Tiger Tales

High as a Kite

PHOTOGRAPHY QUINN RYAN MAT

"Try... glurggrowlglurg... moving your shoulder... glurgsputter... to 70 degrees… glurg.”

I find it hard to digest instructions at the best of times, so I’m not sure why I thought I would be able to process them while snorting up mouthfuls of the South China Sea.

I am in Mui Ne, a coastal resort town in south-eastern Vietnam, trying to get to grips with kitesurfing, an activity that in just a few years has gone from niche pastime to mainstream sport – practiced by everyone from Virgin Group head honcho Richard Branson to Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

The premise is simple: fasten your feet to a wakeboard or surfboard, harness your body to a giant kite and then hang on tight as the wind propels you across the sea at speeds – for those skilled enough – of upwards of 60km/h. Jumps can reach as high as 15m.

As a novice, I didn’t expect to scale those peaks. Neither, however, did I predict that I would spend much of my time perfecting an impression of a drowning rat.

As I mewl and splutter, my plight made even more pitiable by a lurid yellow helmet that barely covers my hefty Caledonian cranium, my instructor, Matt “Matto” Kwanes opts for some tough love. “Come on, man, we talked about your body position five minutes ago”.

He’s right, we did. At that stage, however, we were being served iced tea by giggling waitresses at Jibe’s Beach Club, the nerve centre of the burgeoning kiteboarding scene in Mui Ne. It’s easy to nod your head and look clued-up about the importance of weight distribution and angles of attack on dry land. Less simple is putting words into practice when you are being dragged unceremoniously through the pounding surf by a massive kite.

While Matt shouts encouragement and clings to the back of my harness, I struggle to escape the shackles of ignominy. My kite lurches wildly from side to side as we power onwards with all the control of a runaway train. “Use lighter touches on the handlebar,” shouts Matt. “You are not driving a truck.”

Suddenly, something clicks. The easy movements that had worked so well during my initiation into the ways of the kite on the beach the previous day begin to come back to me. As I relax, the kite goes from sworn enemy to trusted ally and we start to glide through the water on the warm tropical breezes. Even at this remedial level, it’s an exhilarating feeling to be harnessing the power of nature in this way and I’m disappointed when we have to call it a day and head back to shore.

“We’ll make a kiteboarder out of you yet,” fibs Matt while we’re on our way back to Jibe’s. I’m sceptical, but as the sun sets and I look ahead to a much-needed meal of fresh seafood, I’m glad I gave kitesurfing a go here in Mui Ne.

Just as every golfer has heard of St Andrews and every football fan knows Wembley, kiteboarders across the globe are well aware of this picture-postcard spot on the south-eastern end of Indochina. With some of the most consistent winds in South-East Asia, not to mention year-round temperatures of around 27º Celsius, Mui Ne was made for people who like to put themselves at the mercy of the elements.

Curving for 10km between jutting headlands, the beach boasts its own microclimate thanks to giant red and white sand dunes that shelter the coast from the hinterland. This means that while other popular Vietnamese beach destinations such as Nha Trang and Hoi An get the rains, Mui Ne gets the wind and the waves.

“It’s a special spot, no doubt,” confirms Matt as we conduct a post-mortem on my day’s work over icy bottles of Saigon Red beer at the slick Sankara lounge bar. “There are other places in this part of the world that do other things better, of course. For diving, you’d always go for Thailand, Indonesia or Malaysia over Vietnam, and for surfers there’s Bali and Sumatra in Indonesia. But the consistency of the winds here makes this indisputably the best location for kiteboarding.”

Matt himself is a master at hurtling through the waves while fastened to a kite. He taught himself the then-nascent sport while living in Japan and has spent the past seven years spreading the gospel in his role as chief instructor at Jibe’s. After calling time on my sorry session, I watched him glide effortlessly across the water and perform balletic jumps that wouldn’t have looked out of place at the Bolshoi. I am not surprised, therefore, to discover that his passion for his calling remains undiminished.

“I was hooked from the moment I first saw someone else doing it,” he tells me. “It just looked like the coolest thing. With the kite, you are harnessing a lot of power but you are in total control. Being an instructor is a really great job. I get to pass on my knowledge, but I also get to kite every day. It’s also exciting to be here in Mui Ne. There’s a really nice buzz about the place.”

A cursory amble along the sand from my digs at the classy Blue Ocean Resort is enough to confirm the beach’s status as a water sports paradise. Out on the water, the sky is filled with swaying kites, flitting around and away from each other and the large contingent of windsurfers like giant, multi-hued tropical butterflies.

On terra firma, meanwhile, sun- worshippers look on from their loungers as a motley crew of package tourists, backpackers, expats, and Vietnamese residents and visitors gaze uncertainly up at the kites they are learning to fly.

Nearly every resort, it seems, has its own kiteboarding school and the beach is dotted with billboards bearing Pepsi Max-style phrases such as “pump zone” and “burn it in the breeze”.

It’s an impressive scene, yet it’s one that would be virtually unrecognisable to anyone paying a return visit to Mui Ne after an absence of a decade or more. Indeed, the beach’s rapid rise to prominence mirrors the breakneck evolution of kiteboarding itself.

“Progress brings change and there has been a lot of progress in Mui Ne over the past 15 years,” confirms Pascal Lefebvre, who set up Jibe’s back in 2001 and in the process helped kick-start the beach’s metamorphosis from sleepy backwater to water sports capital of Vietnam. “When I first visited this area back in 1995 there was nothing but a few bungalows. Now there are resorts and restaurants all along the strip.”

With progress comes pitfalls, however. Safety and instruction standards at some of the kitesurfing schools are poorly regulated and many stalwarts of the scene believe that it is only a matter of time before a serious accident occurs. Many long-termers also despair of the huge upsurge in traffic on the main beach and are migrating to quieter spots farther north.

Away from the kitesurfing scene, Mui Ne is perhaps not what you would expect of a place that specialises in sporting cool. There is plenty of cheap accommodation to be found, but the prime beachside real estate is dominated by attractive, but often expensive, low-rise resorts.

The destination is also hugely popular with package tourists, meaning that youth-oriented hangouts such as Wax Bar and Sangkara are outnumbered by gaudily lit restaurants featuring cheesy cover bands. Still, it remains a remarkably laid-back place and the disparate groups seem to get along with one another just fine.

Happy to have survived my kitesurfing experience with dignity more-or-less intact, I end my stay with an al fresco banquet at the far end of the strip.

Among westerners, Mui Ne is best known for extreme water sports. Vietnamese, meanwhile, come mainly for the seafood, which means that competition is stiff among the town’s restaurateurs. At the time of this writing, Quan Bo Ke on Pham Van Dong Street was the word-of-mouth favourite and I can vouch for the freshness of the seafood served there.

Sitting at a simple stone table after dark, a group of us wine and dine on a criminally cheap feast of scallops, grilled fish, lobster and cold beer as the waves crash invisibly against the shore. It’s impossible not to fall for the ocean here in Mui Ne – even if, like me, you are better suited to dry land.

GETTING THERE

Mui Ne is situated on the south-eastern coast of Vietnam, approximately 175km north of Ho Chi Minh City. Despite its relative proximity to Ho Chi Minh City, traffic congestion and the poor condition of Highway 1A mean that buses generally take around five hours to cover the distance. Several companies operate on this route, the most reputable being Sinhcafe Travel (tel: +84 (0)4 3836 4212, www.sinhcafe.com). A one-way ticket costs around VND150,000/ S$10. A better option for travellers in groups of two or more is to hire a taxi. The trip should take around four hours and will cost US$70-US$100/S$89-S$127 depending on your bargaining skills.

ORIENTATION:

GETTING ON THE WATER

*A number of companies cater for experienced and aspiring kiteboarders and windsurfers. Jibe’s (tel: +84 (0)62 384 7008 www.windsurf-vietnam.com) was the first school to set up shop on the beach and is still considered to be the nerve centre of the scene. Other reliable centres include Storm (tel: +84 (0)62 384 7440, www.stormkiteboarding.com) and Wind Chimes (tel: +84  
(0)90 972 0017, www.windchimes-. vietnam.com). Lessons start at around US$65/S$83.

WHERE TO LAY YOUR HEAD

Mui Ne is well stocked with great accommodation options to suit all budgets. At the higher end of the scale, Blue Ocean Resort (tel: +84 (0)62 384 7322, www.life-resorts.com) ticks all the right boxes. Rooms and a smattering of private bungalows are suitably luxurious, the pool is generously proportioned (if a little shallow) and the beach is nearby. Another mid- to high-end gem is Sailing Club Mui Ne (tel: +84 (0)62 384 7440, www.sailingclubvietnam. com), which offers a contemporary boutique-style atmosphere. For those on a tighter budget, Full Moon Resort (tel: +84 (0)62 384 7008, www.windsurf-vietnam.com) has luxury trimmings like a pool and great food and is a stone’s throw from Jibe’s.

FED AND WATERED

Seafood is king in Mui Ne and the best place to sample the fruits of the brine at present is Quan Bo Ke, a humble open-air joint at the northern end of the strip. For those looking for a more rarefied dining experience, Sandals at Sailing Club Mui Ne (tel: +84 (0)62 384 7440, www.sailingclubvietnam.com) offers a great selection of international dishes. Indian food might not be the first thing you crave after a long day in the sun, but the curries at Shree Ganesh (tel: +84 (0)62 374 1330) hit the spot. For a drink or two, the classiest place in town is undoubtedly Sankara (tel: +84 (0)62 374 1122), which features DJs, expansive sofas and a prime beachside setting. Also worth a visit are Joe’s Art Café (tel: +84 (0)62 374 3447), a bohemian enclave that’s open 24 hours a day, and Wax (tel: +84 (0)62 384 7001), the party venue of choice for the water sports set.