Day 62: Jeepers

We had a nice relaxing morning listening to the hundred or so kids taking an early morning swim outside our door! Hah. Well they only managed to wake up Beth, as the kids and I had a late-ish night watching the Wimbledon final and face timing friends, so we slept fairly soundly.

We took the opportunity in the morning to get some math done as well as play a few hundred rounds of President.... They are completely addicted!

At 2pm, a guy pulled up in a jeep to take us to the obligatory tourist sites in the area.

It's pretty funny, the word "touristy" is. You hear a a lot of people complain that such and such is "too touristy", but it's a bit of a catch 22 isn't it? If some "attraction" didn't have tourist support (transportation, ticketing, safety measures (hah, that last one is a bit laughable sometimes here), food, drinks, toilets) then it could be a real hassle to go and see that thing (especially with two rugrats in tow). Sometimes you just have to follow the beaten path, you just have to go into it with a bit of perspective... 1) someone has seen it before, 2) you're probably not the only one here to see it today and 3) leave your expectations at the door.

There are always different ways to see the sights: DIY (renting a moto, can we please, please, please rent motos!), taking private cars or anything in between. In Mui Ne, the well trodden path is to "see the 4 sites".... So like most people, we signed up!

The first stop was the oddly named "fairy river", so named because it changes colours (I thought fairies came in set colours, but I could be wrong) as it winds through the area. I had left my expectations back at the hotel, and was pleasantly surprised by the views. We got out, and walked under a small bridge where we could either go back, or walk in the river. Ok! We stepped in and the bottom was smooth, hard-packed sand, with the water only 4 or 5 inches deep and flowing swiftly over our bare feet. We didn't know what to expect as we made our way upriver - was there a destination or was it just about the journey?

The terrain gradually opened up to a mini Grand Canyon topography on the left hand side, formed by wind and water worn sand. There were all kinds of features and colours and it looked pretty cool. Again, we weren't sure what to look for, but the forty minute walk up and down the shallow river was.... Interesting.

Due to lack of experience walking in shallow rivers, one kid or the other tended to splash water over the other kid. There were words for sure, but the surefire way to make everyone stop bickering is to say "hey perfectly happy family, say cheese!". Click. Splash. "Robin!". Splash. "Abby!". You get the idea...

I could think of a dozen better names than the fairy river.... And here are four of those:

1) The River (pronounced THEE)

2) Le (La?) Petite Canyon (a nice throwback to the French era, don't you think?)

3) Pho King River (used with the correct pronunciation of the popular breakfast rice noodle dish, this could be a cool local inside joke)

4) Shallow, Multi-Coloured with Seemingly No Beginning Yet With Cool Sand Sculptures Lining It River

All of those are better than the Fairy River!!!

Next up, a brief stop at a fishing village. We were amazed by the number boats moored up beyond the break. The little circular shuttle boats that we'd seen in Hoi An were being used to get people and goods back and forth between the village and the boats.

The whole area reminded us of Barclay's Beach in Barbados - so much so that the girls took to the sand, writing our itinerary and other inspiring messages like they do on our annual pilgrimage to the beach near Papa's place in the Carribean.

Our driver sensed a storm coming, so we drove right past the red dunes in favour of the long trip to the white dunes. When we were approaching the area, we saw a pretty big lake with these massive white hills behind - it was way bigger than I'd expected (ok, I guess I had some expectations... You got me!).

We parked our jeep and got out to join dozens of other sight seers. We could have rented a 4 wheel ATV which would have been fun, but I think Beth was a little ATVed out after Siem Reap, so we walked it. The place was huge (and a little chaotic with all the rules free driving of locals and tourists on the all terrain vehicles). The dunes stretched on as far as the eye could see and were quite spectacular.

The kids were asking if this is what the dessert would look like in India, and I told them that that looked more like gulab jamun or coriander ice cream, but that the desert in Rajasthan looked very similar to this (from what I can recall!).

As you can probably tell from the photo below, the storm was approaching. We headed back to the jeep, and not five minutes after we left, the rain started crashing down. Without sides on the jeep, we were getting a little wet. I made sure my babies were sheltered from the rain (phone and camera), but the three in the back seat got pretty wet. We decided to skip the red dunes, though we did drive by them and see people tobogganing down as the rain started to let up. Abby, having flash backs of previous rides and close calls, was having nothing to do with staying in the jeep too much longer - to be fair to her, the guy had a slightly broken windshield and no working wipers (to be fair to him, the visibility was fine and the roads were clear).

We made it home in pretty good time, jumped in the hot shower and immersed ourselves in creature comforts - Beth got a bottle of wine, the girls went to the restaurant area with their iPads, and I got a cold 333 and settled in to write a blog post....this one! G'night!