Dan's Adventure

The bus pulled into Nha Trang at 6.30am and straight away I decided not to spend any time there. The beach was right next to the main road through town, very open, and the weather wasn’t looking too promising. I instead decided to get back on the bus at 8am and continue to Mui Ne, I haven’t made a better choice in a long time. Once upon a time Mui Ne was a quiet little place with just a few small guesthouses and maybe a bar or two, but over the last few years it has exploded and now there are guesthouses all down the road. Thats easily forgotten though when you get down to the beach and the warm waters. I should point out that Mui Ne has become popular largely because of the water sports on offer, a couple of which depend upon a reliable wind. It is also the reason that I chose to go to Mui Ne in the first place.

Finding a kite surfing school isn’t difficult, as soon as there is enough wind the kites are up right along the length of the beach and kite schools can be spotted about every 50 metres. If you are on the look out for lessons, you will have no bother finding a school if you want to start at the beginning and go all the way through to riding on a board, thats exactly the kind of student most schools are after. I however had taken some kite surfing lessons last year in Tarifa but didn’t manage to finish the course due to the poor wind conditions the week I was there, so I wanted to pick up where I left off. I explained my situation to a number of schools and a couple wouldn’t give me the time of day because I wasn’t able to slot into their programme. Eventually I found an instructor and arranged to have some lessons at $45 per hour, cheaper than the ones that I had approached earlier and this was for one on one tuition. Perfect.

For the next few days I spent the mornings in the water learning to kite surf, the afternoons getting lobster red as I fell asleep on sun loungers and the evenings drinking the local rum which was drank straight with slices of lime as a ‘mixer’ – it was actually pretty good stuff. After travelling so much over the last few months, almost a week of chillaxing was definitely needed and Mui Ne was the perfect place to do it.