Eventually, we arrived at the white sand dunes after all the other tours so the place was packed and some people had hired quad bikes to ride over the dunes so the sand had tyre marks all over it. Not the best. On top of what we paid for the tour we also had to pay for entrance to the dunes. It was only 10,000 dong (30p) and we knew we had to pay it but other people in our jeep didn't. Therefore, this took even longer as some of them refused to pay. I was losing all patience.
We were given no kind of ride across the dunes so we walked up to the highest point (it wasn't that high, it only took 10 minutes or so). The dunes themself were quite nice (ignoring the tyre tracks) and you could see out to the sea and a lake but there wasn't the massive expanse of sand I was imagining. I was disappointed.
We still hung around and took some pictures before going back to the jeep to wait for everyone else (this took another half an hour). Back on the road we headed for the red sand dunes. These were right by quite a busy road and were red (more orangey) from the rain apparently. I leant my hand on the sand and afterwards I looked like I had crumbled a ritz cracker in my palm. The views weren't as nice from the red dunes but we did miss the tours as we were so late. This didn't reduce the noise or amount of people though as both adults and children roam about trying to rent out boards to slide on. They did look fun but I didn't want to pay for one. There was also a lot more litter at these dunes which ruins the whole look of the place.
This time we only had to wait 15 minutes for people to return to the jeep before we set off through Mui Ne. Mui Ne is a bit of a dump. The hotels and hostels, as I said in my previous blog, are a few kilometres away which means Mui Ne is mainly for locals and so there is rubbish everywhere. It's rather disgusting. But on the outskirts was what they call the fairy stream. We stopped here and again had to pay an entrance fee on 5,000 dong. We didn't know about this one but it's less than 15p so we just paid. A couple from Belgium refused and so sat there for almost an hour doing nothing. They took stingey to a whole new level.
The stream is very shallow; it's basically a sand path covered in water. We took our shoes off and left them at the start before walking through the water (it barely covered our feet) along the stream. It was lovely. The Belgium couple missed out. It was calm and peaceful and refreshing. The surroundings were pretty; there were trees, rocks, red coloured high rock faces, dragonflies and the occasional cow. It took about 15 minutes to walk as far as we wanted (the sand became more like mud so we didn't want to go further) so turned and walked back.
It was nearly 10 when we got dropped back off at the hotel (it's a hotel with a dorm room so not technically a hostel). Check out was at 12 and our bus to Saigon was at 1 so we swam in the pool and read our books (for some reason the water doesn't work in the morning so I'm counting swimming as cleaning myself).
The restaurant next door to the hotel did take away food so at half 12 we grabbed some and ate it whilst waiting for the bus. I had chosen pork and vegetables with steamed rice which was a good choice as there was lots of veg, mainly onion but I wasn't really going to complain. Definitely haven't had my 5 a day in a long time.
A 5 hour bus journey later and we arrived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Drastically different to anywhere else in Vietnam, modern buildings fill the skyline with nice parks but with the same hustle and bustle of Hanoi. We went to a market for our tea and sat at a little place that served us noodles with veg and meats. My meats included squid (it wasn't too chewy!) pork, prawns and some different Italian looking meats (similar to salami or prosciutto). It was yummy and a bit different to what I've had previously. So far, HCMC is a bit too fast for me after the slow pace we've had for the past week or two but I think I'll grow to like it.
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