Vietnam and beyond

As the sun rises above the South China Sea I am once again amazed I am up before 6 am. I am also a tad incredulous that I rented my own personal jeep tour and guide for the morning for only $60. As the sun rose above surreal sand dunes, I peered beyond at the water that seemed so juxtaposed to the dry arid nature of the dunes around me. After hopping back in our jeep, we checked out a local fishing village at the peak of activity. At about 730 am, most boats were coming in from a long arduous night of fishing, and we were able to watch as each boat worked quickly to get their goods to market-fresh clams were taken out of the shell-the shells scattered aimlessly across the beach. Small fish were placed in tubs and cleaned in shallow water before being sold to middle men, who would then take the fish to the main fish market later that morning. Men worked on their fishing vessels, huge power tools breaking the otherwise silence of the bustling morning atmosphere. And it wasn't even 8 am yet, we had already visited giant white sand dunes, smaller, more red sand dunes, went dune surfing (you'll have to ask me about that one) and checked out a gorge made of red clay. Quite the morning. The night before was quite excellent as well. After 2 hours of pampering at a spa, the breeze gently flowing into the room where I had a hot stone massage and Thai massage alongside my girlfriend, we went perusing for a dinner locale. we settled on a spot where we were able to choose fresh fish from the days catch. Soon Tiger Prawns, giant shrimp and Barracuda steak was being weighed on the scales, and we were escorted to our seats in the bamboo restaurant overlooking the resorts of Mui Ne, the latest beach phenom of Vietnam. We ordered a bottle of Chilean white, naturally, which fit nicely with the seafood that was served with equally tantalizing sauces and spices-from lemon and pepper concoctions to hot sweet pepper sauce. The best food I've ever tasted-no joke. After a casual walk down from the restaurant we found our tour operator and booked out jeep tour-bringing this small snippet of our trip to Vietnam to a close.