Only a short 5 hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City, this little bustling sea town in Vietnam has some beautiful scenery and sights to offer. When asking other travellers about Mui Nae the first response that we always seemed to get was “it’s very Russian”.  Apperently Vietnam has been the “go to ” vacation spot since the Cold War days as its a Communist country, cheap and sunny year round so be prepared for some tasty vodka cocktails.  We took a bus from HCMC for around $10.00 and when we arrived sure enough we knew what everyone was talking about.

Every second sign was in Russian, the menus were in Russian and English and at night all the street stores would blast techno and speak in Russian to entice people in. We had to remind ourselves a few times we were still in Vietnam.

The main strip is lined on one side with cheap souvenir stands, restaurants and fruit stalls and the beach side is packed with endless rows of resorts. If your hotel isn’t on the beach you will have to pass through one to get there. The beaches were full of Kiteboarders from beginners to experts due to a constant wind of around 17 knots, making it an ideal location for Kiteboarding and Sailing.

We took a Jeep tour around the area where you go to the four main sites. You start with the Fairy Stream, the fishing village, the white sand dunes then the red dunes. A four person Jeep cost $530,000 VND or $25.00 USD and takes close to 5 hours from start to finish. The Fairy creek costs $1.00 or so to get in and it takes 30 or 40 minutes to walk up to the end and back. Its a spring fed river and the water barely reaches the top of your feet. There is a bar / restaurant along the way and randomly an Ostrich riding farm if your interested.

Next we were off to the fisherman’s village which was a very interesting stop. Hundreds of fishing boats ranging in all sizes lined the bays and these were only the boats that were not out fishing for the evening.

They were drying these tiny fish by the tray full on the side of the road (because that is where you would always want to dry your foods, next to cars driving by and dust being kicked in the air) and others were on the beaches hauling in their catches with the smell of fish instantly hitting you as you get out of the car. One thing that we found very off-putting was the outrageous amount of garbage on the sides of the roads and the beaches. We wanted to walk further down the beach to get some closer pictures of the fishing boats but we would have been walking on plastic bottles and junk.

Arriving at the White Sand Dunes were incredible, something I had never seen before. There is a $10,000 VND entrance fee although we were not sure where that money was going to as again the amount of garbage when you first get there is appalling and there doesn’t seem to be any garbage cans around.

You can rent ATV’s when you get there but they are not worth the $20.00 in our opinion. We had read not to rent them before arriving but as soon as we got there we were like two kids in a candy store and were like oooooooh ATV’s. They have absolutely no power to them (I think our top speed was a wopping 5 KM an hour) and you have to ride with one of the staff from the shop. We both thought someone had to come with us because they were afraid the thing was going to break down and every time that we went up a dune it sounded like it was one screw short of collapsing. We paid for 30 minutes and after not even 20 the guy said “Ok, hope you had fun, oh and by the way can I have a tip I was very good instructor.” We were not very happy to say the least but only had ourselves to blame as we had read about this and then got there and ignored the information. We walked around for an hour trying not to get blown away by the wind gusts then it was time to move on.

We finished the tour at the red dunes and although not as as extensive as the White Dunes, we had arrived at sunset and it made for the perfect end of the day photo. Here you are also able to rent crazy carpets from the kids on the street and slide down the hill. You wont miss them because as soon as the tour car arrives at the Dunes you will have about 6 of them running up to your car asking if you want to rent a crazy carpet. Very aggressive young salesmen.

We visited a couple of the “BOKE” restaurants although no matter how many times we read about the original and what it looks like I don’t think we ever figured out which was the real one. BOKE was originally one restaraunt on the strip that became ever so poplar and then one by one multiple restaraunts opened up with the same name right beside it. There are now around 20 or so. We just walked down the seemingly endless row of the same named restaurants (try getting away with that at home) and picked them based on which had the best looking seafood. We were not disappointed with our choice having ordered a fresh hotpot packed with overflowing seafood. It was a Vietnamese Cioppino on streroids.

Mui Nae is a great stopover when to are travelling the coast of Vietnam and with the pile of fresh seafood restaurants to choose from and the picturesque dunes it makes for a very easy couple of days which is really all you need to get everything out of this town. It is also the only time I have seen one of these on showcase like this …

HERE ARE A FEW RESTAURANTS WE ENJOYED:

1. Boke: Not sure which one out of the 20 that we went to but all the menus and seafood were relatively the same and sitting on the ocean having your meal barbecued beside you is always a nice setting for dinner. Be sure to try the seafood Hot Pots and the grilled Scallops with garlic butter and chives.
2. Bahn Mi Foodstall: The sidewalks throughout the day are dotted with Bahn Mi stands and we ended up going to one outside the windsurfing shop every morning we were there and were the best we had in Vietnam. $15,000 VND for Chicken and $10,000 VND with an egg. A total of around .75 cents and .50 cents USD.
3. Santimatti: A little more expensive then the restaurants that line the beach but they serve the cheesiest wood oven pizzas and delicious home made pastas. We had the fresh mozzarella caprese salad and the homemade duck tagliatelle. Great dishes and a nice break from all the Vietnamese food.
4. Joe’s: Every night at some point we would end up at Joe’s. They offer live music from 6:30-11:00 with 4 or 5 rotating bands and no matter what day it was this place was packed. They serve average pub food nothing special but the music and the atmosphere of the place is the real draw. They also have a pool table and foosball table.
   WWW.JOESCAFEMUINE.COM