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.
Once we arrived at the White Sands parking area, each of us were divided individually and seated on ATV quad bikes.
I arrived in the coastal town of Mui Ne in the afternoon. Mui Ne is located just outside Phan Thiết city. It’s a sleepy little resort town but Mui Ne is getting more popular on the Vietnam tourism trail, largely thanks to its unique attractions. I had booked a tour to see the sand dunes tomorrow but today, before the sun set, I decided to make the most of my time and visit a the Po Shanu Cham Towers.
I hailed a Grab bike taxi and negotiated with the driver, who agreed to take me there, wait and drive me back to Mui Ne for 70,000 VND (₹220/$3/€2.5).
It really looks like Mui Ne only recently developed as a major tourism destination. I saw a lot of construction activity in Mui Ne along the coastline — new hotels, resorts, and housing projects.
The ride to Ba Nai Hill, where the Cham towers are situated, took less than 15 minutes. Once we arrived, I had to pay for parking.
There are three towers still standing and the place is also referred to as the Champa temple complex because the towers house symbols of Hinduism — Yoni & Lingam in one, a Nandi bull statue in another, and Agni (fire god) in the third.
After spending the last few days exploring Ho Chi Minh City and going on day tours outside of the city, I decided to take a break from the city and visit the coastal town of Mui Ne.
The journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne is over 4 hours long with a stop in between for a break.