The Dunes

Posted on June 24, 2009
Categories: vietnam.
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Mui Ne is another beach town, (an 11km beach!) but its boring compared to Nha Trang. I only wanted to go for the Sand Dunes! Its a bit of a trek from town, and Ben and Juan (who I also met in Hoi An, and again in Nha Trang) were planning on hiring a bike, so I got another easy rider. We spent a little time walking around as the guys weren’t happy with the prices for bikes, and eventually we agreed with an Easy rider and a second bike for the guys.

We waited a while for him to show up, and after 20min it was his wife who brought the two bikes! I was a little suss about this (not just because she’s female!) because the guy riding the extra bike seemed to have to explain some stuff to her before we left, she spoke less English than I did Vietnamese, and she stalled the bike!.. Multiple times!!

Anyways off we went and first stop was gas, but even that was difficult to explain. We stopped at one point, thinking it was for gas, then this kid walks up and leads us off down some rank stream. About 10min later we get to a look out point, which was totally lame, before heading back and he asked for cash! We didn’t even want to go there! Back on the bikes, she stalls it once again, and at every red light or slow corner. This was pretty bad form considering I’d organised it with an easy rider who could actually ride a bike. At speed however she was fine, and didn’t seem to like Ben and Juan overtaking us – so we maxed out at 90Ks at one point, which feels a lot faster on a motor bike!

The ride to the dunes was pretty cool, as far as Vietnamese roads go the highway wasn’t that bad, and we were on the coast a lot of the way. The last point to the dunes was basically sand itself, and I had to help push the bike part of the way, and Juan and Ben were stepping it through, but we made it! The dunes looked pretty damn cool. Almost like being in the middle of a desert! We negotiated with the scamming kids to rent the crappy plastic boards we were supposed to use to slide down the dunes, and headed on up. We were thinking, wow this is gonna be fast, we should try a small one first…. Excitement to the max. I must have moved half a foot! If that! We tried again on the big one and for the life of us we just couldn’t get any speed up. Maybe we didn’t know what we’re doing. Maybe we’re just too big for those bits of plastic. But we were going no where.

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/aWM17x27hoM 425 345]

We tried a couple of runs, and getting back up the top felt like the travelator from Gladiators. After a few goes I started to get some pace for a few meters. Still, this was totaly lame to what we had in mind. Oh well.

Walkng back to the bikes, these young Vietnamese kids were riding horses, so we moved to the side of the path to let them through. But the F***ing idiots had no idea and one came directly for us. Juan and Ben jumped to the right but I had to go to the left and he hit me. I was literally trampled by a horse! He clipped me and one of his hoofs came down onto my right leg, luckily not directly on to it with his full weight. Either that or my foot is made of steel.

After trying to blast the kids who supposedly didn’t speak english, I checked nothing was broken. I was clearly bruised and bleeding (almost as bad as Rob’s Tubing wound) but could put weight on the foot fine. Stupid idiots. They just stood there like, “oops”. If only I knew how to swear in Vietnamese. But I’m pretty sure they understood how pissed off we were. They’re lucky we didn’t bring out the hammer bros!

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/QyqoJOJ5yss 425 345]

We stopped at the closer dunes before going back to the hotel and joined some local kids for football on the beach! (Yeh my foot stung a little but hey) I started raining but we kept on playing. After that we went for a swim, and there was an amazing thunderstorm out to sea!! Incredible lightning filling the sky. We watched this for quite a while. The video above missed most of the good stuff but you get the idea.

Heading out to eat, we decided to put all 3 of us on the guys’ bike. Hell, Vietnamese have up to 5! However, in making a U-Turn, Ben accidently put the weight of the bike on one side and couldn’t hold it. The bike began to fall, and then he bumped the accelerator on the way down! So the bike started to take off from under us. I was on the back so managed to jump off quite easily, but still clipped the tail pipe on the way. Ben and Juan got harsher burns, the skin peeling instantly! The side mirror on the bike was smashed too.

A nice local Vietnamese running a hair salon brought us in to sit down and gave some kinda burn cream to the guys as they bickered about who was to blame . I could feel stinging on my calf but couldn’t actually see any burn mark. Later it became obvious I needed to ice and bandage it just like Ben and Juan. We kind of limped back to the hotel and got patched up before heading for a much needed drink (on foot).

So My right leg has now taken TWO bad hits today. Also, my Sony was no longer turning on, and my Ricoh died again. No resussitation possible this time. Kaput… Crap. Mui-Friggin-Ne.