The beaches at Mui Ne didn't get us excited. The sights did.We rented a jeep with the driver who brought us to all the sights - took about 5 hours for 500,000 dong (about US$25) definitely good value for money. You can also sign up with tours but that would mean following a group which doesn't quite sit well with us.
The Girl with her Vietnamese hat & toy
All the tours take you to the same places - the White & Red Sand Dunes, the Fairy Stream & fishing village but since we had the jeep all to ourselves, I requested for a stop over at the Cham ruins just outside Mui Ne.
Cham is an ethnic group found mainly in Cambodia but also in central Vietnam. The Cham Towers were occupied during the Cham Kingdom & believed to have been built in the 8th Century to worship Shiva.
Next stop the Fairy Stream which we all enjoyed. When our *guide* dropped us off, we were a little skeptical but we obediently removed our shoes & started wading in ankle deep stream of brown water. About 3 mins into it, we were greeted with an amazing landscape - a red & white canyon.
The colour of the sand which gives the canyon it's unique shade
Red mud bath any one ?
Not sure how far the fairy stream goes on for but we walked as far as we could & only turned around when the stream got too rocky to walk
Next stop - a small fishing village
More of those round fishing boats that I had talked about
But the most spectacular, must be the White Sand Dunes. The sand was white, fine and swept by the wind into the beautiful dunes. I was transported out of Vietnam into the movie set of Lawrence of Arabia. They were selling these sleds made of cardboard at the entrance. Don't even bother. We see people trying to slide themselves down - it's not like sledding down snow. If you have never walked on sand dunes before, let me tell you, it's a tiring exercise.
The tour continues onto the Red Dunes. They are a lot smaller but by then, it was getting dark & we couldn't even tell if the dunes were red.....
We returned - tired but content.
No comments:
Post a Comment