Travel blog: The white dunes of Mui Ne, Vietnam

Nick Claxton has never ventured outside of Europe before but a combination of too many years in London, a lack of proper responsibilities and an unhealthy admiration for Michael Palin now means he is spending a year travelling the globe. A terminally-disorganised 24-year-old taking on the world - solo. Here is his 22nd blog entry:

Most visitors to Vietnam will find their route through the country traces the eastern coastline as every bus company sticks to Highway 1 all the way from Saigon up to Hanoi.

This route takes you through most of the famed Vietnamese highlights, including the likes of Hue's imperial city and the French colonial charm of Hoi An. But my friends and I were not too keen on spending long hours on overnight buses.

Not that they're uncomfortable - in comparison to those in India, the buses in Vietnam are pure luxury - but I'd heard tales of many people renting or buying bikes and driving up to Hanoi which sounded much more fun!

Still, the bus deals looked pretty tempting. With the Sinh Café tour company you could by an open ticket (prices start around $50 [£30]) which lets you jump on and off anywhere along the route to Hanoi - great for those impulsive types.

You can pick these up anywhere along Highway 1 though, so we put off getting the full ticket in Saigon and decided to get a taste for Vietnamese-style travel by taking a local bus for the short hop to Mui Ne on the coast ($6 [£4] each and about three hours' drive).

I'd had no previous plans to stop off here and had heard nothing about it from other travellers either - something of a rarity on my journey through south-east Asia.

But Mui Ne turned out to be highly rewarding as is has a hugely diverse geography - I would have never believed it to be Vietnam.

Gone is the dense jungle, and in its place are rolling green hills, red-rock canyons, pristine beaches and immense sand dunes.

All of these are in easy reach from Mui Ne's traveller haven - which was half-deserted since I was there in off-season.

Booking in with a few friends at a hotel was therefore no problem, despite having no reservations. And we even found we could afford a few days on the seafront at the Sinh Café Resort ($40 [£25] a night - shared between three of us).

So this became home for a few days of mixing with travellers, watching the kite-surfers and enjoying the view as we tore along the coast road for a few clicks on our rented motorbikes.

But it was only when I ventured further into the wilderness away from town that I really began to appreciate Vietnam's stunning south-east.

As you leave Mui Ne, the beaches and lush oases give way to unusual red rock formations, sandy banks and rolling hills.

But then suddenly - rearing up against the dazzling blue sea - is your own little taster of the Sahara.

All the vastness of the White Sand Dunes lacks is a caravan of camels traipsing across the pure white ridges.

Heat waves rippled along the slopes as children ran behind us - clutching plastic sheets and trying to talk us out of few dollars for a ride down the largest dunes.

It didn't take all that much badgering to convince us, to be fair - we were soon swooshing down from the ridges, whooping at the top of our lungs and kicking up sand in our wake.

A combination of the heat and having to climb back up the slopes each time managed to tire us out, and we collapsed into the shade of a restaurant for a drink and to gaze out at the surreal vista of crisp white dunes framed by the South China Sea.

Not a sight I had expected for my time in Vietnam!

I spent a few hours each day driving around Mui Ne - either enjoying the sea air or the heat off the dunes. But at other times I'd just lie back on the beach and watch the Vietnamese fishermen in their coracles.

There was also a throng of kite-surfers out on the waves most days - sometimes looking graceful enough that I toyed with the idea of learning myself.

I suppose its probably cheaper taking lessons in Vietnam than in many other places, but I was still scared away by the price tag - $240 [£150] for five hours of teaching.

My final remnants of kite-surfing enthusiasm were eroded away by regular power cuts which disconnected the A/C and made the searing heat intolerable.

I drove along on the bike just thankful for the slight breeze. Most days I felt mildly fuzzy-headed and lethargic. Beaches seem to have that effect on me.

What I really needed though was some relief from the heat - it had been four months since Nepal and the last time I remember feeling cold!

Thankfully, we knew just the place. The next day we jumped on a bus inland - taking us away from the well-trodden route along Highway 1 and up into the cool of Vietnam's Central Highlands.

Nicolas Claxton