I've must have stayed in almost one hundred hostels (as well as the odd hotel and guesthouse) during this trip so far and most travellers become quite the connoisseur when it comes to accommodation, particularly hostels. I can't count how many times I've had the conversation - "if I was running a hostel I'd do this..." - and when we arrived at Mui Ne Backpackers village it started all over again because it was up there with the best; a spacious, soundproof room with six decent sized (non-bunk!) beds, loads of room for luggage, individual lights and plug sockets, meticulously and regularly cleaned bathrooms and a heavenly infinity pool surrounded by palm trees with a bar/restaurant right outside the dorm door. Yes, Mui Ne would be a place where we wouldn't get much done aside from rolling out of bed and plopping ourselves in the pool for five days straight ahhhhhhh!
I tell a lie, we did peel ourselves away from our routine of sunbathing, mango shakes, reading and generally being deckchair-potatoes for one day during our time in the seaside town of Mui Ne to go on a day tour of the area including the local sand dunes. We were taken to the 'white dunes' to start off with, an incredible, powdery expanse that undulated under the perfect blue sky, and drove quad bikes amongst the smooth dunes only stopping to 'sand bathe' and roll down the steepest hills, getting sand EVERYWHERE. You know you're on holiday when you have sand in your teeth, amen to that! I'm falling in love with Vietnam more and more each day, it has a multifarious landscape which is what fascinated me so much about India (mountains, deserts, beaches, jungles...) yet on a smaller scale! Next up was the 'red dunes', although unmistakably more orange than red, they were the perfect place to watch the sunset and oh, you know, dance like lunatics and ride your friend like a sledge down the hill.
Evie makes a brilliant sledge.
The pool at night, the door on the left was our dorm.
Hostel heaven for $10 a night, albeit slightly more than I'd like to pay but it was worth it!
The seafront is choc-a-block with seafood restaurants where eels, frogs, turtles, shrimp and other fish wait in tanks on the street.
Not too shabby for a meal time view.
"Forgot.How.To.Stand. - Too.Much.Time.Spent.On.Sunbeds"
I tell a lie, we did peel ourselves away from our routine of sunbathing, mango shakes, reading and generally being deckchair-potatoes for one day during our time in the seaside town of Mui Ne to go on a day tour of the area including the local sand dunes. We were taken to the 'white dunes' to start off with, an incredible, powdery expanse that undulated under the perfect blue sky, and drove quad bikes amongst the smooth dunes only stopping to 'sand bathe' and roll down the steepest hills, getting sand EVERYWHERE. You know you're on holiday when you have sand in your teeth, amen to that! I'm falling in love with Vietnam more and more each day, it has a multifarious landscape which is what fascinated me so much about India (mountains, deserts, beaches, jungles...) yet on a smaller scale! Next up was the 'red dunes', although unmistakably more orange than red, they were the perfect place to watch the sunset and oh, you know, dance like lunatics and ride your friend like a sledge down the hill.
We stopped off at a fishing village where tub boats-a local invention-aid the shallow water fishing.
Ten second ostrich ride at one of the stops on the tour, possibly one of the most scary and bizarre moments of my life.
QUADS!!!
Rolling down the sand dunes.
Evie makes a brilliant sledge.
Wow! whole new dimension on sand!.... a bit hairy/scary on the ostrich though but hostel looks a great improvement on the previous ones!! x
ReplyDeleteThe ostrich ride was very weird! X
ReplyDelete