Vietnam
Mui Ne
Desert dunes of red and white sand advancing on a coast that smells of fermented fish.
The dunes should not be here — slopes of red and white sand rising dozens of metres from a coastline that smells overwhelmingly of fish sauce, barrels of it fermenting in wooden vats along the road, the vapour mixing with salt wind. At sunset the red dunes turn deep crimson while kite surfers launch from the beach below.
Mui Ne is a coastal strip in Binh Thuan Province where desert dunes, a working fishing village and famously steady wind share one unlikely shoreline. The red dunes burn crimson at sunset; the white dunes to the north rise big enough to board down — sport made of geography. Fairy Stream, a warm ankle-deep river, cuts a path through layered red-and-white sandstone into the dune belt. The harbour at dawn is a wall of blue wooden boats and drying nets — neighbouring Phan Thiet ferments some of Vietnam's most prized nuoc mam — and from November to March the fifteen-to-twenty-knot winds off the East Sea fill the sky with international kites.
Couple
Crimson dunes at sunset, the sandstone canyon of Fairy Stream, and a dawn harbour that ranks among Vietnam's most photogenic morning scenes.
Friends
Kitesurfing the steady winter wind, boarding down the white dunes, then scallops grilled on the beach — adrenaline and absurdity in equal measure.
- Red and white dunes rise dozens of metres, the red slopes burning crimson at sunset.
- Steady fifteen-to-twenty-knot winter winds make this Vietnam's kitesurfing capital.
- Fairy Stream runs warm and ankle-deep through a layered sandstone canyon into the dunes.
- The dawn harbour is a wall of blue boats, nets and the proud reek of prize-winning fish sauce.
Lẩu thả, Mũi Né's colourful fish hotpot with mango, herbs, rice noodles and peanut-rich broth.
Bánh canh chả cá: thick noodles in fish stock with both steamed and fried fish cake.
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