A little story I'd like to share from when I traveled to Vietnam last year:
Mui Ne, Vietnam. On this picture you can see the fishermen's port of Mui Ne. A both quite and buzzing place in very colorful shapes. Correct me if I am wrong, but those hot-tub-boats are very common due to size-policies that ships are being taxed on. They are perfectly round and definitely not what you would expect a boat to look like^^ From what I heard, people are paying no or at least fewer taxes on those buckets than they would on real ships^^ Fascinating to watch these skilled captains ;)
Mui Ne is famous for its beaches, red dunes and a place called fairy stream. If you ask me,.... A pretty westernized tourist rip off... Anyhow, let's taker a closer look at this place.
A very popular way to explore the sights are sunrise and sunset half-day tours that are being offered at cheap prices. A driver brings you to 3-4 sights and waits until you get back to the car. I usually try to avoid tours like that at all costs. I rather rent a scooter and explore things on my own terms... To leave the crowds. Thing is, renting motorcycles in Vietnam is easy and pretty cool, except for some parts. This place has checkpoints in and out of Mui Ne with somewhat corrupt cops that charge you large fines for not having valid Vietnamese licenses. The entire time in the north and middle of the country, I never heard of such trouble... Nothing ever happened. Frankly, I don't even have an international motorcycle license. Non at all... Everything above 50cc I am not allowed to ride. Usually in South east asia, ther is a way around it^^ Anyhow, we ended up booking the sunset tour. An old rusty jeep, very cool!, picked us up and brought us to the sights. The fairy stream was kinda cool. Seeing this little red stream forming its way through red dunes. The other, highly praised dunes, are being ruined by 4-whellers that are constantly making the imprssive hills smaller and smaller by the day. The business drags in a lot of money, so I do understand the idea, of turning it into a fun activity... To,... I liked to habour the most. I should have asked the fishermen to take me out on their daily trips.
