Mui Ne Beach aka resortville

"Do you know the feeling to escape the everyday life , to take a timeout themselves, in order to be able to return with the power and the pep? Enjoy the vital life at the South Chinese Ocean- in the animating stimulating- climate. Even the short walk at the beach is healthy. The miles long sand beach run along and simply switch off, that's pure relaxing. Do you want to increase the effect through jogging and Nordic walking? You shall visibly healthy and recovered on your return" or so says a local travel brochure I was handed when I hired my scooter.

Mui Ne beach is a little tourist strip with kilometres of resorts spanning the beach side of the road and restaurants and internet cafes on the other. We arrived here a few days ago. Steve only had a few days left of his holiday and wanted to live it up in one of these very comfortable resorts. I thought I would tag along.

We had been recomended The Sailing Club, a lush resort at the end of the strip with a very swimmable pool and right on the beach. Our first night was spent in a villa practically on the beach and a hop skip and a jump to the pool. It was the best accomodation in the hotel and we felt rich, the following night we had to move as the room was booked and spent the night in the slums (only joking) it was another great room with just as much luxury. We had arrived form Jungle Beach Resort in a taxi that we shared with a lovely Canadian couple, Kim and Dean and they stayed at the same resort. It was two days of lounging around, drinking cocktails in the pool, eating delicious food. In fact I barely left the resort. I also knew that when Steve left I would be back to basics in fan rooms with no sea views, shared bathrooms and cold water. I was going to make the most of it.

Steve had misread his flight details and we spent half a day trying to rearrange his flights before spending a winderful evening with the Canadians eating the most delicious seafood I have ever eaten.

Now I have moved to Mellow guesthouse, a tidy little bungalow setup and my room is actually really quite nice for US$8 a night, though noone appears to speak any english.

So I am on my own again with about 10 days to while away before I get to catch up with Meka in Saigon and more adventures will come.

Yesteday after Steves departure (he slept in and had to pack and leave in 5 minutes flat all the while strugling with a Long Island Iced Tea hangover- hope you made it home Steve) I was promptly kicked out of the hotel and had to find a new home. I hired a swcooter and checked out the budget end places at settled in at Mellow, then as I had the scooter for 24 hours I decided to head up to the famous Mui Ne sand dunes.

I had been warned that the children there who rent you lino mats and guide you through the dunes can be very demanding and if they believe you pay them too little swear at you. The little brats. I decided on how much I would offer them and would not negotiate, some Brittish girls I met had paid the equivalant of a Vietnamese' weeks wages to these kids for renting their little pieces of lino.

As I approached the dunes children started running for me. The first girls that reached me hurriedly explained that the red sand dunes were not as good as the white dunes further down the orad and they would take me there. I asked how much and they replied 'whatever you want', I said a price of 50,000 and they agreed leaping onto the back of my scooter. No, I cried I have no spare helmets. 'It's ok', the other kids were closing in now and the two girls were urging me to drive. 'Don't stop, don't stop, keep going' they cried as I putted along with adults and children alike jumping in the path of my scooter and urging me to pull over. "what do I do?' I asked as we picked up speed. 'Don't worry, It's ok' they said in unison. Suddenly it occured what I was doing, riding a scooter with two young girls on the back driving along a highway- the same highway we had approached the town on in the bus, the buses that overtake over crescents and leave little room for moving. And I don't even have a drivers license in Australia. Shit.

'How far to dunes?', 'Oh, not so far, just maybe 20 kilometres'. Shit. But I kept driving albeit slowly with them urging me to drive faster. 'No, your parents would murder me if we have an accident'.

The coastal road was beautiful and although I was tense and stressed we made it to the dunes in one piece with them directing me to a family who rent the lino boards on the edge of the dunes and who they told me had a sick child and needed the money.

I took a breather, drunk some water and pondered my stupidity. It was 4.30 pm and we still had to explore the dunes and return to the red dunes, probably in the dark.

The two girls (Kim and Kim- both 15) were lovely, they kept offering to carry my water and warned me of little dangers like rocks in the sand and that it was easier to walk in the sand sans thongs (flip flops). The dunes stretched oput forever and it was like we were in the desert. They lead me to a small dune, one of them taking my camera to photograph my descent while the other prepared the sand so that I would slide faster and held me so I wouldn't take off early or dangerously. Then I was off. It was fast and scary and fun. We then climbed a higher dune and repaeted the process. By then I was hot sweaty and sandy and I was worried about riding in the dark. We headed back to the scooter. One of the Kims asked to ride my scooter, assumimg all Vietnamese could ride I let her and she took off at a great  speed nearly crashing into the older lady at the shop. I took the bike back as everyone exploded in giggles.

On the ride back I gave the Kims my camera at their request and as we putted along they took photos of cows and landscapes and us. Then it got dark and the insects came out, I had to wear my sunglasses so everything was dark and flying things kept coming out if the bushes - bats maybe, and cars and buses honked at us as they overtook. I wanted to drive fast to get it over with but didn't want anything to happen to the girls who had refused my helmet repeatedly.

We made it back to the red dunes finally and were surrounded by the other children who work at the dunes as Kim and Kim retold our stories and showed them the pictures on the camera, there must have been at least 20 kids swarming me, all with amazing english they had all learnt from tourists. I paid the girls three times what I had offered as we had had such an amazing time and they had been such great guides. Not to mention trusting, I hope they never act so trusting with some foreign guy or worse a drunk foreigner on a scooter. Before I left the kids started asking for a lift home. At least 5 asked. I would have said no as it had already been an ordeal with the Kims but I could hardly refuse. I ssaid only two and a little girl called Lim sat in front of me resting her head on the control board/dashboard while another girl called Kim sat behind me. I drove slowly and refused to speed up when they asked. They made it safely home to their parents too. Thank god.

I returned the scooter today so that won't happen again. But it was really a great way to spend an afternoon.