Kick back and relax

There’s a fab chilled out vibe to Vietnamese beach resort Mui Ne, writes Kate Wickers

It was Happy Hour at Anantara Mui Ne Resort, so I ordered a lychee martini and settled on a beach lounger to watch the aerial gymnastics of the 30 or more kite-surfers riding the late afternoon waves. Enthralled, I traced one in the sky as he made a leap of 20 feet, somersaulted and crashed into the ocean. “Woahhhhh,” my three sons, aged 16, 15 and 11, shouted. “He did a 360. That was mental. Did you see that, Mum?”

“Let’s stick to flying kites the traditional way,” I told them, before they got any ideas.

Adrenalin junkies aside, Mui Ne in the southeast province of Phan Thiet, 220km north of Saigon, has a reputation for its laid back vibe – partly due to the surfers who first discovered its steady winds, impressive breakers, and low rain fall in the late 90s. In recent years it has become South East Asia’s premier kite surfing location.

Geography-wise it’s interesting; flanked by a vast expanse of red and white sand dunes, which have been sculpted into phenomenal shapes by the incessant South China Sea winds. Accommodation, which ranges from backpackers’ lodges to swanky hotels, is low-rise and the town has managed to escape (so far) the trappings of other Vietnamese beach resorts such as Nha Trang.

The Anantara is easily the most stylish hotel in town and the family villas are spacious with two huge bedrooms, each with rainforest bathrooms, complete with exotic foliage and tiny resident moon lizards. We all agreed that it was wonderfully novel to enjoy a shower while watching the loquacious Eurasian Hoopoe, with its tapering bill and Mohican of feathers, flit from palm to palm overhead.

By midday temperatures soared to over 30 degrees so trips out were carefully timed. My boys weren’t sold on the idea of visiting the Fairy Stream. “Sounds girly,” said Freddie, the youngest, but just before sunset, when the dunes that sandwich the creek were all aglow, we set off. It’s a beautiful barefoot wade upstream to the source, a natural spring, and they soon forgot to be unenthusiastic and scrambled up the slippery dunes, star-jumping back to the shallow waters. I kept a close look out for enormous spindly water spiders – harmless but scary none-the-less as they zig-zag at alarming speed across the surface of the water.

One morning we set the alarm for 5:30am, just before sunrise, to see the fishermen return to the beach with

their haul. Fishwives, in conical hats, paddle out in basket boats to greet their men, ready to sift through the nets to weed out shells and other less valuable sea creatures, in search of prawns and scallops. The fish market takes place right on the beach. Look for the squids hung out to sun dry on wooden racks, used in the local delicacy – squid grilled with lemon, chilli and fish sauce.

There’s a string of no-frills seafood restaurants known collectively as Bo Ke, on the main tourist strip. Mr Crab is a buzzy, popular place, where we choose from the live menu on display. The scallops and muc mot nang were delicious but the sea snails were a mistake (don’t be seduced by their lovely shells – they are like chewing tyres). Our seafood feast cost just £18 including side orders of noodles and Saigon Red beer. Other nights we dined beachside at Anantara. Try their roasted honey chicken with bok choy and mango salsa.

I doubted if it was possible to feel more relaxed but did book in to the Anantara’s pretty spa for their signature ‘synchronised’ massage, where two therapists work in tandem. It is takes a while to get used

Clockwise from main: the infinity pool at Anantara Mui Ne Resort; one of the bedrooms; Ke Ga lighthouse

to four hands instead of two but I soon settled in to the rhythm.

We took a day excursion out to the ornate 19th century brick Ke Ga lighthouse, built by the French, on a small rocky frangipani-clad island, where the lighthouse keeper’s only company are geckos. Nearby, Asia’s longest reclining Buddha (45m) is found on top of the holy Ta Cu Mountain. For centuries pilgrims have walked to the 649m high summit but now there’s a cable car to whisk devotees to the top.

Other days were indulgently lazy; we swam in the Anantara’s vast pool and went for shell-foraging walks to beach cafes for sand-between-ourtoes lunches of rice paper pancakes stuffed with prawns and noodles. With a new road underway from Saigon and an airport opening at the end of 2019, catch the sea breeze and Mui Ne’s loveliness while you can. ■

We went for shellforaging walks to beach cafes