We got up early, which wasn't a problem since we got an early night (ohhh... we really seem to be getting old...).
After a short taxi ride and a coffee we boarded our train.
The Saigon Train Station (Sai Gon Ga) consisted of just 3 platforms with our train waiting at one of them. It was a pretty new looking (for southeast asia) carriage, with A/C and TVs in it. Our assigned seats were in the lower floor of the only double floor carriage on the train.
Leaving the station we rolled on a single track through all kinds of neighbourhoods of Saigon, with houses and shacks built all the way to the track. We could see the families getting ready for work, school, making breakfast and feeding the chickens in the yard.
The train would really not set a new speed record but the ride was very enjoyable.
When we arrived at the Beach side resort town of Mui Ne we had to take a taxi to the beach front. To save costs we shared a large van with a couple that visited the place for it's kite surfing scene.
We quickly found a nice place to stay right on the sea front (there is only one road along the shore, really) called Backpackers Resort that only charged 20 $ for a double room and had palm trees and even a little pool. We booked it for two nights because it looked so nice.
It felt like it should be afternoon but it was just about lunch time, so we went across the road and got some lunch at Coco's Cafe.
After a nice curry our room was ready to move in to and the next thing to do was to take a walk along the beach and find a place to rent surf boards.
As it turns out the Great Lonely Planet Guide did not tell us that this town was suitable for surfing (without kite or sail) during certain times of the year. And No: this was not the time of the year because the surf is not right.
So we thought we may as well give some other form of surfing a try. Kitesurfing is not really possible to pick up in a day or two, so we settled on windsurfing and booked a lesson for the next morning when the wind should be better.
After a quick swim in the sea ( to be honest I don't even know what this part of the sea is called) we reviewed our schedule of going up to Hanoi and worked out that we were going to be tight on time if we wanted to see everything on our list. We decided to cut our stay in Mui Ne short in order to spend some time in Hoi An and Hue before going to Ha Long Bay and Hanoi.
This meant that we had to do all the things we wanted to do in Mui Ne now.
It was only 1pm now and we just got two seats for a little excursion in the afternoon to some sights around Mui Ne.
First we took a Jeep to the Fairy Stream, which was a little creak that carried loads of silt and flows through sand dunes. It really looked nice and unlike anything I've seen before. It was a pleasant surprise and even the youth of the town made a business out of it by randomly charging 5000 Dong (25 cent) entrance to just a public area. We probably could have just walked on without paying but they set it up quite well and somehow deserved the quarter.
After this we passed by another attraction of our tour. A view of a fishing village. There were plenty of boats in the bay but I wouldn't really call it an attraction. I guess the tour operator added to make the list longer. So we took a picture and drove on to the White sand dunes.
The White dunes were a great place. Surrounded by water and lush green fields these large dunes really looked out of place.
We had great fun climbing them with our nice group that we got to know at the last two attractions and had great craic jumping off them and taking pics.
On the way back we stopped at some red sand dunes where we were suppose to witness the sunset, but it wasn't a day for the perfect sunset, so we headed back to the hostel.
After a quick shower to wash the sand out of our ears we met up with our newly acquired friends for some dinner and a drink.
Everyone was pretty wrecked after a couple of minutes in the bean bags on the beach so we headed back to the hostel along the sandy beach to get some sleep.
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