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Published: November 18th 2007
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Photo 1
The view of Vung Tau from our window Hello! (Xin chao!)
Another great journey to add to our collection. I'd like to add that jason made the decision to visit Vung Tau, this decison turned out to be a catostrophic one which we have decided is due to when he was cursed by a one armed man in Phnom Penh. He was cursed because he gave some money to a burnt man and a one legged man but didn't give any money to the one armed man so he became really evil shouting at him, we think, cursing a spell that any decision jason would make would be a bad one and that he constantly bangs his head!!!! needless to say we quickly made our espcape from him in our Tuk Tuk!
So with Jason's decision made we booked our journey (with a few odd looks) by local mini-bus to Vung Tau. It started by 2 motorbike riders driving us to catch the bus (what maniacs!, and it was really difficult balancing with our backpacks on our backs too! as normally the backpacks go by the drivers feet). Once on the mini-bus we thought we could have a sleep, oh how wrong we were, I had a
little vietnamese lady sitting next to me who hocked phlem into a bag for the whole 6 hour journey, Im suprised I kept my stomach down and didn't join her! Jason thought it was hillarious! We have found that this is quite a common occurance in Vietnam, especially with women.
Once we arrived in Vung Tao we got 2 motorbikes to our hotel suggested by our trusted lonely planet to be a sweet little guesthouse run by a warm couple who spoke good english, which couldn't be further from the truth! They didn't speak a word of english, the room was a shed sloping into the sea, which was very expensive! The beds were planks of wood, with little puppy nylon covers. Lush! (it reminded me of the place you stayed in, the first night in Aiya Napa, Leri & Rach! a right dungeon!) We later found out after wandering the streets that the hotel had been taken over since the publication of the lonely planet. As the couple didn't speak any english it made life very difficult but it encouraged us to try out our vietnamese! Jason asked for a bottle of water and they kept giving him
beer! Not that he complained!
On our wanderings around Vung Tau we passed a giant Jesus statue on top of a small mountain waiting with out stretched arms to embrace the south china sea, a fishing village, lots of trawlers and ships as Vung Tau's business of oil drilling means the azure horizon is marred by oil tankers. We passed many locals drying their prawns & fish on the pavements and everyone shouted 'Hello' as we passed as not many tourists venture here! It was quite sweet at first but got slightly annoying after a while.
After an uncomfortable nights sleep listening to a man next door hocking phlem we decided to move on. We set off walking as couldn't face asking the couple for a taxi or motorbike knowing it was quite a trek but hoped we could flag one down on the way. But luck wasn't on our side and we ended up walking the whole 10km (I thought, but turned out to be 2km) to the main town in the sizzling sun. (so dad, no life of riley!) After my whole month of looking after my feet I ended up with 2 whopping blisters under
Photo 3
Shrimps and prawns drying on the pavement the soles of my feet! ouch! Whilst looking for the local bus station we stopped off in an ATM booth for a while to cool down as it had excellent air con! heaven!
After our ordeal we found there weren't any buses going anywhere except to Ho Chi Minh City (Which meant going back!) so we were STRANDED!! Luckily we met a lovely vietnamese man who spoke excellent english who took pity on us and took us to a hotel for the night. We spent the day on the beach watching the locals splashing around in the sea and digging for crabs on the beach.
After an early start at 5am we made our way to the bus station praying for a way out only to be put on the wrong bus! We had shown our ticket to the bus driver and waited for an hour for the bus to leave, only when it did they finally realised we should have got on the earlier bus which had left an hour earlier. We then worried for the whole 7 hour journey that our backpacks were on the wrong bus!!!
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Andy Trow
non-member comment
Cursed
I remember cursing you quite a bit at Kwiksave Jas, so somethings never change haha! Looks like a real adventure, makes interesting reading especially when its snowing here! Have fun, Take care. Andy