again another time,
and next time I'll stay a little bit longer as well. Maybe like 3 days instead of 1 day.
Okay, so I was on my way to Mui Ne,
and I've just realized that where I'm staying
is like 15 minutes outside of the actual town of Mui Ne.
And...
I pulled over because I think
this is the main town.
Look at all those fishing boats, that's crazy!
So let's go and get into that fishing village and see what it looks like!
So according to my Google Maps,
this is...
There's an angry man out there.
This is the fishing village of Mui Ne.
Although it looks pretty empty, to be completely honest,
I think maybe I'm a little bit too late. It's almost 12:30 and you know, like...
food, seafood markets and fishing markets are usually like early morning affairs,
but I'm gonna walk down and we'll have a look.
So basically what this fishing village looks like it's supposed to be
is a bunch of like...
homemade tents on the beach
with people selling what they've caught that day.
That's what I'm gonna go ahead and assume it's supposed to be going on here.
But like I said, I think it's a little bit late in the day,
so everyone's packed up and gone already .
There's hundreds and hundreds of these little circular boats,
and I cannot imagine like all these boats going out at the same time to go fishing.
How crazy would that look?
I have to say though it's really sad about all this trash on the beach.
For the most part, Vietnam has been pretty clean so...
just must be maybe because of the sheer amount of people here.
There's so many like plastic bags and fishing nets.
Such a shame.
Well, there you go guys, that's the fishing village in Mui Ne.
If you're gonna come, definitely recommend coming earlier in the morning than I have right now.
But now I'm gonna go to the Fairy Stream, another popular thing to do here.
It's like a walk through canyon
or something like that, or some sort of gorge.
So let's go do that.
So the Fairy Stream is actually really hidden, so definitely use your maps.
And it's on this little river
right here that doesn't look very nice here. I hope the bit that you walk in looks better.
But there's just a woman sitting in the shop.
You just pull over, pay her 10,000 for entry,
which is I don't know, 30 cents or something like that,
and then here we go.
I've no idea what to expect, but...
I think I've got to get in that river.
I'm not sure I want to get in there.
I an see people all the way up there, so this is definitely the place.
Maybe it's nicer further up.
Okay it's only really really shallow, and it's sandy on the bottom.
I thought it was going to be like stoney.
I take back what I said, it's not that disgusting.
It's actually very clean by the looks of it,
apart from the weird sandbag things they have going on along the edge.
Okay, let's do this. We're walking.
Hello!
They got...
crap stools,
if you want to buy your Vietnamese goodies just next to the river.
Hello.
- Hello. - Hello!
Oh wow, now this is pretty cool. This must be where it gets its magical name.
So I think those two pillars over there,
those are the like the official entrance.
And then along the side of this cliff here,
these really cool rock formations.
Okay, there are points where it does get a bit rocky.
Make sure you take care, because I couldn't see those rocks under the water.
I just stood on them and it hurt.
Probably gonna get bitten alive by mosquitoes doing this.
This is the thing about Mui Ne. Like you have the popular sand dunes to do,
but actually there are sand dunes everywhere.
So the big white ones I went to this morning
are very popular,
but actually the sand dunes everywhere, they're not quite as big,
but there's sand dunes absolutely everywhere. I could see them when I was riding this morning.
I hate going uphills.
I made it to the top,
and I found...
absolutely nothing.
That's a weird laugh.
Now do I go back down the way I came,
or do I go back down this way?
Let's have a look over this way, see what it looks like. Okay, we can go down this way.
All right, let's tackle it.
Slippery.
Good job!
Hello!
Yeah, hard to go up.
Easy to come down.
So tired.
You and me both, bro. You and me both.
So that's where I've just come down from,
you might have just seen the guys just go around the corner up there,
but it's starting to get beautiful!
B-e-a beautiful!
I can see why it's called the Fairy Stream now, because at the beginning it was not the Fairy Stream,
it was like the dumpster stream.
Wow, look at these cliffs!
Wow!
And the size of these plants, look!
Big-ass plants.
So this Fairy Stream walk is actuall really peaceful,
I thought it was going to be a little bit like overrated, but...
these cliff sides are absolutely stunning, there's nobody here.
Once you get past the first 100 meters, it starts to get really really beautiful.
And I think it's definitely worth the 10,000 that you pay to get in.
I don't know, what do you think?
When you have a look at these cliffs and when you have a look at these trees.
Let me know!
So I've reached a point that's basically just sort of like one foot apart,
and it's about...
I don't know, 20 centimeters deep?
So just bear that in mind if you come here.
Maybe don't wear long pants.
I actually have no idea how far I need to go.
I think I read nline or on YouTube or something that it's like a kilometer.
I don't know how far I've gone,
but it's starting to get very very skinny if you look this way,
so I'll just keep going.
There's a big question on everyone's brain.
Damn look at these go straight down there like a crevice.
If anyone knows what's causing these rock formations,
please let me know in the comments, I'd love to know.
I think I need to do a river crossing. Alright, pray for Ryan.
Great success.
Well, if this isn't the most random coffee shop you'll ever see!
It's like yeah, it must be about a kilometer downstream.
That looks nuts, I'm gonna go up there and get a closer look.
Ants everywhere.
F*cking hell.
Look at this!
Look at that!
They look like termite hills,
but made out of rock.
My gosh, anything that's just a slight incline is hard work for me, but...
these rocks, man!
Honestly can't get over them!
I didn't know what I was expecting, at the beginning of this, I gotta say I was very underwhelmed,
but...
it's paid off!
If you go through the crap bit at the beginning, you get to the good bit.
And check out this view.
What a place, what a view to end it with.
Can't get better than this.
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Peace!