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Published: March 9th 2012
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It was another really hot day on Monday 5th March and so we planned to get the Hovercraft Ferry or Hydrofoil down to Vung Tau, which is about 50 miles away on the River/Sea route. Vung Tau is a coastal town that is being touted as the next big place in Vietnam. The reason for that is that it's location is better than Saigon as a Port and it is of course a Sea Side town, it also has one other important commodity ..... Oil..... and you can see the oil rigs quite clearly from the shore. The Aussies come over to work them, and those that don't go home on their time off, stay in the town. The place also the a pretty lousy reputation because this is the town that Gary Glitter was allowed to live in. Having said that, the Vietnamese have cleaned up the prostitution problem, we have not seen anything anywhere. And the only place we have seen children working was stangly enough in Hoi An where they are being used as Hawkers, but in the Big Cities no children selling anything so clearly the Vietnamese Government has been working away to solve these two problems
and it is certainly clear they are winning. We often see the small police trucks go around the city and all the Hawkers running for cover, so the penalites I expect are pretty tough if caught.
Back to the day out, and we got on the Hydrofoil for the one hour 15 minute trip down the River, found our seats easy enough, and it was pretty comfortable on board, shame the windows were a bit dirty but that comes with the terriority I suppose and the vessels have seen better days, but they did the job and went pretty fast. In fact once we were clear of the River and in open sea for the final 30 minutes it was quite bumpy and we were glad when we had arrived. The weather was about the same 33 degrees but right by the sea it was nice and cool, but strange because as soon as you moved 20 yards in land off the sea and it was baking hot again. There is not much happening at the port, and I think there are 3 beaches, having read a bit about it on the internet, so having no idea which one
to go to we just trusted to luck and hopped in a taxi and said "Beach" It seemed to work as the guy pulled up at the beach in about 5 minutes, not sure his meter was working quite right though! Anyway we looked around and it was a bit dirty and also deserted, there was about a million deckchairs lined up along the beach but no-one in them. So everyone says, it gets very busy at weekends, but quiet during the week. We went to test the water, it was warm, beautiful water and almost hot! We walked along the beach, there were a few locals swimming but not many, however it did include this lady who made us laugh..... swimming in her crash helmet!
It was a shame really as it is a nice enough place but the beach was very dirty with all the trash that had been allowed to drift in and collect on the white sand. We saw all sorts of rubbish, including syringe needles which was a bit worrying. There was also some funny/horrible looking bugs, see picture! It was clear that if this place is going to take off for Westerners there
was quite a bit of work to do, but nothing the Vietnamese couldn't do I am sure of that. We couldn't really find anywhere to get changed for a swim, we sat in a couple of chairs but the people looking after them were fast asleep and didn't even notice we had arrived............or left. So after a long walk along the beach we decided to go back to big hotel that Pauline spotted in the taxi that looked like it had a bit of life going on. So we got in a better taxi, one with the meter working properly and just pointed in the direction we wanted to go, and just shouted stop when we got there! At least with only one road, directions are not a problem here! The hotel was fabulous and in a cracking location, we had some more spring rolls and a pizza! Washed down with a couple of beers, We are on holiday you know and can eat what we want! A very nice lunch, and soon it was time to catch the Hydrofoil back to the big city, not too happy with the first 30 minutes bumping up and down, but once we got into the River bit, it was lovely and smooth again.
That night we decided to eat in a recommended resturant close to the hotel, not daring to venture too far and too tired to go back into the city we walked the 100 metres down the road to a massive place that was full of Vietnamese eating, and kids running around everywhere. But they were fun to watch. There was a 50th Birthday party going on, and it is quite funny even biazarre to here the Vietnamese singing... Happy Birthday to you...They must have sung it about 5 times in the party next to us, and loved us joining in! On the way home we got grabbed by some locals to sit down and have a beer on the roadside on the little chairs so we had a sit down and some guy was chatting away to us. But the really funny bit was when he was trying to guess our ages. Pauline's went ok he was pretty close, but mine was a disaster his first guess was 72! Pauline nearly fell off her stool laughing, when we said lower, (he could speak good English) He laughed really loud, and said 65! Lower!!!!! He said No way!! Laughing really loud again, Pauline also in hysterics! Well after some considerable time we finally got down to 54 and he was just shouting NO NO NO all the time, laughing his head off, he told all his mates on the next table and they all started laughing. He even had me laughing in the end. It was funny......... 72!! Dear me! Another great day was completed.
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