So first of all, lets start with how to get to Mui Ne. In Ho Chi Minh city, if you head down to to District 1 or Pham Ngu Lao street you'll see hundreds of travel agents all over the place. I'd advise just going into as many as you can and finding one that suits your time and price range. Our bus with Viet Naht left at 7am and took around 5 hours. It was a sleeper bus which was really exciting for me because I'd never been on one and actually felt like I was on the Knight Bus from Harry Potter (nerd). It wasn't really that comfortable but it did help with getting a bit of a snooze in on the way! There was a couple of stops to pick people up, and another to get some food about 3/4 of the way there. We arrived in Mui Ne outside a restaurant where we were told to wait until another bus would come to take us to our hotels; when we tried to tell the manager our hotel name he brushed us off and was pretty rude. We waited for ages (cheeky ploy to get us to buy food at the restaurant I assume) and when the bus came back the driver told us to walk - our hotel was like 20 minutes away. We argued with him for a while until he agreed to take us, but then stopped outside a different guest house, kicked us off and took two other tourists on instead, and we were still ages away from the hotel! We got a taxi in the end - rant over. The guest house - Minh Khoi - was so nice, the second we walked into the courtyard area I fell in love. It seems to be pretty new and they're finishing up with landscaping but I can imagine when it's done it'll be so pretty. There are about 6 mini bungalows which are the guest rooms, so it's a pretty small place and you end up seeing and saying hello to everyone everyday which is really nice. We also managed to rent a moto from the guest house owners who were really lovely and very helpful. Big thumbs up for Minh Khoi!
The only problem with Mui Ne is that the beach front is covered, and I mean covered, with hotels and resorts. I don't know if there is a way, but we didn't find a safe entrance to the beach anywhere, the only way you can get down to it is through a resort. HOWEVER there is one bar/restaurant called Joe's which has beach access, and all you need to do is buy a drink or some lunch, and they even have a pool! It was pretty cool in there, the only thing is it's completely Western, and that means Western prices too; so a little more pricey than we had been used to! But lovely nonetheless.
We had lunch at Joes and went for a little swim afterwards on our first day there, and the water is so nice. Really warm and with little waves that don't knock you out. We then went for a little drive on the moto to see what was around the area, but it was just hotel after resort after restaurant until you reach the Fishermans Village which is a more local area, and thanks to these fishermen and the women who sort and clean their catch, the street stalls and restaurants are stockpiled with fresh seafood everyday. If you're a seafood fan, this is the place for you.
One thing we wanted to check out in Mui Ne was the Fairy Stream. It's just a beautiful walk along (actually, in) a shallow little stream with fantastic scenery and impossibly soft red sand under your feet. We walked and walked and walked and reached the waterfall at the source of the stream. Really pretty walk and a nice way to spend a couple of hours in the sunshine! We also visited the Red Sand Dunes, but as it was on the day we were leaving we didn't have a huge amount of time and DAMN that sand is hot when you're only wearing flipflops. There's also a lot of little kids following you around trying to sell you a toboggin kind of thing or drinks and snacks, but it is a pretty cool thing to see thing huge red sand desert stretched out in front of you, especially when you turn around and you can see the sea.
So, we had a great time in Mui Ne until we tried to organise a bus with Viet Nhat to take us to Cambodia. I get that it's a long way, but we were told that we could get a bus to Saigon and our bus to Phnom Penh would be there waiting for us. Well lo and behold, we reached Saigon and the bus was full according to one woman, while another told us it was broken. Not one ounce of customer service to be found and we were left standing at the travel office - which is also a post office - for ages while they waited for someone to arrive who could speak English. So we kind of got screwed over and had to spend another night in Saigon and miss a day in Cambodia, so big thanks to Viet Nhat. (incase you missed it, I didn't like them very much.)
Next stop - Cambodia!
