Fairy Stream of Mui Ne, Vietnam – Photos & Info

Mui Ne, Vietnam is mainly known for 2 things to the traveller (if you’ve even heard of it): Kite Surfing and Sand Dunes.  Most people that go see the sand dunes book a trip by jeep, and they throw in a few extra bonus stops along the way.  The Ferry Stream is kind of brushed off as an additional stop on the sand dunes tour; however it was actually better than the dunes themselves.  They’re not marketed well, and it’s really unofficial when you get there, but as tourism in Mui Ne grows, I’m sure they’ll become more well known.

When our jeep pulled up on the side of the road, we weren’t sure what was happening as our driver didn’t really speak English.  We realized we were supposed to get out and walk up a dirt path, and 100m or so later arrived at a little shack selling some drinks and snacks, with a bunch of kids sitting there.  2 little kids started speaking to us in broken English and showing us the way to the Ferry Streams.  Before you go down the stairs to the Ferry Stream, they try to make you take your shoes off.  You’ll probably want to do it anyways as you have to walk up a muddy stream, but they want you to there because they charge you to keep your shoes there.  It wasn’t much, so I figured why not.

You walk up a stream (the Ferry Stream), and these kids weasel their way into becoming your guide as they tell you the best places to walk so you don’t step in a deep part and get your shorts wet (so you’ve got to tip them at the end).  There’s no entrance fee, and a couple bucks is more than enough as tip, so it’s nice to support them for actually doing some work and not just begging or scamming (kind of).

You’ll pass some crappy little steps leading out of the Ferry Stream, and see a little stable of sorts where they’ve got a couple Ostriches.  You have the option to take a lap around the fenced off area for about $2 US.  I weigh 190+ lbs, so I think the guy intentionally wrangled up the bigger male in the cage, who did not want to work and tried to jump out of the pen (very unsuccessfully, see video).  After chasing him around for a few minutes he got him into the corner where I climbed on, ran around the track once, it tried to buck me off the front, and almost succeeded, then dropped me off where I started.  I don’t know who was happier for me to get off, the Ostrich or me, but it was pretty fun/funny since I survived.

After the optional Ostrich excursion you continue on walking up the Ferry Stream and the walls start to get a really dark red color.  If you’ve ever seen Rainbow Beach in Australia, it’s very similar with the whole spectrum of colored sands, but a more powerful red at the bottom.  All in all its only about a 10 minute walk, depending on if you stop for the Ostrich and how many photos you take.  At the point where you turn around there is some soft dark red mud where they claim you get a massage by stepping it in.  It feels funny, makes a funny fart sound, but that’s about it.  Then you turn around and go back.  If you want you can climb up areas of the sand walls and get a bit of a different view, may as well do that too.

All in all the Ferry Streams were much better than we expected, don’t skip out on them.  If you get a map, you could also hire scooters and get there yourselves, save the cost of the jeep tour.  Be warned that the kids at the place are pretty pushy about tipping, they wanted tips for us putting our shoes on the steps out front, even after we paid them to do it.  I gave our tour guide a large tip for my friend and I (a nice one too), and then he tried to get more tips from my friend, very persistently.  They’ve got their friends sitting at the entrance/exit telling you to tip their friends more; it was more in your face than most other places in Vietnam.

Video of Ostrich Riding Arena at the Fairy Stream

Mui Ne Fairy Stream Photo Gallery

Mui Ne Fairy Stream Map