Blogs from Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia

I feel like I phoned it in a bit with my last post so I will try to make this one a good one. I woke up early and very well rested to completely crashing out the day before and sleeping for like 12 hours. I booked a ticket on a Hydrofoil out to the beach to of Vung Tau. 250.000 Dong and hour and half seemed like a small investment to escape the unmitigated chaos that is Ho Chi Minh. The boat left around 10 and boy, does that thing haul-ass. I was caught of guard by a few things on the trip; the Viet man sprawled out snoring to beat the band, 5 giant shirtless Czech men that all the locals seemed pretty wary of but the weirdest was the fact that on the ... read more

We boarded a very average coach to take us to Da Lat, both hungover and annoyed about my phones disappearing act. The drive was going to take us 6 hours and the first hour was pure hell. Winding and bumpy roads on a coach whose suspension felt like it hadn't been serviced since the Americans left! However, a bit of noodles and some coke at a service station soon had me on my way again. I could then appreciate the amazing mountain views outside the window! The road was barely wide enough for the bus so there were times it felt like a death bus, but the rolling mountains and deep forested valleys made that feeling completely worthwhile. Da lat itself was a very typical Vietnamese town with chaos and motorbikes everywhere. This was a city ... read more

18 Sep 2012 Hochiminh – Con Dao Island After my trip to HCMC next we were heading to Con Dao Island. Con Dao Island is situated in Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province. The spectacular Con Dao archipelago of islands is located in the south-east of Vietnam. Con Dao Island is also famous for its nice beaches shaded with evergreen trees, fresh air, clear blue waters, and primitive forests. Looking at a map Con Dao Island looks like a bear rising from the sea to south east of Vietnam. Originally a prison for patriots and revolutionists during the French and American resistance. The Island sheltered brave revolutionary spirits of the Vietnamese people. More than 22,000 prisoners who dedicated their lives to national independence were incarcerated on the isolated island of Con Dao. Its a 45 min ... read more

16 to 21 March 2013 – This is the final part of my 25 day solo trip to 6 provinces in southern Vietnam by local bus and motorbike (over 1,700km). In March 1993, I visited Vũng Tàu city with my father for the first time. It is exactly 20 years since my last trip, so I wanted to see how the city has changed. Vũng Tàu city is located 120km south east of Sài Gòn. It’s famous for great beaches and the oil exploitation industry. There are many offshore oil rigs and the locals I met told me that 90% of the Vietnamese working in the oil industry in Vũng Tàu are northerners. You can see helicopters flying over Bãi Sau beach to the oil rigs. I took a bus from Đà Lạt city to Vũng ... read more

Ellen, Alex and I made our way back to Saigon especially because we have been invited to be guests of Loc to celebrate a milestone associated with the passing of Loc’s father the previous year. Normally the milestone is the first anniversary of the death and signifies the formal end of the mourning period. However in a perfect show of just how flexible Buddhism is, the family elects to slate the anniversary at 100 days because anything else would come up too close to the Viet New Year celebration of Tet. The celebration is to take place in the family’s home town of Vung Tau, a favourite weekend getaway for Saigonese looking for some beach time. As proceedings are getting underway at 9am, we arrange to meet Loc and his fiancé Truc at 6.30am sharp at ... read more