From hot to cold - Mui Ne to Da Lat

Mui Ne was the next stop from Ho Chi Min. I'd heard there were some cool sand dunes to visit as well as a nice beach. I got another sleeper bus, this time it was thankfully a single seat but being designed for the tiny Vietnamese I was scrunched up the entire journey, very comfortable and some quality sleep ...not!

I arrived in Mui Ne, intending to stay one night, see the sand dunes, explore a little and move on. Well the hostel I was in was a delight, it shared facilities with a much fancier hotel so I opted for a day longer to enjoy these. It had three pools and really nice food and sea views - not something usual in a hostel.

You can race around on a quad bike on the sand dunes which was great - the guy working there drove us down some steep ones and it was like being on a roller coaster without any of the safety bars - good fun. We also visited the red sand dunes which are frankly orange, but that's being pedantic, and the fairy stream - a scenic shallow river you wade through. Plus a fisherman's village with more boats than the eye could see - some of the boats were literally like round bathtubs.

It was hot in Mui Ne but now it's freezing! Well actually it's not anywhere near freezing, in fact it's still 17 degrees but coming from 30+ is quite a drop. It's the first time I've felt cold in seven weeks. I'm in mountainous Da Lat, a pretty city set in-land from the coast and high in the hills, hence the slight chill. I'm wearing trousers again.

I hired a moped with a couple of people and ventured into the Da Lat traffic, thankfully no where near as insane as Ho Chi Min. I got used to riding on the right and navigating around the numerous mopeds and feeling slightly like a local. We rode out to the countryside and took a scenic cable car ride over the green spaces before riding around the area a bit more. We wanted to ride up a mountain route but we got to the bottom and were informed by a guy that we had to walk the 12 km instead of ride. As it was late afternoon we opted for a less strenuous activity and had some food instead. 12 km walk? - nah

Da Lat is famous for canyoning which is basically abseiling down rocks and waterfalls, it was good fun and I picked it up relatively easy. There was a Chinese couple in our group who were a total liability from start to finish, we were all very nervous for them. First the guy fell down abseiling and was dangling upside down from his rope, then he got lost and the guide had to go and find him in the jungle. We all jumped off a cliff edge into the water and his girlfriend jumped and fell flat on her face - ouch! then announced she couldn't swim so waded around in the water struggling to get out until we helped her. It was all pretty cringe-worthy. They both survived however and seemed to enjoy themselves so no harm done I guess.

The day included trekking through the jungle a couple of dry abseils near a waterfall plus a natural water slide down some smooth rock. It culminated in the 'washing machine' - you abseil down into a waterfall get drenched and then allow the water to push you down to the bottom and back into the shallow, it was crazy but good fun.

The following day I did a secret tour which was recommended to me by someone I was chatting to in the hostel. The first half of the day was quite nice, we sampled lots of delicious food that I cant remember the name of unfortunately. I tried cooked crickets which wernt bad and could be the future of farming - they are full of protein too and we also visted a silk farm and a coffee plantation.

The second half of the day was the 'secret' bit and at the request of the guide I'm not allowed to divulge exactly what I saw on a public forum and we wern't permitted to take any photographs. Suffice to say it was pretty interesting and one of the more culturally relevant things I've seen which gave an insight into traditional Vietnamese customs that tourists don't often get to witness which was great. The tour guide was hilarious and made it really enjoyable too, although him and his compadre insisted on singing old pop songs in broken English the entire journey which got a bit stale.

I'm now on another long night bus journey to Hoi An, the driver is currently spitting out of the window intermittently which is just lovely. That coupled with him tooting the horn every few minutes, the winding road and the tv playing some sort of Vietnamese X-Factor style show should make for more high quality sleep! At least there is three centimetres more leg room on this one (I think). Nighty night 😴Read more