The kite surfer paradise Mui Ne

Hello from Mui Ne! The village stretches along the Mui Ne Beach for several kilometers along the coast and in recent years has unfortunately been increasingly developed by Russian resorts. In fact, you will mostly find signs in Vietnamese and Russian here, sometimes also in English. Originally, Mui Ne was a small fishing village, today it is a holiday paradise with long beaches and so much wind and waves that it has become a kitesurfer hotspot. Everywhere you can see only kites in the sky, athletes flying through the air and feel the whipping sand that sticks to your whole body. Not for people who are looking for a comfortable beach holiday to sunbathe and swim!

We spent the first afternoon at the beach after a super comfortable ride in a sleeping bus with beds and watched the kite surfers. They glide really elegantly over the water and make cool jumps in the air - it all looks so easy and that reawakened Carsten's desire to kite!

In the evening, we took a scooter to explore the fishing village and find somewhere to eat delicious seafood. Just in time, we caught the most kitschy sunset of our entire trip, but it was truly breathtaking, like a photo wallpaper! On the way, we wanted to withdraw some money, but it didn't work at three different ATMs, so we became suspicious again based on past experience... finally, after a long ride, we found a bank and could finally go eat. Also this time the locals understood no word, so we pointed to some pictures without knowing what we would actually get. We often have the impression that the Vietnamese can actually already speak English, but then they don't dare or are too excited to speak to the tourists. Unfortunately, this also means that you have to wait longer to be served until someone finally who understands a few words is found. Anyway, in the end, the food, a kind of omelet with mussels and rice, tasted very delicious again!

Afterwards, we booked a jeep tour for the next day (getting up again for sunrise...) and returned to our beautiful hotel with a sea view.

The earliest time of the whole trip so far threw us out of bed at 3:45 am, as the pick-up for the sunrise tour at the sand dunes of Mui Ne was at 4:30 am. The plan was a group tour with a maximum of 6 people per jeep (as many seats as there were), but it turned into crowded 10 people... But okay, we are flexible. Blown away by the wind while driving, we arrived at the foot of the sand dunes, where we were then told that we had to rent a quad for 200,000 dong per person (about €7.50) to get to the top. It was not possible to walk the 5 km because the sunrise was about to happen. Since no one in the group wanted to spend money on it, we all tried to run up as quickly as possible. In doing so, we met a lot of nice people from Holland, Mallorca, and England again. We actually managed to climb the exhausting ascent through the sand, which maybe consisted of 2 km, before the actual sunrise. Up here on the dune, there were a lot of people, but you had a great view over this unique landscape and could have a small photoshoot. When we finally found our jeep again among all the different jeeps on the way back, the tour could continue.

We stopped at other sand dunes where you could rent slide sheets from children for about €1 and slide down the dunes with them. So much for the theory. In fact, the dunes were not steep enough for this slide to work really fast. Since we only had 10 minutes to perfect the right technique, we will have to try it somewhere else...

Suddenly we were transferred to another jeep, but it wasn't a problem because it had far fewer occupants. The next stop took us to a great view of the fishing bay of Mui Ne, with its many colorful boats. We had been at this spot yesterday at dusk, but in daylight, the boats were also beautiful to look at.

We continued to the Fairy Stream. Here you walk in the shallow water of a small river, which looks like you could walk on water. It is definitely worth walking all the way to the end, as the landscape in the small valley is really beautiful and gets better and better along the way! You will discover beautifully shaped sandstone cliffs between red sand dunes and green mangrove trees - a fairytale dream, as if from another world. When we wanted to pick up our shoes at the end, where we had left them, a Vietnamese wanted to charge a fee, even though all the shoes were standing there and could not be moved, just like at the temples. When we took our shoes without paying a "tip", we were insulted in the worst possible way for the first time by the otherwise very friendly locals. But someone also can't just stand anywhere and demand fees for something that doesn't belong to him and about which he hasn't informed before. Well, after a good breakfast, we went back to the hotel where we took a short nap.

Feeling somewhat rested, Carsten wanted to inquire about the prices for 2 kiteboarding lessons with an instructor. In the restaurant from breakfast, we met a surf instructor from Germany who was on vacation here and recommended a good school to us. This school is run by a German and also has the German teacher Sven. Carsten was going to spend the next two hours with him. On land, the theory was reviewed again and what Carsten, who had already kited 10 years ago, still remembered was checked. Then the kite was set up and a self-rescue technique was practiced. When everything was clear, we could already go into the water after half an hour. Here Carsten first familiarized himself with the kite again without a board and let it pull him through the water. As this all went really well, the teacher immediately got the board. The first attempts to stand up were a bit bumpy, but after a while, it went quite well and despite the high waves (sometimes higher than Carsten), and the gusty wind, he managed to ride in both directions. Not bad for two hours! Proud as a peacock and with a big grin, he came out of the water ;) The hours were definitely worth it. Back in Germany, we will definitely take a trip to the Baltic Sea to try it again...

In the meantime, Tina walked up and down the long beach the whole time to get a good photo of Carsten, which was not so easy with all these kiters and the long distance... The two of them kept disappearing in the high waves, and the kite wasn't always easy to distinguish from the others. Nevertheless, one or the other picture came out.

After the successful lessons, Carsten received his certificate, which allows him to rent equipment anywhere without any problems.

In the evening, we wanted to book a bus for the next day to Dalat, and did so at the same travel agency as the jeep tour. We complained because some of the stops that were actually included in the tour were not visited, and we received a discount on our bus ticket.

So off to Dalat!