From Da Lat to Mui Ne, Vietnam

Some stops are just better than others. And some places are just the worst.

We weren’t crazy into Da Lat. And in Mui Ne, I found my absolute least favorite tourist attraction ever.

When Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Hoi An, and Saigon are just amazing, but then I can barely remember the order in which we visited Da Lat and Mui Ne, you know something’s up. We absolutely had fun times with good people at GREAT hostels, but the destinations themselves just don’t hugely stand out in my mind.

Well, except for the Fairy Stream, but we’ll get to that.

Da Lat

Okay, maybe I’m an idiot, but from others’ descriptions of Da Lat, I imagined a small, misty village in the jungle with waterfalls, trees, and dirt trails everywhere.

Nah, Da Lat is a city. Like, with traffic. And it’s not really pretty.

Where are all the vines and ferns?! I mean, there’s a lake and all, but I wasn’t impressed.

The main thing people visit Da Lat for is canyoning. There are waterfalls outside the city that you can repel down and jump off, and apparently it’s a really fun, exciting, adventurous day out. But seeing as we’d just learned that three tourists died just before our visit attempting the same – though the details surrounding the deaths and the tour company are vague – we opted out of canyoning. We just couldn’t do it after hearing that news.

So we had to find some alternative activities in Da Lat.

First, we visited the architectural insanity which is The Crazy House. It’s like somebody had a trippy dream, woke up, and was like, “Build that shit! We can do it!” You can also stay the night there if that’s your thing; there are hotel rooms hidden throughout all the strange corridors.

Afterwards, we wandered miles around the town. Miles! Including through some very upscale neighborhoods, to finally reach the cablecar. Now the cablecar was WAY more fun than it sounds… mainly because you can bring beers onboard.

We stopped off at the gardens, temples, and lake where the cablecar drops you, because why not? We honestly had no plans.

Finally time for food, visited the local market for the cheapest and best bún riêu (crabby tomato-y soup) and bánh xèo (um, Vietnamese quesadilla?) ever.

So… then what?

Time to drink (more).

But first, family dinner!

Dalat Family Hostel is a fantastic, super friendly place where you can take part in a huge communal dinner every night, and receive a hug and free lunch the moment you walk in. Everybody recommended this hostel. Seriously, mamma and the other ladies that work there could not be nicer. You can even help them cook dinner, or you know, they’ll force you to help in the most loving way possibly by putting potatoes and a peeler directly into your hands.

And it’s by far the most vegetables I consumed during my entire stint in Vietnam, maybe even Southeast Asia. Thank God, because a woman can’t live on banh mi and Saigon beer alone. Well, not forever anyway…

After several beers in the tight communal space of the hostel we all headed to the biggest and most legendary bar in town. We kept calling it the Hundred Room Bar, but apparently its real name is the 100 Roofs Cafe. We’d heard so much about it, but all the descriptions ended in, “Just go, trust me, you’ve got to see it for yourself.”

And, oh man, it’s so true.

The bar is pretty indescribable, it would never fly in the US, and it’s SO fun. The whole setup is at least four stories high (and low), and it’s a dark maze of rooms big and tiny. Using the flashlight on your phone is essential. There are tons of narrow, steep stairways to climb and hidden spaces to sit and drink, or to hide and play Sardines in a Can. You know, reverse hide and seek; the first person hides and then when you find them, you hide there together until there’s only one (drunk) person left roaming around alone.

The drinks and dark make it even more exciting, and um, a little bit scary.

I know, how old are we? But this was such a ridiculously fun game. Of course, the night slowly devolved from there, and the next morning we got up to make the hungover journey to our next stop in Vietnam…

Mũi Né

I was pretty pumped for a stop at a proper beach. We’d skipped Nha Trang because we’d heard it was nothing but a seedy resort town catering to Russian tourists. Hoi An had a great beach, but nobody really hung out there for some reason. So Mui Ne (forgive me, I won’t be using those accent marks throughout this post) was supposed to be all fabulous sand dunes and beach time… I thought.

Instead we found ourselves at a badass hostel spending a lot of time by the pool with new friends. Sound familiar?

Hostel… or resort?

Friends. Check.

Yet again, plans included very little. Some time at the beach and a tour of the huge sand dunes – that’s it.

And so we ended up on the $5 jeep tour arranged by the hostel. For this very low price, we would visit the Fairy Stream, a fishing village, and Mui Ne’s main attraction, the dunes.

Well, let’s start with the Fairy Stream, aka the worst tourist attraction ever.

LOOKS rather beautiful, right?

WRONG!

It’s a disgusting stream of very shallow to thigh-deep water which leads you past these red cliffs, a tiny zoo, and ostriches you can ride (guys, that’s not very nice, plus those birds are mean as hell) down to the world’s most underwhelming “waterfall.” I do not have a photo of the waterfall as it was such garbage that we turned around to head back as fast as possible.

We kept asking passersby if we should just stop walking (um, wading), but by that point we were too far gone. We were in it for the long haul, because the end was supposed to be “verrry beautiful.” Oh. My. God. It felt like a bad joke, especially because we had to pay an extra 5,000 dong for it. That’s literally 22 cents and it’s still not worth it. Nat got a leech on her foot. Enough said.

THE FAIRY STREAM: NEVER AGAIN.

(I am very passionate about this topic).

Next, we swung by the fishing village. I thought this might entail a market tour or something, but nope. We just pulled over on the side of the road to take photos of all of the fishing boats in the bay and then we were off again. Not the best smelling or cleanest place in the world either; lots of litter everywhere unfortunately.

To the dunes!

The white sand dunes, however, were pretty cool. I don’t know if they quite compare to the dunes in Huacachina, Peru, but they were pretty enormous. The ATVs that you rent there, however, were awful. They looked as if they had been broken and repaired hundreds of times, and they weren’t even powerful enough to get to the top of any dunes. And (strike three) they were pricey, unlike literally everything else in Vietnam.

Still, it’s a badass place to take photos. And that’s definitely the activity of choice here. Everybody’s doing it…

Need a new profile pic? This is the place.

But by far the best photo goes to Nat…

Because that is amazing.

We also made a stop at the red sand dunes for sunset, but the sunset didn’t really happen that day because of the haze and clouds. Truthfully, those photos aren’t even worth posting. And the optional “sandboarding” entailed renting a sheet of flimsy plastic to slide down a gentle slope… which pretty much only worked for the four-year-olds in attendance.

However, one thing we did absolutely right in Mui Ne was dinner at a super fresh seafood place in town, Mr. Crab!

You fill up a basket with whatever animals of the ocean you like. We got snapper, a few baby squid, shrimp, and some scallops. They throw them on the grill and you just wait with your large Saigon beers. We also got a big bowl of rice, and I think the grand total was about $8 per person. Can’t beat it!

Another day, we took an obligatory long walk on the beach. And it wasn’t a bad beach, but nothing to write home about either. No clean white sand here; we had to dodge pieces of glass and trash. But hey, we did need the exercise. Then, on the way back to the hostel, we found one of the cheapest and most delicious meals ever: cơm tấm, grilled pork with rice and an egg, plus a little cabbage soup and ice tea.

Those were literally the only two things we did one day. A walk on the beach and a surprisingly tasty plate of food? Yep, totally acceptable while traveling. Hell, that sounds like a busy day to me.

Then we sat by the pool some more…

And just like that, we were only left with only one more stop in Vietnam.

Where I Stayed: In Da Lat, I stayed at Dalat Family Hostel which I totally recommend. Great family dinners for 50,000 dong ($2.25), a big crowd of backpackers to go out with, and the friendliest staff. The dorm rooms are a bit cramped and the mattresses are made of foam, but they’ll do for a few nights… and they’re only $5. In Mui Ne, I stayed at Mui Ne Backpacker Village, which is basically THE place to stay so book in advance. Great pool, great bar, decent food, and super nice owners. It was also super nice having a private room here for the three of us here.