Mui Ne

At first appearances, Mui Ne is pretty dull. It's a 15km strip of beach resorts and not much else.

Mark wanted to do some windsurfing but the only place nearby was extortionate. But, with a bit of exploring we had an amazing time.

The geography of the place is fantastic. Our first morning we walked up the 'Fairy Spring': a small river that flows from a waterfall to the beach, just past our resort. The ankle-deep water is rust red, the colour coming from the sand it flows over. Small sand-dunes line the sides, interspersed with eerie limestone rock formations.

By 10am it was getting too hot to do much apart from hit the beach and soak up some rays. The clouds covered the sky after lunchtime and we walked the "2km" down the road, according to our greasy-haired hotel receptionist, to the nearest ATM. 1.5 hours and maybe 5 miles later we finally came across the fishing village. We have never seen so many boats in one place.

We found the ATM, had a refreshing Bia Hoi (cheapest beer so far: 30p for 2 litres but that doesn't take into account paying for the plastic chair which Mark broke as he leant backwards to everyone elses hilarity) and began the trek back to give our receptionist a lesson in distance estimation.

The next day we went sand-sledging. A short moto-taxi ride away from Mui Ne are the imaginatively named "Red Sand Dunes". Hoardes of kids surround you as you approach with hard plastic sheets shouting "Sir!", "Miss!", "Come sleding with me!". They are, of course, all adorably cute and pout terribly when you choose someone else to take you up onto the slopes.

Kim and Linh were our guides. They throw sand down the slope to make it faster and then load the sledge with sand to increase the weight and prevent you from slipping off. Then, it's a big push and you're flying down to the bottom before traipsing to the next, even bigger slope. The photos are great but it's hard to find a memory card reader round here to upload the photos.

One and a half hours of walking up and down the dunes and we were sweaty and shattered but the kids were still running rings around us. Better than any theme park and at 1.5USD for both of us, so much cheaper!