Ho Chi Minh 2016 Day 3: Mui Ne

DAY 3: 11 JUN 2016

White Sand Dunes

Finally, the highlight of our entire trip!

We booked the sunrise jeep tour with our hotel and it comprises of four different locations:
White Sand Dunes
Red Sand Dunes
Fishing Village
Fairy Stream
The tour starts at 4am and it will take about 5 hours long.

We were really lucky that day as a thunderstorm was supposed to happen during our tour,
but it was all bright and sunny (:

The jeep ride took us to the White Sand Dunes to watch the sunrise.
We arrived at the sand dunes at 5am and we were one of the first there.
You can choose to take the ATV ride to the peak of the sand dunes.
The ATV ride goes for 300,000 VND for 30 minutes, and it can fit a maximum of 2 people.
But we decided to walk as usual, having heard many ATV scams.
The walk up to the peak took us 25 minutes.
It was rather tiring as walking on sand took more effort.

The sand was really fine and nice to walk on.
We were just in time for the sunrise when we reached the peak.

We sat at the peak to watch the sunrise for a little while before heading back to the jeep.

The thing which I dislike about tours is that the schedules are always inflexible

and limited time is given to each sight.

We were given approximately an hour at the white sand dunes, and because we chose

not to take the ATV, we only had 15 minutes at the peak.

Having said that, taking the ATV might have promised us more time...oh well!

 Our next destination was the Red Sand Dunes.

We were given 30 minutes to explore this time.

You can actually rent a plastic board to slide down the sand dunes too!

Red Sand Dunes

There were lots of tourists there by the time we arrived.

It was not too bad, and the place was generally filled with laughter as many were

sliding down the sand dunes.

Thereafter, we were brought to the 'fishing village'.

I was expecting to see many fishing boats docked at the shore.

However, the driver stopped us at a place filled with trash and barely any fishing boats docked there.

This might have been the usual stop for tourists as we saw many other vans parked at the side,

but it was just a waste of time for us.

It was a quick five minutes of watching the waves before we decided to head back

to the jeep earlier than the ten minutes given.

Fairy stream

Our last stop was the fairy stream.

We were given 40 minutes to walk through the stream.

I'm not sure if we had to pay an entrance fee of 10,000 VND, but everyone just

went straight to the stream and there weren't anyone collecting the fees.

So, we explored for free (:

But I must say, it was rather ordinary.

We arrived back at our hotel earlier than expected as the last two sights were disappointing.
We could have spent more time at the sand dunes instead since it took pains to get here!
Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself very much at the sand dunes.

Our bus back to HCMC was supposed to arrive at 11am.
This time round we rode with Tam Hanh travel.
I was a little hesitant with companies other than Phuong Trang and The Sinh Tourist,
as they are reputable for the wrong reasons.
But the Phuong Trang office wasn't nearby so we decided to take the risk.
The bus didn't arrive on time, and instead we had to board a van which took us to their office.
We only boarded the sleeper bus at the office around 12pm.
We were allocated the back seats on the upper deck and the seats were comfortable.
However, the air con unit was really weak,
which explained why there weren't any blankets given out.
The ride was not too bad and we arrived at the park terminus in District 1 before 4pm.
with only 1 rest stop!

Upon arriving, we took a five minutes walk to The Sinh Tourist office located along De Tham street,
near Phuong Trang office.
We booked the Mekong River - Cai Be Vinh Long tour for 269,000 VND per person,
instead of the other cheaper Mekong tour as this one had a floating market.

Thereafter, we took a ten minutes walk to our hotel, Alagon Central Hotel & Spa,
located near the Ben Thanh market.
We paid S$57 per night for a room for two.
The bed was huge because they combined a single and a super single bed together,
instead of a single double bed.
Such a steal!

After checking into our hotel, we made our way to Pho 24 to have an early dinner.
The pho wasn't as good as the one we tried on our last day.
But the soup was not too bad!

Night market outside Ben Thanh

 
We walked around Ben Thanh market and Saigon Square.
Both places have lots of stalls, either selling knockoffs, clothes, accessories or souvenirs.
At night, certain streets will be closed to hold night markets and food stalls too!
Before we headed back to the hotel, we bought mangos and jambu for our night snack.
There are tons of fruits in Vietnam and you should try them out!