Mũi Né (Vietnam)

An overnight bus of 10 hours, a 3 hour wait, a change of bus then another 5 hours to reach the south coast of Vietnam and the 10km stretch of road known as Mũi Né! We had better seats this time which made for a more comfortable trip (apart from the beds being made for people that are 5ft 2).

The place wasn't quite what we expected, although there were hundreds of little restaurants, bars, mini marts, massage parlours and market stalls! Although some establishments over look the blue ocean, the beaches were heavily littered, and shop fronts and bars (despite a few brand new resorts) were run down, a rugged seaside strip, but the locals continued the trend in Vietnam and were extremely friendly!

We had a host lined up here, a sailing club named Manta. The sail training centre takes on large groups of children and teaches them to sail as well as other important life skills, kids from all over Asia come to Mũi Né to learn! The Eco-friendly sailing school's staff were former fishermen taken from endangered fishing zones, and using their existing skills they changed from harming the environment to help support it, simply by sharing knowledge and skills! Most of the time the former fishermen were horizontal, they didn't speak much English but they were always friendly to us!

We were shown around Manta, the large place with many rooms was a little run down due to a long lasting court case after a landslide (some of the rooms were still knee high in sand!) that speared right through the sail centre a few years ago, hindering progress. Our room was basic but brilliant and the main area where the kitchen was, had the feel of a large garage with surfboards, life jackets and sails all around with the motorbikes of the staff and some bicycles, the place had character, just like Julia herself! The brains behind the operation, Julia, moved to Vietnam after spending most of her life in Asia, she was warm hearted, kind and reminded us a true hippy, one of the original travellers, travelling when it wasn't the 'in' thing to do! We didn't see that much of her as she was working a lot of the time, but we enjoyed her eccentric yet mellowed company! Also the place backed on to the beach, it was around 20 metres from our room, which was great, especially at night, there's nothing quite like the relaxing sound of waves crashing to send you to sleep!

Julia didn't have any work for us to do, plus she was snowed under work and marketing for the sailing club, but she was kind enough to let us stay for as long as we wanted and gave us access to her kitchen! As a thank you and a way of filling our days and doing something productive, we offered to clean up her part of the beach. Before we started on her 100 meter wide section of the beach it was a right state, plastic bottles and bags, massive empty rice bags, fishing nets, glass, an abundance of old clothes along with general everyday litter, on the first day alone we filled around 20 large sacks! Every morning we'd plod along and pick up the rubbish, and little by the little, slowly but surely the beach started looking much more appealing! It was sometimes disheartening as most days a fresh load of rubbish would wash up from the villages, it was also quite laborous as a lot of the bags were buried deep and required a lot of yanking! It gave a massive sense of achievement towards the end as the beach was almost spotless! We did a few other odd jobs like fixing the fence, clearing up the side garden and using big rocks to jazz up the place a bit and to create a small boundry between the grass and the path! We also helped out for a morning at the nearby food court, we helped clear an area and filled it with sand, it's going to become a play area for children!

Julia did however put us in contact with her good friend Yen, who runs a non official kindergarten for local children in the area. At the kindergarten, located around 15 minutes away from Manta at a beach-side bar, children come and learn to embrace their creative side by learning reading, drawing and other artistic activities. Julia let us use a couple of old bicycles to get around, so everyday we would cycle there and join in. We taught the children ageing from 7 to 14 and a few parents basic English, things like greeting, feelings etc. We sometimes split the classes in two, younger and older as at times there was over 20 kids! Yen was a gem with clear ambition, a positive thinking, spiritual lady who's projects target the young to make the world a better place, she's also very passionate about the environment and teaching! We shared a few meals together with some of the parents enjoyed sharing ideas! We'd usually turned up around half 2 in the afternoon, participated with some painting and drawing until the children were ready. Chairs in a semi circle facing the whiteboard the lessons would commence, it was great fun and they picked up things really quickly and we had undivided attention for the most part! They sang songs, played Bingo, games with flashcards and read books together, it was a wonderful and fulfilling experience to help the youngsters develop in English, and after being there with them a month it was sad to leave but we feel after being a part of something like that we would definitely consider teaching as a possibility for the future!

One afternoon, a camera crew from a local news station turned up, and we made our Vietnamese T.V debut, it was a bit of an awkward experience but amusing at the same time, we answered questions about the kindergarten project and how it felt to be apart of it, it was also strange to speak through a translator!

In our spare time here we spent many hours lounging around by the beach, swimming, drinking sugarcane juice and cooking. The main city was a 30 minute local bus ride away, several times we ventured there, mainly for the large supermarkets, the bustling city itself didn't really have that much else to offer! Nearby was the 'Fairy Stream' the tourist attraction offered dramatic landscapes of white, orange and red rock. We parked up the bicycles, removed shoes and waded through the shallow water of this almost magical (almost because it was crowded in parts) 1km attraction. The rock formations made for some great pictures and the stream led to a small waterfall, but it was occupied by about twenty people already. The whole place was extremely pleasing to the eye and was a relaxing way to spend the morning!

One day we rented out a motorbike to check out Mui Ne's main attraction the sand dunes, the roads were again the expected carnage, until we got out of the market area, after that it was open roads all the way, empty coastal roads and vast almost desert highways! We saw the sand dunes both the red and white however we decided not to venture and explore them, as we'd be coming going there with a family member in a few weeks later! The dunes (what we saw of them) looked spectacular, it felt like we was in the Sahara, not in Vietnam, we looked forward to returning here!

Some evenings we headed to the food court for a rare treat, the place had a surfer beach bum atmosphere and offered around 10 different stalls ranging from local Vietnamese cuisine to Mexican and even Portuguese food, along with a couple of bars it was vibrant and happening place even in the low season! A lot of Kirsty's time here was consumed by the arrival of 3 adorable puppies!

Apart from three days of violent diarrhoea (NEVER trust the ice!) We loved our days here, after a couple of weeks we felt like locals, cycling around, buying vegetables from the markets, cooking for ourselves and generally being left to our own devices! Honestly speaking, despite Mui ne being a little rough around the edges with littered beaches, there's a certain kind of charm that reels you in, which shows as there is quite a big expat community! After our time spent here we could easily settle in a place like Mui Ne!

It was time to pack our things and head to Ho Chi Minh, to meet up with a family member for a couple of weeks!

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