Svetlana and Natalia’s windsurfing holiday to Mui Ne Vietnam Dec 31st – 11th of January 2007
Galllery with approx 53 pictures from Mui Ne Vietnam
I was relaxing in Moscow and not really thinking much about the pending trip to Vietnam. All my expectations were jolly imagining the fun that my sister and I would have. I was so relaxed I forgot all my summer clothes from Dahab but did take my wetsuit and harness. Wetsuit I never used, by the way. On arrival at the airport in Moscow we found out that instead of one flight we would have to go on two.
The surfing spot Mui ne you can only get to direct from Saigon and stupidly we were booked to fly to Hanoi which then meant we had to get a connecting flight to Saigon. From Saigon it takes around 4 and half hours to get to Mui ne by mini bus. The roads are a complete disaster in terms of the construction, they are full of potholes and not well maintained plus you have the added problem of traffic jams due to people on tut tuts slowing down your progress. Everything in Vietnam seems to be transported by road which is another hindrance from giant televisions to families with chickens etc you get the picture.
When we finally arrived at the Hotel we were so tired that the brain was just not taking anything in. It was Dec 31st New years eve we had been travelling for 25 hours and all we managed to do was find our room take a shower and crash out. No New Year party for us saw the New Year in by sleeping through the whole event.
Next morning we got up and started to explore. The first thing we discovered was the humidity (ITS HUMID IN VIETNAM) also the sky was cloudy, however everything around was very green and absolutely beautiful as you will see from the pictures.
Ten minutes walk along the beach we found the windsurfing station which was called Jibe’s with a huge bar and windsurfing shop next to it We discovered the windsurfing centre was owned by a very strange guy who from what we could work out spent most of the time was sitting between the toilet and the storage looking grim and not windsurfing.
Also we met local guy with a quite bad tempered monkey, which bit Natalia while we were having some pictures take with it .
On further investigation we found many nice restaurants serving seafood and noodles, shrimps with noodles being one of the most popular dishes served. The food Mui ne is very cheap and tasty, however our stomachs were having trouble dealing with it and we spent quite some time running to the toilet. Perhaps this is why the owner of the centre was always not far from it and looking so fed-up.
Next day the wind started to arrive, blowing side onshore from the left. In the beginning the wind was light so we took larger boards and larger sails to go out and orientate ourselves with the place. We soon discovered though that when the wind gets stronger the shore break would be the main thing to overcome before we could start enjoying gliding up and down in the swells. Regardless of the wind strength the conditions that we had during our stay were always choppy no matter how near or far from the shore. The spot is quite popular with Russians and my sister ad I met up with some guys who were there for their third time. These guys were sailing very small boards around 75-85 litre boars and 4.5-5.0 sqm sails. They said the wind conditions we had experienced were quite unusual and that wind will definitely build during the stay. They did say that we were going through an anti cyclone so the wind would be very unstable for a while, which we experienced afterwards.
The equipment in the station were Starboard, which I quite liked trying the combat 87 and 91. Rigs were the biggest problem as they seemed very heavy, rigging ropes worn and the Severne and Neil Pryde sails were not well maintained, no surprise I guess seeing the shore break they had to be washed through on a regular basis.
Next day it was more windy but during the day the wind was shifting between cross onshore to cross offshore and also changing in strength which made the sailing difficult and tiring. Near the beach there was very little wind t get out through the shore break and at times you had to point almost back at the beach while trying to sail out to get enough angle on the wind to plane, encouraged with quite a bit of sail pumping action. Once going I was heading out and surprised to find that 500 meters out the same 5.4 sail was absolutely overpowered. The main thing that lead me to think I was overpowered was the huge catapult I received at one stage being thrown into the dirty water only to find I was floating next to a dead bird. The water was very dirty, warm and full of al kinds of things from driftwood, coconut shells and dead animals. Having fallen in the next energy drain was recovering the heavy rig which had inconveniently sunk straight down under the board. After 50 minutes of sailing / swimming I arrived downwind of the centre absolutely knackered. That evening exhaustion kept us from socialising and we went to bed early.
Next day the wind was blowing again but this time it was a little stronger, sailing with a combat 87 an a 4.7 . The shore break story was worse with it being much bigger this day, still no wind on the inside and getting overpowered in the outside. My sister and I both had some interesting rinses in the dirty water trying to launch which was quite energy draining. After another pummelling we met up with a group of French, Swiss and Russian guys as we were the only two girls there and all went out to an interesting Chinese restaurant with an unpronounceable name where we were joined by a poisonous snake. We realised at this point we still had the energy to run !!
Break Day…stomach problems and ear problems (not good thought the ear problems could have been from the dirty water) so spent all day in a hammock on the beach. Sister went sailing with much the same results as before, big rinse in the shore break and drifting downwind.
Decided at this stage that windsurfing here in Mui ne with the conditions we had did not equal pleasure and was looking forward to getting back to Dahab with the team.
Being in Mui ne did give me the desire to try more wave sailing but the conditions were definitely not the easiest especially with the low wind in the shore break.
On the last day the sun came out which made quite a difference to the surrounding colours and general feel to the place. I can only assume that the conditions there must be better than my sister and I experienced for it to be so popular with many windsurfers and kitesurfers especially from Russia during the winter season.
Journey starting back and we left the kites, jetskis and windsurfers to continue their personal shore break missions…another 25 hours travelling ahead yipeeeee!
Best wishes and happy windsurfing.
Svetlana & Natalia
