After arriving in Mui Ne yesterday and making the most of the day by visiting the Champa temple complex, I woke up very early in the morning for my tour of Mui Ne’s famous white and red sand dunes. I booked my tour locally for VND 300,0000 (₹950/$13/€10) but you have plenty of options from online platforms like Viator. Most tourists do the sunrise tour but you also have sunset tours.
I was picked up at 4:30am from my hotel and the SUV that picked us up, would go around picking up the other guests
We filled up fuel first before heading out to the sands
We were supposed to be at the white sands for the sunrise… but I could see the sun already creeping up in the distance
It took about 45 minutes to reach Bao Trang desert, which is the white sand dunes
Once we arrived at the White Sands parking area, each of us were divided individually and seated on ATV quad bikes.
As news broke about the ‘Phuket Sandbox‘ experiment starting in July, I couldn’t help but be envious of the privileged few who could fly into the famous Thai island for a vacation. Sure, right now, there’s a quarantine process to follow but if the experiment proves to be successful, the authorities could loosen up the quarantine requirements and open up more destinations in the country (Koh Samui is next) based on increased vaccination coverage and declining cases in each province or island.
Being holed up indoors for what is now going to be two years, with more time spent in front of a laptop than looking away from a screen, I sure could use a Thailand vacation! Not that I wasn’t glad to be with my parents during a crisis, but for someone who enjoys exploring new destinations, trying out new experiences, tasting different kinds of foods… home isn’t where the heart was after having gone through lockdown after lockdown. I wanted to get out there again!
#AmazingThailand
I missed being in cities like Bangkok, which offered the world on your platter, from amazing street food to every international cuisine you could think of.
From all the deep fried goodies at night market stalls
To sipping on piping hot Tom Yung Goong (one of my favourites!)
Heck, I even miss Thai Airways’ in-flight meals! 🙁
Its amazing night markets… from discovering hip new stores selling fashionable clothing at Chatuchak weekend market…
After trying for over month to get a vaccination slot under the 18-44 age group, I finally managed to get a slot for a paid vaccination at Aster MIMS hospital (I got Covishield which is the AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine). The previous day, I kept checking on the CoWIN website at various intervals throughout the day but found checking post-9pm to work best for Aster MIMS’ slot update.
I didn’t really want to pay Rs. 950 for vaccination nor drive all the way to Chala where the hospital was located but the only other options available for 18 and older in Kannur city were at a few government hospitals, and they wouldn’t display availability everyday. Even if they did, the slots would get filled in seconds — making it very difficult to book anything. My cousin who did manage to get a free jab at one such government hospital said checking CoWIN around 3pm-ish worked for him for government hospitals.
None the less, upon successfully getting myself a slot for 3pm to 4pm at Aster MIMS, I got my appointment slip in PDF format. I saved it to my phone as you need to show the four digit ‘secret code’ in the slip at the vaccination center.
This is what the CoWIN appointment slip looks like. Staff will ask for the secret code that’s unique to your registered profile.
I arrived at Aster MIMS hospital by 2:50pm
I entered the hospital via the main entrance where the security guards were and they told me parking spaces in front of the hospital was full and that I would have to park all the way in the back. But I saw the security staff handing out numbered tokens. So I got the token first before going to find a parking spot.
