Mui Ne is a hole and it stinks

For breakfast, we returned to the lovely vegetarian cafe we'd discovered the previous day in Da Lat. Little did we know but it was to be the last decent meal for several days.

The beach in front of our hotel

We arrived in Mui Ne (strictly speaking, Mui Ne Beach, I think -- Mui Ne Village is a little along the coast) and immediately I wondered where the centre was; on the way in we just passed resort after resort, but no "real" town. Luckily our hotel / resort was close to where the bus stopped, so we were able to get there without giving in to the constant harassment from "xe om" drivers; and we had booked in advance because we'd heard it books up at the weekend, so we could completely ignore the hotel touts as well. The hotel room was OK, but smaller than we had become accustomed to; we had finally discovered that in Vietnam (and China it seemed as well), ALL hotel beds are double beds, so we only really need to ask for a single room.

Sunset from our private beach

The beach however was a massive disappointment: we'd been looking forward to the beach here for the whole trip so far. Both guide books described the place as a nice quiet place for enjoying the beach. But there is no beach! Not unless you are booked into an expensive resort. Our more modest resort has only a few feet of beach (tide is out in the photo). Two resorts up from ours has none at all: the waves lap up against a concrete wave-break where the hotel ends. Most resorts, including ours, seem to have private beaches, which are really just sandpits with loungers in them.

The neighbouring "beaches"

After the disappointment of the lack of beach, we had a wee wander outside. There really doesn't seem to be any centre or town or anything apart from a strip of resorts and very empty bars, cafes, and restaurants. We soon discovered that the prices of everything are between two and three times what we'd been paying elsewhere in Vietnam. This meant that we felt we couldn't afford a moped, which would have been the obvious way to try and find something worth seeing nearby. We were planning to pay for a trip to see the nearby sand dunes anyway, so reasoned we really wouldn't need much transport. We had come here to sunbathe primarily, so we'd just sit on our private beach and make the most of it.

Our lovely beach

Heading back to the hotel I asked an older gentleman on a bicycle how much he paid for it; yet again the going rate was about three times what we'd paid before, but it was more affordable than a moped. In kind he asked us how much we were paying for our accommodation, and when he liked what he heard he asked if he could follow us back. On the way back, we discovered he was originally from Hawaii and had moved to Asia when he retired; he'd been living in Saigon, where his girlfriend was, but he felt he needed to get away from the pollution. While Joanne was in a shop, buying water or something, I made conversation: did he retire to Asia to make his money go further? Yes, he said, partly, but mostly because young women find him more attractive here than in the US. Apparently he was pushing seventy and his girlfriend is twenty-one (I have a life-time supply of Viagra, he confided). Later I told Joanne about this and she simply said "men are dirty dogs".

Food served with knives and forks!!

I hated the place, so I decided to catch up on the blog and spent the whole of the second day there online. Didn't quite catch up as the free internet place (a rarity in Mui Ne) decided I was taknig advantage and kicked me out! The town just got worse and worse. For breakfast we had what would normally have been cheap food for the locals; it was worse than anything like it we'd had, and it cost twice as much! In the tourist places (almost everywhere else) the food was served with knives and forks! I had to ask for chopsticks the first time it happened because it seemed too unnatural not to use them; by the second place I'd given up.

Wherever you are in Mui Ne your nose is assaulted by a periodic stench. Now, most of Vietnam smells a bit, and as you move around a town or the country, you get occasional wafts of fish. Everywhere. I think a lot of it may be down to people drying, or storing dried, squid etc in their homes. Maybe they make fish sauce at home. But it's never too unpleasant. Mui Ne stinks! This is an industrial version of the same smell. Rotting, rancid, reeking, revolting. And you are hit with it every time a lorry goes down the main road, which is about every ten minutes maximum; and since there is NOTHING but the main road, you are always there to smell it.

I think an avocado shake was the only nice thing I consumed there, and given that food is so central to my experience (have you noticed?) this was another big let-down. The second night there this came to a head: struck by acute food poisoning in the middle of the night; the "aubergines stuffed with funny tasting half-cooked pork mince" the prime suspect. You'd think the name of the dish might have forewarned me! Dune trip cancelled. Too ill to blog more. So I just read a bit in the sun; Joanne was burnt the day before so couldn't even do that. So we did nothing! Didn't see the sand dunes which seem to be the only thing to see; couldn't afford to go windsurfing which is the other big attraction; and there just isn't anything to the town. We confirmed this by renting bicycles for a day and discovered, just like it lacks any soul, it also lacks any centre. This also made me resolve not to hire any more bicycles: they have no gears and they are made for small Asians, so you can't get any decent speed up at all (imagine a BMX the shape of a touring bike), and it kills my knees because of short distance to the peddles. Mopeds only from now on!

Mysteriously, the food poisoning seemed to disappear just in time for leaving the horrible place.

written by

The Happy Couple on February 15, 2009 from Mui Ne, Vietnam

from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon

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Hiya - we're just emerging from what seems like weeks of the family being down with various flu type things - so sorry didn't manage the telegram for the big day! Have just made a little wedding present though, so hope that helps with a trip to make up for Mui Ne! Congratulations from me, Jerry and Lewis. Photos of the wedding looked lovely!
Love from Katharine

written by Katharine on February 18, 2009

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