Like everyone in Asia, the bus to Mui Ne is too early. This time 15 minutes, exactly one missed breakfast. The bus takes a full five hours to cover the 200 kilometres to Mui Ne. Endless street settlements pass by the window. Then the in-bus entertainment begins and I can’t understand the world any more. “Vietnam is looking for a superstar” is on TV.
Everything is interchangeable – songs, interpretation, presentation, make-up, dance. Everything is the same everywhere. Global dumbing down. Only the almond eyes indicate that we are in Vietnam. A small, proud country full of great history defeats a giant. First prize: the freedom to be an individual. Just as equal as the rest of the American world.
We arrive in Mui Ne. We, as of today: Jörg from Würzburg and me. We take a bungalow right on the beach. The wind is blowing and for the first time in weeks I’m grinning broadly. A quick breakfast and assembling the board. 20 metres down to the beach, pump up the kite, grease up the prongs and off we go.
The wind is blowing perfectly sideshore onto the fine white sandy beach at 20 knots. Out onto the water and a few lanes of absolute bliss kiting. Then I lose my board and for the first time in a long time I tear the kite onto the water. Not firm at all. But enough. Result: a 1 metre long tear right through the sail in the outer third.
The next day I get the tear stitched up for just eight euros. My kite still lost a few hundred euros in value. What’s more, the wind is gone for at least five days. There are lethargic masses of kiters on the beach. Nothing moves.
We hire motorbikes and ride to the sand dunes of Mui Ne. Pretty flat and low. So at some point Jörg shouts: “Off-road!” I don’t say no. Result; a few kilometres on moguls. Then sand. We don’t get to go sandboarding, but riding down a nice sand dune on a motorbike is fun too.
In the evening, we treat ourselves to a top-class French menu for just six euros. I’ve caught up on my work and can travel again with a clear conscience. Tomorrow I’m off to the mountains around Dalat on my motorbike for three days.
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.