Day Trips From Saigon

Mui Ne - Peace And Quiet At Last

Another great place I love visiting is Mui Ne.

Sunset - Mui Ne

This is because with its beautiful peaceful beaches, lack of traffic and beautiful sand dunes, Mui Ne is a fantastic and peaceful place to visit for a weekend getaway.

About ten minutes drive by motorbike from the city of Phan Thiet, Mui Ne offers the wary traveler or over-worked Saigon employee a quiet beachfront in which to relax.

With its white sand, warm water and over hanging coconut trees, Mui Ne provides a quietness and a sense of removal from the hustle and bustle of crowded city life.

And in turn, the fishing boats floating leisurely off shore with eyes painted on them for protection against sea monsters, and the beautiful beachfront sunsets provide the guest with a sense of the exotic and romantic.

Mui Ne has more to offer than just lying on the beach though, and Mui Ne is also famous for its wind and kite surfing, and its red and white sand dunes.

The red sand dunes overlook Mui Ne and are a popular place from which to watch the sunset or sunrise.

The intense orange color of the sand dunes often matching the orange colors of the setting sun.

Further round from the sand dunes you can also walk amongst the red sand canyons.

Red Canyon - Mui Ne

The same color as the sand dunes, these canyons offer a pleasant little walk amongst steeply rising canyons, where the steep sides of the canyon offer the walker a nice bit of shade from the sun as well a view over the surrounding area.

The sand dunes that are the most interesting to visit though, are the white sand dunes.

Located a bit further out, it took about an hour to get out there by motorbike last time I visited.

You can get out there by tour group, but we decided to go by motorbike, and to get out there we had to drive past the red sand dunes and the red canyon, and then turn onto a rather bumpy dirt road.

Following the little dirt road, we finally arrived at a small lake with huge white sand dunes located on its far side.

After parking our motorbike, we walked through a small wooded area before arriving at the base of the white sand dunes.

White Sand Dunes - Mui Ne

Perhaps rather foolishly in the heat of the day, we then decided to climb the highest sand dune in view.

Slipping and sliding the whole way up, the trudge up to the peek of the sand dune was a bit tiring to say the least.

Once at the top though it was actually rather peaceful sitting on top of the sand dune and looking out over the surrounding area.

We could look over the peaceful lake below, and see the little dirt road on the far side of the lake down which we had just driven as a slight breeze kept the heat away.

We also had a good laugh while watching the other visits struggle up the other white sand dunes, or while watching visitors slide back down the hills on plastic toboggans hired from the local kids for 10,000 dong.

Fishing Village - Mui Ne

All this made it a delightful afternoon's excursion.

After which we drove back to Mui Ne and rewarded ourselves with a quiet meal at the Mexican restaurant Montezuma's (187 Nguyen Dinh Chieu).

Where we enjoyed a very filling Burrito containing shredded chicken and beef, jack and cheddar cheeses, as well as rice and refried beans.

And after a hard days sand dune climbing, the more than ample meal was exactly what was needed to restore one's energy levels ready for the next day.