The four-hour train ride took us to Mui Ne, a beach resort town located northeast of Saigon. When we arrived into town, the first thing we noticed was that many of the stores signs were written in Russian. Since it is still the offseason (rainy season), there were not many tourists in town, but the few that were there were mostly Russian or European. One of the hotel workers told us that the Russians usually flock into town in October and November. It rained during our entire first day in Mui Ne, so we did not get in any beach time.
The sun broke through in the second day. After spending the morning at the beach, we took a taxi to Suoi Tien (Fairy Stream). The stream is ankle deep and muddy and we were apprehensive to enter it at first, but we were glad we did. During the hike through the stream we saw some amazing scenery with red rocky formations on one side and green vegetation on the other.
After Suoi Tien, we each hoped on a xe om (motorbike taxi) and headed to the red dunes near Mui Ne. After having lunch at a local restaurant, two kids followed us as we walked into the sand dunes. The kids offered to let us ride their sled down the sand dunes for a small fee. They were very persistent and we finally agreed upon a price. The big kid went first to show us how to do it. I went second and then Yen. She liked it so much, that she slid down the dunes twice. We had a lot of fun so we ended up paying the kids more than what they asked for.
