Adventures By Design

In which the travelers get sand in their pants

We woke up very early this morning, and as we stepped out of our hotel room our ride for the morning was already waiting for us right outside the door. We climbed into a jeep and headed off into the early morning to see the sunrise at some sand dunes near Mui Ne. Our trip included two different sets of sand dunes, the first were the White sand dunes about an hour’s drive from our hotel. The sun was already mostly up by the time we arrived at the dunes (we’ve realized that when tour organizers say “sunrise” they just mean “really early”) but we could watch the sun coming up from the jeep.

At the dunes we rented some ‘sleds’ (actually pieces of linoleum with handles) from an enterprising youngster who charged us almost $1 each. However, as we walked up the path to the dunes we came across a pile of completely unattended sleds, which we assume we could have helped ourselves to free of charge, oh well… At the dunes we played for a while, realized that sledding on sand is harder than you would think, and got ourselves (and our pants) full of gritty, grimy sand. While we were there we also say a bride and groom posing for pictures on top of the highest dune in the lovely early morning light. They probably got sand in their pants too, but they should have some great photos.

After the white sand dunes we stopped at the Red Canyon for just a few moments to take a couple of photos. To our horror when we opened the camera bag we found it full of sand from the dunes! Sand is one of the worst things for a camera so we were pretty worried about it. Ric managed to snap off a couple pictures of the canyon, but the lens was feeling pretty gritty when he tried to zoom in. We hoped that the strong wind as we drove to our next destination might blow all the sand out. It kind of worked, but the lens still feels gritty, hopefully it’ll be okay (fingers crossed!).

We stopped at the Red Sand Dunes (boring), and a fishing village (it’s amazing how much matter gets pulled out of the sea everyday!!) and then on to the Fairy Stream. We’re still not sure why it’s called the Fairy Stream, but it was pretty cool and fun to walk along. The stream is really shallow and runs over sand most of the way, so we actually walked along the steam itself to a waterfall at the end. We were joined by three young boys who acted as our unasked for guides. They showed us a few things, and pointed out rocks that we shouldn’t step on, but we suspected that they wouldn’t be like the not-guides we’ve met in Malaysia and Indonesia who just wanted to show us around and hang out. Our suspicions were confirmed as we neared our jeep. All three of the boys suddenly transformed from mischievous, fun-loving kids to puppy-dog-eyed victims of circumstance as they asked us for money to help them and their families. We’d been expecting this, and had a little money ready to give to them. However, upon seeing what we were offering, they all turned away in disgust telling us that it wasn’t enough and refusing to take it. We were rather offended by their actions, especially since we hadn’t requested their services as guides (and we’d already bought drinks from a shop run by one of their mothers). We don’t think it’s appropriate to give large sums of money to kids under ten years old partially because it encourages their families to keep them working rather than in school. When one of the boys suggested that we should have given them almost $7 each (an amazingly large sum for children in Vietnam) we just walked away. The kids followed us, still trying to get more money until we reached the jeep and they realized that they weren’t going to get anymore out of us. At this point they finally took the money we were offering them, but walked away sullen and grumpy. Unfortunately the exchange kind of colored the whole trip for us, and left us feeling irritated and manipulated…grr!

Once back at our hotel we packed our bags and checked out. Leaving our bags at the hotel we went for lunch to the restaurant with the teething puppy (who tried to take a chunk of Gin’s ankle). After that we got on a bus to go to Nha Trang, another beach town that’s much bigger than Mui Ne, as well as having better restaurants. We walked around for a bit, trying avoid touts, and eventually found a hotel that we are happy with. It’s not nearly as nice as our place in Mui Ne, but costs about a third as much so we’re okay with it. We went to a nice restaurant for dinner (finally, good food!!) and then headed to bed.