262: Affordable Mui Ne Seafood Market

At sunset, they arrived at Red Sand Dunes.

The cool sea breeze had already swept away the daytime heat.

Under the glow of the setting sun, the yellow sand dunes truly turned a vibrant red.

Red Sand Dunes

The entire Red Sand Dunes area is not very large; calling it a desert would be a bit of an exaggeration. The name Red Sand Dunes is very fitting, and not far from it is the sea.

A slightly stronger sea breeze occasionally kicked up fine sand and dust, instantly making tourists a bit dusty.

However, since everyone came here to play in the sand, a little fine sand and dust was not a big deal at all, and instead added a lot of fun.

From time to time, someone would be about to speak but would get a mouthful of sand, making their companions laugh uncontrollably.

The distant blue sea and the Red Sand Dunes reflected each other, truly allowing one to experience the artistic conception of "half sea, half sand."

No wonder many people say that Mui Ne has a landscape that is half like Dubai.

Half Sea, Half Desert

Next to Red Sand Dunes, some children were holding sandboards and promoting them to tourists, offering two slides for 20,000 vietnamese dong.

Red Sand Dunes is a completely free attraction, but there are many vendors nearby renting out desert motorbikes and ATVs.

Since the area here is very small and many people are sandboarding, not many people ride desert motorbikes.

Li Qinghe had read online guides that suggested going to White Sand Dunes if one wanted to ride beach motorbikes, so he and Vu Linh Huong only walked barefoot onto Red Sand Dunes.

Using the afterglow of the sunset, Li Qinghe took many beautiful photos of Vu Linh Huong at the top of the sand dune with the sea and sand dunes as the background.

Due to her status and influence, Vu Linh Huong could not be like other girlfriends and have Li Qinghe record videos to upload online.

However, she could take them for her own enjoyment, so Li Qinghe took many videos, using a future camera.

With Li Qinghe's current photography skills, every photo he took looked like a blockbuster, which sparked Vu Linh Huong's interest in photography.

The two took many photos at Red Sand Dunes—coconut trees, sea waves, and the desert. Vu Linh Huong also took many of Li Qinghe.

Seeing Vu Linh Huong having so much fun, Li Qinghe finally found a child and rented two sandboards, and they slid down the dune twice together.

The dune wasn't too high, but the speed of sliding down was quite fast, and they got a lot of sand in their mouths.

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey, so much sand! Qinghe, let's hurry back to the car to rinse our mouths."

Vu Linh Huong was patting the sand off her body while spitting out the fine sand from her mouth. She had finally stopped by tipping over sideways.

And all of this was captured by Li Qinghe, who held up his phone.

"Ah, you bad person! You just took beautiful photos of me, and now you're taking ugly ones!"

Li Qinghe had only taken a few shots before Vu Linh Huong discovered him.

"Beautiful photos also need other things to complement them to look even better."

The two bickered as they walked back to the car.

Fortunately, Hoang Dang Minh Thu had put plenty of mineral water in the trunk.

They not only rinsed their mouths but also poured water to wash their faces.

The mineral water quickly soaked into the sand and was absorbed.

"Qinghe, I find that being with you alone is quite enjoyable. I should have come out with you sooner."

On the way driving away from Red Sand Dunes, Vu Linh Huong, sitting in the passenger seat, seriously told Li Qinghe her feelings.

"Didn't you used to be busy with your career? It's not too late to come out with me now, so you can experience the happy life of ordinary people."

So, Li Qinghe drove, taking the 'descended-to-earth' Vu Linh Huong, towards the seafood street by the sea.

This street is located near the center of Mui Ne town, exactly in the middle of the east and west coasts.

Driving along the scenic coastal road, dense basket boats bobbed up and down with the waves in the crescent-shaped bay.

Mui Ne Beach

These round basket boats were actually the same kind of coconut boats that Li Qinghe had seen in Hoi An.

However, compared to the basket boats in Hoi An, which were purely manually operated on the inland coast, many of the basket boats here in Mui Ne had engines installed underneath.

The round boats zipped across the sea like skipping stones, presenting a completely different sight.

Mui Ne's seafood street was very lively because there was a seafood market in its center.

Many tourists directly bought fresh seafood in the market and then took it to nearby small eateries for cooking.

Li Qinghe parked the car at the end of the street, and they walked through it.

Vu Linh Huong's outfit today was perfect for strolling. She happily linked arms with Li Qinghe, and they walked from one end to the other like an ordinary young couple.

"Qinghe, why don't we also buy some seafood from the market and have it cooked at a restaurant?"

Seeing many tourists carrying large and small bags of seafood into nearby small shops, Vu Linh Huong was also a bit tempted.

Although she had eaten all kinds of seafood in Vietnam, she had never tried buying seafood in such a down-to-earth market and then having it processed in a small shop.

For her, truly living like an ordinary person was only during her time studying at Jingcheng University in Dragon Country.

She would go with her classmates to the streets and alleys to try traditional Dragon Country Jingcheng foods like stewed offal, stir-fried liver, and zhajiangmian.

She even tried the legendary biochemical food, old Jingcheng douzhi'er (fermented mung bean juice).

Unfortunately, she dared to eat balut and could tolerate fish sauce, but she couldn't stand the taste of douzhi.

However, she felt relieved later when local classmates from Dragon Country Jingcheng told her that not every local person could get used to douzhi.

The two plunged into the seafood market, watching tourists from all over the world haggle with the seafood stall owners.

Because Li Qinghe understood several languages, he could more clearly perceive the bargaining process between tourists from different countries and the seafood stall owners.

Overall, the prices here seemed quite fair.

Because he listened to several people's purchasing processes, whether they were local Vietnamese tourists or foreign tourists, the prices offered by these seafood stall owners were all quite similar.

It seemed that the special few years had completely awakened these people who relied on Mui Ne tourism for their livelihood, so prices were very stable.

"A Xiang, let's buy here. What do you want to eat?"

After confirming the system here, Li Qinghe pulled Vu Linh Huong to a seafood stall.

He had observed for a while and believed this seafood stall offered the most reasonable prices.

Looking at the various seafood kept in fish tanks and plastic baskets, Vu Linh Huong felt a bit overwhelmed by the choices.

Finally, with Li Qinghe's help, they chose some of the most common seafood: lobsters, scallops, and the like.

Three arm-length large lobsters cost a total of 500,000 vietnamese dong (about 134 dragon coin). Li Qinghe bought a total of nine, fulfilling a dream of 'lobster freedom.'

Very large scallops, 100,000 vietnamese dong (about 27 dragon coin) per kilogram; they bought three kilograms.

Palm-sized sea crabs, 250,000 vietnamese dong (about 67 dragon coin) per kilogram. They bought two of the largest, totaling 200,000 vietnamese dong.

Very large conches, 280,000 vietnamese dong (about 75 dragon coin) per kilogram; they bought three kilograms.

Just a casual purchase cost over 2.8 million vietnamese dong (over 760 dragon coin).

Vu Linh Huong and Li Qinghe both had their hands full with bags.

They excitedly followed the other tourists out of the market.

Now they needed to find a restaurant to process these freshly caught ingredients.

Finally, they also found a guide online and located a very popular, bustling eatery at the easternmost end of the market.

The customers inside smiled kindly when they saw the two carrying large and small bags.

It turned out these people had also bought seafood at the market and came here for processing.

The owner of this shop was also quite interesting: regardless of the size of the seafood, the processing fee was 100,000 vietnamese dong per dish, with an extra charge if the quantity was too large.

Li Qinghe paid a processing fee of 450,000 vietnamese dong, mainly because of the large quantity of lobster, and then sat with Vu Linh Huong at a recently vacated dining table.

"Young man, how much did you pay for the lobsters you just bought?" a voice from the side asked.