All the sights in one day.

Today Gavin was feeling better, but not “extreme sport” better, so we again canceled our kite surfing lesson.  Gavin went right back to sleep after breakfast, so I went and bought him some more bottled water (our first 6 liters had just run out), then I got a massage in the resort spa, which was more like a little outdoor pavilion with massage beds in it. :)  I had a nice massage with hot stones and really nice smelling oil, and it totally made me want a nap, so I joined Gavin for a bit.

Around lunch time, Gavin was feeling good enough to leave the resort after his nap.  So we shared a quick lunch and then our driver Tung picked us up for a private Vietnam War-era Jeep tour of several of the sights around Mui Ne.

Our driver Tung.  Also, not a single one of those gauges in the Jeep was working. :)

Gavin in the front for a bit.

And then we traded.  :)

We started at Fairy Stream, where we walked barefoot up a sandy bottomed stream through white and red sand formations.

Fairy stream.

Beautiful sandstone formations.

Gavin in Fairy Stream.

Me in Fairy Stream. 

I will admit to cheating and Photoshopping people out of several of the
previous photos.  :D There were actually a ton of tourists there. 

The source of Fairy Stream.

After Fairy Stream, we were supposed to go see the fishing village, but somebody waved us down and told our driver that police were up ahead, so our driver quickly turned around and said we had to go a different way.  When we asked him what we were doing that was illegal, :) he said that police will stop and give a ticket to the Jeep because it is too old.  Also probably because it doesn’t have seatbelts, and the only thing keeping you from falling out the side is a small strap.  :)

We continued on our way, then suddenly Tung had to pull over because the Jeep had overheated - he had a big bottle of water to pour into the radiator, but he had to wait until the Jeep had cooled down a bit before driving again.  He waved down another Jeep driver, who made his other passengers crunch over so we could fit in the car and get to the white sand dunes sooner, and Tung would just meet us there a bit later.

The white sand dunes are a field of sand dunes about 45 kilometers from Mui Ne.  The dune are is large enough that we had to pay an ATV driver to take us on a harrowing drive to the top of one of the dunes.   (harrowing because he was driving pretty fast on unstable sand…) At the top the wind was blowing fiercely and sandblasting of our legs.  We could see ATVs driving all over the dunes.  Near to us several ATVs went “diving” down the steep dune!  The ATV driver who picked us up took a not-so-thrilling way down, though.

ATVs all over the place at the white sand dunes, and people trying to
get you to rent those blue sleds to slide down the dunes.

Crazy windy.  We hardly took any pictures.

Our next stop was the red sand dunes, which were a smaller group of dunes than the white sand dunes, but they are a beautiful rusty red color.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of trash thrown all over the dunes, and hundreds of tourists around.  The original plan had been to watch the sunset there, but we were behind because of the detour around the police.

Red sand dunes. I also Photoshopped a bunch of people out of these
photos.  :)

Gavin and I at "almost" sunset at the red sand dunes.

Red dunes, blue sky, ridiculously windblown hair.

Couldn't get my hair in control for a selfie.  :)

Gavin in our Jeep at the red sand dunes.

Instead, we watched the sun set over the fishing village of Mui Ne.  We had seen it before in the daylight, but now we got to see it at night with all the boat lights twinkling.

Panorama of the fishing village. 

Fishing village.

Tung took us back to our hotel, and we got ready for dinner.  We headed over to El Latino, a MEXICAN restaurant in VIETNAM, to have dinner.  We had some surprisingly good fajitas and enchiladas.

El Latino.  A Mexican restaurant in Vietnam. Complete with sombreros.

Gavin and I after dinner.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to turn in.  Tomorrow we will try AGAIN to get into our kiteboarding lesson!  :)