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Kitesurfing in phu quy

sunny 26 °C

We arrived in Phan Thiet for lunch after cycling 100km from the central highlands down to the coast, with a spectacular 1200m descent. Phan Thiet is a bustling fishing town, famous for its fish sauce and the pungent aroma of this staple Vietnamese ingredient wafts through its streets. We found a lovely little restuarant on the waterfront and gorged on fabulously fresh seafood. One dish of raw fish marinated in lime and chilli, wrapped into pankakes, was particularly good. Reenergised we headed north to Mui Ne, kitesurfing capital of Asia, where we planned to build on the lessons we had in Auckland. 10km out of Phan Thiet the streets became lines with hotels, golf courses and resorts, a real contrast to the highlands we had spent the previous 10 days in. We managed to find a nice little bungalow right on the seafront for $20 dollars a night as well as a kiteschool recommended by Mei Mei, a girl we had met in China and bumped into again here.

The next day brought us good wind and we managed a few hours of lessons. However, the next couple of days, the wind dropped and the touristy, charmless feel of Mui Ne was wearing us down. People who aren't into watersports still seem to come here but i'm not sure why. There is little to do apart from eating seafood and pizzas and the beach is pretty mediocre. With little to do we rented a motorbike and headed out to the sand dunes which were very beautiful.
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Our new favourite website, www.Windguru.com , was forecasting no wind for a few more days so we asked our instructor Matt if there was anywhere we could go untill things picked up. "Try Phu Quy, a peaceful little island 100km off the mainland" Why not we though so the next morning at 7.30 we hopped on the "fast boat" Three hours later we arrived, soaked through and feeling seasick after a pretty scary journey through massive swells and into a brutal headwind.

Coming to Phu Quy has turned out to be a real highlight of Vietnam and 11 days after arriving we are still here as I write this blog entry. The island itself is full of beautiful sandy beaches, pagodas and temple, and the people here are as warm as the weather. Tourists only started coming to the island last year (the island has seen under 400 tourists in total) and so the only tourist infrastructure is a couple of little guesthouses and many parts of the island are totally undeveloped. Its yet to get in the lonely planet but you get the feeling that its only a matter of time before it becomes overrun so we feel privileged to be here at this moment in time.
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Turns out this place is also a bit of a paradise of kitesurfing and when we met an instructor called Zak on our first day here it made perfect sense to continue our lessons (note the very red back!).
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We also met someone willing to sell us some second hand gear so we are now the proud owners of a kite and board! Its put a bit of a dent in the travelling budget but i tell Mariana its an investment. In what i am not totally sure. We have met a great crew of people here including some really interesting characters including the four English guys we came out on the boat with (Adrian, Fraser, Andy and Dave, ) an Aussie called Geoff who first started coming here and bringing fellow kitesurfers last year, 2 young Germans (Patrick and Flo) who are awesome kitesurfers, a crazy Dutchman called Andre and aspiring extreme sports coach to the rich and famous, David. We also found a great restaurant where the owner Hua looks after us cooking us hearty dishes after a day out on the water. The wind gets extremely strong here so we have still been limited in the number of days we could get out on the water so we are still learning the ropes. However, i have now mastered the Jesus walk - here is some footage that Mariana took of me earlier today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvT1xaVkZ7M

Ok, that's not me but we have become very skilled at getting up on the board now before hurtling along for about 10 seconds before spectacularly wiping out. This is me shortly before doing just that.
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Its a lot more difficult than it looks but we are determined to get half decent before returning to the UK. The plan now is to stay a few more days (the wind guru has sucked us in with promises of perfect wind for the next few days) before heading across Vietnam and then down through Thailand.

Posted by roblewis 03:38 Archived in Vietnam

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