It's a rich man's world .. if you want to kiteboard! (This place is pronounced 'Mu nay', by the way). Ever since we had seen kiteboarding we had both wanted to try it for the longest time.. Even living near the Columbia Gorge in Portland (a mecca for kiteboarding and windsurfing in North America), we still hadn't got around to trying it! After failed attempts at learning in Thailand (because of either too much or too little wind), we finally landed in the town of Mui Ne on Vietnam's south coast - THE place to learn in Vietnam. It certainly ate into our budget, but cheaper than learning in Portland, for sure. It takes a long time to make progress, and getting on the board apparently can take anywhere from 3-10 days. Quite a big window for an 'average', don't you think! Frustratingly, the wind died at the start of the week after only a few hours of lessons, so we explored some local attractions by motorbike, and then headed to Dalat - town in the mountains. (See our next entries). After a couple of days there, we headed back to Mui Ne as the forecast had improved. And on Saturday, about a week after we'd started learning, the wind picked up. Sadly, a bit too much for me (I'm a bit of a wimp, but it was blowing about 25 knots if not more..) and so, disappointingly, I didn't carry on. Martin, on the other hand did, as he was strong enough to battle the big waves and stronger wind on the kite. He did really well and pretty much got up on the board. Very cool! Unfortunately, the instructor had to stop the lesson for safety reasons. But at least Martin had accomplished enough to be able to practice by himself (when we have the money to get all the gear! Arggh!). The instructor commented that we both had shown a lot of determination, but I was really proud of Martin, especially after what amounted to only 5 hours of lessons. *Mush
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