Day 58 - Duning in Mui Ne

For some reason this reminds me of Utah.

Day 58 - 20th August

Morning pancakes and my first banana smoothie shake was followed by a swim. God, this travelling malarkey is tougher than I thought.

We checked out - our bus to Ho Chi Minh was at 1:30am so we no longer required a room for the night. We left our luggage at the hostel and set out for our day on the dunes.

Eloy was joining us on a tour out to the Dunes. It was $6 U.S. for the guide and 300,000 VND for the quad biking - a very reasonable price I thought. I was ready to try quad biking. The excitement from Huè had returned again and that sense of adventure filled me again.

Our guide, Tan picked us up in a jeep and cruised us down the coastal road to Fairy Stream. The winding sand path led us towards the waterfall, past beautiful orange sand dunes and natural streams. Walking bare feet in the refreshing water was great and we sunk into the sand as we went. My childish ways got the best of me as I hung from a fallen coconut tree like a monkey, doing my best King Kong impression. Julie and Anne didn't look too convinced.

Selfie time! 

On the way back, I tried the same trick on the street with no hands. It worked well, just hanging with my legs. When I tried again, I slipped and landed on my head. This brought great amusement to Jordy, Sèbastien and Eloy. Luckily the girls had walked ahead, sparing me further embarrassment.

The fishing village.

Flicking sand from my hair, Tan took us to the fishing village on the bay. Our attention was distracted more by the cows walking down the beach. The 'village' was more like a village hall of boats rather than houses, just floating on the water near the shoreline.

As we quickly moved on, we reached the white dunes and the quad bikes. We rented them for around £10 and waited a few minutes whilst they prepared them. They didn't look in great shape, with wires hanging down everywhere, the seat being loose and the handbars looking more worn out than my favourite pair of jeans.

I set out last, following the others up the sandy driveway towards the giant dunes. Sèbastien was stuck, digging himself in deeper as he tried to accelerate his way out. I hopped off and helped him escape and as he drove off, I realised I was stuck! Bugger. So I had to wiggle mine out too (the quadbike I mean, not anything else you dirty devils) and I made my way over the first dune to find my companions. 

I revved my engine and went for it, flying towards the top of the dune and as I reached the summit, I knew it was too late. The other side of the dune sloped dramatically and I was soon hurtling down the other side, out of control. As I applied the brake, I flew over the handlebars, visions of my childhood bike accidents all flooding back, and tumbled down the dune. As I looked back, the quad was rolling towards me. A little less gracefully than what 007 would have done, I rolled over and waited for the quad to stop flipping.

I only sustained a cut to the foot and shin so I was lucky. 

When I tried to restart it, the engine had fallen out so I had to find a guide - that was about as easy as finding an oasis in a desert - to fix the problem. He twisted a few wires, electrical taped it back to the battery and sent me on my way.

As I shot off again, the battery fell out again and I was stranded half way up a bloody dune. I was beginning to think quadbiking wasn't for me. I only managed six or seven minutes in the end but it was good fun and a new experience, I suppose.

I'm in the middle, wait for the result!

This was a bad idea. Those dunes are steep.

Collectively, we walked back up the dunes for photos and I set the bar low by hurtling off the top of one of the sand hills, rolling down it until I smashed into the sand at the bottom. I wasn't concussed or dazed so I got the others to join in. 

Lady Julie did not comply.

So I made her comply!

The aftermath!

Yes, sand was in my mouth too!

On our way to the final stop, I brushed the sand from every part of my body while wondering why I'd had done it. YOLO was no longer a good enough reason!

The final stop promised a sunset over the red dunes but as I've learned being in Asia, a promise is like a Vietnamese bus - it rarely turns up when you want it too. True to that analogy, the clouds that had been missing all day suddenly formed, hiding the sun - of course they did, they knew I was there!

So to entertain ourselves, we chose to roll down the dunes again. This time Julie joined us - not by choice but by force! Groups of children mobbed us to buy sand sleds but we stood strong, not wanting to encourage child labour even if we did want to help them out really.

After coming back with more sand inside my shoes than Tony Robinson and Time Team, we all had an evening swim before we had dinner at the live music bar. Everyone looked tired after an afternoon duning so it was going to be a long night. Jordy and Julie took a nap at the bar whilst I did some book writing whilst Sèbastien, Anne and Eloy took on a massage.

I was joined shortly after by a Dutch brother and sister who were travelling with their parents on a trip which was reward for passing their university exams.

After a long night, we finally boarded the night bus to Ho Chi Minh, formerly Saigon. It was going to be another long night but I had my Danish buddy to keep me company - a thing I will miss when I leave for Cambodia in a few days.