You've likely never heard of Mui Ne (Moo E Nay), and a lot of others apparently haven't either. A beach town about 3 hours from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam has tried to develop this place from a fishing village into a seaside resort. They started to put a lot of money into it during the exceedingly well timed year of 2018.

Oops.

With COVID pretty much shutting down travel, Mui Ne suffered a lot. There are no shortage of resorts or restaurants, but it seems like they're barely hanging on. Often we were the only people anywhere, although hopefully that picks up for Chinese New Year. Because like most of Southeast Asia, especially in beach towns, the people here and incredibly nice, and it kills me to see them struggle. So if you're looking for a quiet beach getaway, good news! Mui Ne is ripe for the picking. And I guess we did want that after HCMC, but Mui Ne felt almost too quiet. We spent 3 nights there, and there were days where we didn't see more than 10 people. There were some more popular places, but it was definitely low season. Still, it was a nice time to just chill and enjoy the quiet, which was appreciated after coming from the city.

Gotta hate rush hour traffic.

Mui Ne is actually a bit strange, because a lot of beaches are quite rocky - except Ham Tien, the public beach. A lot of resorts get around this by essentially building a giant sandbox with the wall at the water line. I guess it's a beach if you want to pretend? Our hotel didn't do that and just built out to the water. I guess it's a tradeoff, because we didn't have a fake beach, but we did have a nice balcony to enjoy the view. I also quite liked falling asleep to the sound of waves, something I think would be difficult to hear if the building is set back 200 meters or so. But like everyone, to get a real beach we had to venture a bit. And overall, pretty nice! We spent time just walking there, along with plenty of beer and mango smoothies. Quality wise it's up there with a lot of Thai beaches, but as expected it was a little too quiet for me. I'm not looking for something like the insanity of Pattaya, but more than one shop selling drinks would be nice.

But there are a few other sights in Mui Ne to check out, so one day we arranged a tour to see them. All the tours start at 4:30 AM, so you can be at The White Sand Dunes for sunrise. And I'm going to go on record and say I do not understand the appeal of sunrise. You know what looks the same as sunrise? Sunset. And you don't have to get up, literally, at the butt crack of dawn to see it. And for what? One picture? Why?

But with no choice, we got up at 4 in the morning to meet our guide. And special thanks to the American taxpayers, as the vehicle for this journey was graciously provided by the US Military. An old jeep painted neon green because why not, the engine sounded like it was burning a Dubai worth of gasoline every second, and the suspension probably hasn't been looked at since the army left it. Despite the smooth roads, it was an extremely bumpy and loud 45 minute drive to the first destination. On the plus side, who needs coffee to wake you up when you have that?

 

When we got to the White Sand Dunes, it funneled straight into the ATV rental place, like it was assumed that's the only reason you're here. At 600,000 dong a go ($24), but we declined. The vendors told us we were crazy, that it was very far, and impossible to walk. And yeah, to the end of the tourist trail I reckon was a kilometer or so, which would be hard (but hardly impossible) to do in the fine sand. We got about halfway before noticing a very lovely spot and just stopping there. Off in the distance we could see the hill where everyone else went, and it was completely packed with people. So while their sunrise photos contain about 100 tired foreigners milling about, ours are without a single person for a half kilometer. So I think we got the better deal, because our photos are certainly better, and $24 can buy a lot of Beer Saigons.

After, our tour continued to The Red Sand Dunes and Fishing Village. There's really not much to say about those, they were quick stops for a photo. I gotta say though, despite the Red Sand Dunes being "not as good" as the White, I liked them more. There was less brush poking through, so depending on your framing it looked like you were in the desert, and not, you know, on some beach. But I'll let you be the judge.

 

For me though, the real star of Mui Ne was the last stop on our tour, The Fairy Stream. It's a little, well, stream, that runs through the middle of town. There's a spot where you leave your shoes so you can wade upstream for 30 minutes or so, and then walk back. The water is ankle deep at most, and aside from just a few rocky parts it's quite sandy, so being barefoot was pretty comfortable. Along the way there are some beautiful vistas, and even shops selling coconuts and snacks. So it's this weird sort of tourist "road", and I'm a big fan. For the cost of 0 dong, it's one of my favorite things that I've done in Vietnam, and I think barefoot river walks should be more of a thing.

 

 

 

 

But after Mui Ne, we planned on going to Dalat, a mountain resort town that is popular with honeymooners. However we didn't really find so much to do there, and after spending a lot of time doing nothing in Mui Ne, lazing about wasn't seeming all that appealing. After seeing the weather report that it would rain the whole time we were there we decided to skip it. We eventually had to get back to Ho Chi Minh anyway to catch a flight, so we decided to just go back there and spend a little extra time doing stuff we didn't get around to - I guess we are city people after all. A nice surprise was the bus going back. It was a "limousine sleeper bus", and I had no idea what that meant.

Guys.

Guys!

This is a travel revolution.

I had never been on a bus like this, and I love it. Why aren't planes like this? Why isn't -every- form of transportation like this? I wasn't even tired, but it was just so darned comfortable I fell asleep immediately. I guess the argument is they don't hold as many people as a regular bus, but with all the cots stacked on top of each other it can't be significantly less. The 4 hour trip felt like 4 minutes, cause this thing is a slice of heaven.

Back in HCMC fully rested, we went out to do some eating and shopping. We had one more full day here, so we decided to do a group tour to Cu Chi. About two hours outside of HCMC, it's one of the places where the Vietcong hid during the war. Our guide took us around, explaining what life was like,  and how the people fought back against the Americans and the South Vietnamese. You get to eat the food they subsisted on (cassava with peanuts, which was actually quite good). And then you finally get to go through some of the tunnels. It's a massive network, but we only went through about 20 meters of it. Because spoiler alert - it's very dark and stuffy. The Vietcong lived in these tunnels for years, which is just mind boggling. After 60 seconds I was already getting pretty sweaty, so, I think I'll pass. Ella would say hard pass, along with other choice words.

But after weeks of soaking up the heat, we're now back in Shanghai, where it literally snowed the day we came back. After being out for 3 weeks and hitting up 3 countries, I wouldn't mind some time at home before work starts. There are so many good photos from this trip, I had to leave a bunch out. They're all on Facebook if you'd like to see more.

 

 

Seeya next time, Vietnam.