Mui Ne: Beach Bums

[Feb 24-26]

While we'd hoped to be beach bums throughout most of our stay in Vietnam, the cold winter air of the northern beaches on Cat Ba Island had dampened our aspirations. Planning difficulties arising from the rush of holiday traffic surrounding Tet forced us to decide between either Nha Trang or Mui Ne as our sole tanning destination.

Or so we were told, since after all, we were able to bus from Nha Trang to Mui Ne with a single day's notice, and thereby transport ourselves from a municipal beach playground and sales floor to an endless stretch of soft white sand and silence.



Five years ago, Mui Ne was almost unheard of in the tourist biz, sporting only a small handful of hotels or guest houses. Today, as one drives the two-lane road tracing the coastline less than 100m from the lapping waves, there's no spot on the 20km stretch that's going undeveloped. Does this mean that the area's totally spoiled for tourists and residents alike? Not yet. The place oozes calm, and while sitting aimlessly on the coral sands without the typical assault of fruit and postcard vendors, you can imagine that there's not a single hotel for miles.

Our three big reasons for going to Mui Ne were: to develop tans sufficient to convince our Seattle pals that we were really on vacation; to splurge and relax prior to hitting ultra-expensive Europe; and to take to the waves the way birds take to the sky -- with wind in our wings. This peaceful span of beach happens to double as a windsurfing and kiteboarding paradise for southeast Asia, and Marita was determined to learn the art of taking the wind by the reins.

As it turned out, we couldn't have picked a worse weekend for learning to windsurf. The windsurfing community was busy supporting a competition in town that weekend, meaning that we couldn't get an instructor, and the wind was dead anyway, making for poor learning conditions. Anyway, the waters were filled with kiteboarders and windsurfers who knew what they were doing, so we just watched from our hotel balcony. The rest of our time was spent throwing the Frisbee around and building sandcastles.

The seafood selection was cheap and fresh. For about three bucks, we ate a full kilo of grilled mussels at our table on the beach. Other nights, we dined on seabass and shrimp. All in all, the culinary treats were well worth our time, with the exception of the last night's food, which left me heaving into the wee hours of the morning. Not pleasant, although it's been my only brush with illness so far, so I ought to count myself lucky.

Eventually we had to leave, taking the bus to Ho Chi Minh City, still known as Saigon to the locals. Out of the calm, and back into the hustle and bustle of the city.