Vietnam--To the beach?

From Phnom Penh, we got a bus direct to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. We are being very restless travelers this trip, and so after walking around a bit, we decide to leave early the next moning for Mui Ne, "Vietnam's best all around beach". We got in and found the place deserted. Apparently it's low season. This may be due to the fact that the tide is in so far that there technically is no beach, just huge breakers that touch the steps leading down to where the beach would be. The plus side of down season is that we got a killer room for cheap, where this is the view outside our massive plate glass windows:

Luckily, Mui Ne has some interesting surrounding attractions. It is also known as "the Sahara of Vietnam" because there are some massive sand dunes a few km outside of town. Yesterday we rented motorbikes and headed out there. There are two main dunes, the red and the white.

You could rent "sleds" from the kids patrolling the white dunes and go for a ride down the slopes. It's not quite as fast as a good running jump down a snow hill, and it's a bit grittier, but it was fun. Walking up the sand was harder than walking up snow, I think, although it's been a while since I've sledded and it always seems like it takes forever to get back up the hill.

We headed back to the red dunes (closer to town, less distance to cover at night with questionable headlights and even more questionable road etiquette). Sterling ran out of gas, since it wouldn't be a motorbike trip without that added excitement. I didn't, so I went and picked some up from a local shop. She put it in a plastic bag to go.

Driving home was exhilarating. It's a two lane road. Generally, the trucks, cars, taxis, and buses move faster than the motos, so the rule is that motos stay toward the edges, and when a larger vehicle is coming through, they blare the horn and then steam on through. This is terrifying. I almost got sucked into a bus as it stormed past me. But all in all, we made it back alive, if not absolutely covered in sand.

We are leaving today on a 17 hour bus ride up to Hoi An. Turns out I have to leave a week early so I can make it to a training event in the states for a job I got. Sad times, I only have a week left. I guess this sort of justifies our restless, rushed trip so far.