Mui Ne

We're staying in the beach town of Mui Ne for four nights at a beachfront hotel with pool for $25/night, breakfast not included. Right now I'm peering out over the ocean from my front porch and watching the fishermen pull in their nets which sit just a 100 yards out from the property. Beach erosion is a problem here so only during low tide do we really have a sandy beach and the prospect of swimming is frightening. In the afternoon and evenings the lapping of the surf against the concrete bulkheads is quite menacing, but heck, beachfront for $25/night, who can criticize?

We're having a lazy stay here -- Barbara is under the weather with the same cold I arrived with (I suspect)...she's been spending quite a bit of time at rest and can't manage any long or strenuous activities. It's okay, this is the kind of place in which it's okay to take it easy. 

We did hop a cab to the Cham ruins outside of town. The Cham people apparently came to Vietnam from Borneo in the second century and are of Polynesian extraction. The ruins we visited were Hindu-like, Ninth Century, very similar to the ruins in Cambodia. Major Cham populations are in Vietnam and Cambodia, although the group converted to Islam in the 11th century. 

Inside Cham Temple.

Also near Mui Ne are sand dunes...not on the beach...a bit away. We booked a sunrise "jeep" ride to the dunes, leaving our hotel at 5:00 AM. On arrival, we were expelled from the jeep and pressured into taking an ATV ride onto the dunes for $15 (a fortune here). I kept saying, "can't we walk," and they said, "too far, too far." So we pulled out the money, and the two of us (think two big white ladies, tiny ATV) headed off on the back of the machine. Zroom! Zroom! We climbed the dunes along with many other buzzing vehicles. Going up one of the larger dunes I began to slip off the vehicle...thank goodness my wrist allowed me the grip I needed to stay on board. Once on the top of the dune we awaited the sunrise amidst the whir of engines all around us frolicking in the dunes. Due to some overcast, we missed the actual peaking of the sun. I refused to ride the ATV back -- turns out the distance was only one kilometer -- and had a much more pleasant trip back.

Our driver stopped at a second set of sand dunes but Barbara said, "no, no, no more dunes!" I suppose it was just as well, the previous dunes had been horribly unpleasant.

But the highlight of this "jeep" excursion was a stop at the fishing village. In the harbor were dozens of fishing boats, both the long and the round kind. On the shore there were women plucking various fish and shellfish from the nets. In another area there were large piles of various shellfish and small fish and eels being sorted. One woman had a large bucket of shrimp; another crabs, and so on. Any seafood you eat here is extraordinarily fresh...it is netted in the area of sea near the tourist hotels and brought back to the village for sorting where it is then purchased by consumers. It is fresh. 

We finally discovered a fabulous and inexpensive restaurant a few doors down from our hotel...thank you Lonely Planet! All one has to do is read it and secrets will be revealed. We had an amazing meal of shrimp in lemongrass and shrimp in garlic along with water spinach and slurped down a bottle of Da Lat white wine. The local wine is not great, but is only $4.65 a bottle at restaurants. I think it's just great!