Sand dunes and fairy stream

Where there is wind there are sand dunes. And where there are sand dunes there is a sand dunes tour. Virtually all the tours use US Army jeeps, for reasons unknown as the jeep doesn't actually go on the sand at any point. Our guess is that a canny businessman started the fashion a few years ago and all the other agencies copied him.

Most of the hotels in Mui Ne are not in town, but strung along the main road down the beaches to the South. The first stop of the tour was in town, near the mouth of the Fairy Stream. This is a brown, muddy stream (or crystal clear stream with a brown, muddy bed - it's difficult to tell in 1cm-deep water). Walking upstream for a bit you enter a small sandy valley with amazing wind-swept formations and eye-catching colours: the top layer a dark red and the bottom layer pure white. Combined with the green vegetation and blue sky it would be postcard-perfect were it not for dozens of other tourists walking down it.

After a short stop to see the fishing boats from a small cliff we got to the red sand dunes. Here you can hire a plastic sheet to use as a sleigh to go down the sandy slopes. Had a great time. We only hired one so we didn't get that tired, though walking up dunes is a hard slog. Hot on the feet too, if only wearing sandals. The girls renting out the sleighs were all wearing socks, German style.

Something had happened to the jeep's wheel but in no time it was fixed and we were on our way. This time to the white sand dunes (the kids fell asleep for a bit in the jeep). Here you can rent quads but we didn't bother. We just walked up the first hill to admire the view; it looks like a desert after the borderline fringe of vegetation.

On the way back we stopped at the red sand dunes again to catch the sunset, before speeding off on our merry way (on an amazing road, methinks the product of some budget over-allocation; it even had huge pavements with lamps and trees in an area with no actual people) back to the hotel.

Aisha's scalp is very itchy lately (been using adult shampoo but now we have some kiddie shampoo which is much milder) so we have got her some aloe oil. Her scalp has always been very delicate, let's hope this does the trick.