If you ever need woken up in the morning then I would suggest riding with a Vietnamese moto driver, even if there is more than few moments when you would rather still keep your eyes shut.
Seeing as I figured I wouldn't be doing much else at 4am I decided yesterday to go watch the sunrise over the Red Sand Dunes (Mui Ne's other attraction besides the beach) and after the debacle that was the My Son sunrise tour (see previous entry here) I chose to go by way of a local diver and bike. The Red Sand Dunes are one of two large sand dune areas around Mui Ne which more closely resembles a desert than it does excess beach deposits with the dunes completely filling your field of view (as well as your shoes) all around once you venture a little further across them.
Despite the nocturnal arrival that seemed to matter not to the small army of kids already at the dunes armed with homemade sleds to go sand-sledging. Being the only foreigner present that meant I had a small platoon of them around me before I'd even stepped off the bike all wanting some Dong for a shot on their sleds. After the sunrise (finally saw one at last) I finally succumbed to the kids sales pitches and had a go and although brief still managed to fill me shorts with sand. With still room in my shorts for a little more sand we next headed to the White Sand Dunes which although more of the same (bar the obvious colour difference), were perhaps more impressive due to there more remote location and with a little imagination you really could believe you were in a desert and not a few miles from the Vietnamese Jungle.
On the way back to town we stopped at the local fishing village which you certainly need no guide to find as the smell hits you way before you ever see the place. It is quite hard to describe the smell of tons and tons of fish that have been sitting out in the baking sun all morning but pleasant would most certainly not be one word I would use. Back at my beach hut, and now only just after breakfast, I headed back to bed for a few hours kip before almost being able to almost roll out of bed into the sea. Exiting the water, or more precisely 'being washed a shore with a lung full of sea water' due to the large surf along the beach I was invited to join a game of football on the beach with a bunch of locals and two Canadians.
It was one of those travelling moments though were you realize just how amazing it is to travel like this and experience these things as we played till we were too knackered to run anymore just a few hours before the World cup got underway, barefoot on a beach in southern Vietnam with the sun just setting. More thumbnails ...
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