Mui Ne holiday

Mui Ne is an area that has grown as a holiday spot over the last few years. Now it's a very long stretch of guesthouses and resorts fronting a long beach between Phan Thiet city and Mui Ne fishing village. Properly speaking most of the resorts are not in Mui Ne but in Ham Tien, and there is a huge range in what is available price and facility wise.

Mui Ne is a surfer's beach rather than diving and snorkelling, and nowadays it's the kite surfing that people come for. We ended up staying past the Ham Tien area and Mui Ne village in the original resort area along a second beach. The red sand dunes were just up the road, and an international kite surfing area was down the beach.

David and I spent 2 nights at Nam Chau (5 continents resort) after a hiccup with the travel agent in Saigon (our advice - do not have anything to do with MTV travel. This has now been the experience of my friend Phil as well). Our first night was spent in Phan Thiet city. Ok the beach was opposite the hotel - just the wrong beach!! I think that the stay was long enough. Mui Ne is really a place to come and chill out - but it's not so great for swimming. There is a strong current running across the beach in front of the resort, but the water is warm and so long as you don't go out too far you can still have fun. The weather was great for the kite surfers the first 2 days! On Sunday morning the wind dropped and the sun came out.

This trip also reminded me that travel in Vietnam is exhausting! Motorcycles are still the principal form of transport, and although size is might on Vietnam roads, there is an optimum size for efficiency. Buses and coaches really exceeed it. What is marketed as a 3 hour trip routinely turns out to be 5 hours. One final pic for the record - this is one of the coach company employees. There was no room left for him to sit!