Sand, police and petrol

I hired a motorbike this morning to drive along the coast. Mui Ne has a bad reputation for traffic police stopping foreigners on motorbikes and issuing ‘fines’ (read bribes) for traffic violations - real or invented. I’d read a few blogs which described the place the police usually set up their checkpoint and indicated a route to avoid that part of the road.

I drove through the town to the first of the two areas with large sand dunes – the Red Sand Dunes. They were more orange! I didn’t linger for long as it was very hot and, being sand dunes, there was very little shade. I drove back through town to pick up the inland road to avoid the police. It was a pretty road over the hills with virtually no traffic. I rejoined the coastal road just before the White Sand Dunes with no sign of the police. By then it was boiling hot so I decided to keep driving and stop at the white sand dunes later in the afternoon when it had cooled down a bit.

Not far after that I ran out of petrol! The motorbike was in bad condition; the speedometer didn’t work and after I put in 2 litres of petrol which should had taken it to half full, the petrol gauge hadn’t moved so I assumed it wasn’t working either. I had bought petrol from a small roadside place with a hand pump and with hindsight the woman who served me probably charged me for 2 litres and put less in. There was nothing nearby on the highway and that area is Vietnam’s hottest and driest part so there was no shade either. Luckily I’d just passed a turning to a village and I was sure I’d find petrol there, even if it was someone selling it in bottles from their house. I walked into the village. There was a couple outside a house with lots of motorbikes parked there so I tried to talk to them. I didn’t understand anything they were saying so wasn’t sure if they understood what I needed. I thanked them and kept walking. 100 meters further on was a house with a hand pump petrol stall outside. The woman there sold me a litre of petrol. She pumped it into a can and then used a funnel to put it into an old plastic water bottle and I walked back to the bike to fill it up.

I drove to the next town, went to a garage and filled it up properly. After that the petrol gauge showed full so I can’t have had half a tank at the beginning. I kept driving as I wanted to get to the place where the road ran alongside a deserted beach with no development on it. It clouded over and the wind got up which usually indicates monsoon rain starting in about 3 minutes! I stopped at a cafe. It rained a little but not the downpour I thought it might be. After 45 minutes it was looking ok so I continued but 15 minutes later rain was threatening again. I took a wrong turn and ended up in a tiny fishing hamlet. It was on a steep hill running down to the sea and had very narrow streets (motorbikes ok, no cars). Driving through there was the most interesting part of the day. Judging by peoples reactions when they saw me, I don’t think they get many foreigners driving through! I got lost in the maze of streets and people pointed me in the right direction. It would have been great for street photos but I didn’t feel comfortable stopping and pointing my camera at people. And it was going to rain. I got out of the village, back to the main road which ran alongside the beach. And the monsoon rain started.


I stopped where I saw a couple of tiny tin huts on the beach. There was no one there. I think they must have been used to store fishing gear. One had a porch so I stood under that and waited. And waited. And waited. There was a massive thunderstorm and the rain didn’t stop. After maybe an hour it wasn’t as heavy so I decided I’d better start back as it would be dark before I got back. It was a horrible wet drive back and when it got dark, I got cold too. I drove the shorter route back along the coast but no police. They remove their roadblock for catching foreigners at 5pm – maybe earlier when it’s raining.