Arrival in Vung Tau

We traveled from HoChiMinh City (which I'm learning to pronounce like Philip - strong accent on the "Ho" and glide over the "ChiMinh" similar to the "proper" way to pronounce "Knox' vul") to Vung Tau - a city of 200,000 that has miles of beaches south of the city around the tip of a peninsula - with 100 hotels according to the tour book, of which 95 you would be afraid to stay in! We planned to take the "hydrofoil" boat - supposed to ride on 6 inches of air, retired Russian Navy assault vessels apparently.

It turned out to be more of an adventure that we planned for, which is actually not so unusual for travel in Vietnam. It was a windy and rainy day so the "smooth as silk" ride on the hydrofoil was not so smooth - we got to the dock on the Saigon River [Fr. pronounciation: Shy' gun, accent on the first syllable] in downtown HCMC at 10:45am for the 11:00. However, despite being "scheduled" for every hour on the hour, it appeared that demand and/or availability of the hydrofoils determined how often they went so there was no 11AM. Waiting until noon wasn't bad, there is a decent little "river park" with benches all along the river in the down town, except that within 5 minutes of sitting down (after Aly had gone window shopping, I had 5 street urchins surrounding me trying to sell me books and trinkets.

I haven't had a chance to write about our shopping in the down town the afternoon before, after the visit to the Buddhist Theme Park - suffice it to say I'm very pleased with my $7 North Face backpack, and my $23 gold "Rolex" - I should have asked for orders before leaving home. Not sure we'll have time to go shopping again, but if anyone wants some great looking "name brand" watches, let me know, all in the $20 to $40 price range!

Back to the hydrofoil, although it looked pretty decrepit from the outside, it was actually fairly "luxurious" [by Vietnamese standards] on the inside, much like a US airplane only more leg room. Aly gets seasick so I was a bit worried about the ride - it was fairly smooth for the first 30 miles winding down the Saigon River, but then got pretty choppy as we ventured out into the South China Sea for the last 30 miles. Aly hung in great but didn't feel too good in the open sea at the end. However, we couldn't beat the price: $7.50 for a 60 mile ride (at about 40 mph, which is really moving on a boat!)

When we got to Vung Tau, it was so rough that the boat couldn't dock on the bottom of the peninsula near the beaches so we had to dock in the main harbor and take a cab through the city - very industrial with a series of oil refineries, chemical plants and seaport cranes. We had booked the only 4 star hotel on the beach, but it must have been some VERY far away stars, certainly not Michelin rated. The hotel actualy looked great from the outside but it was across the street from the beach and not so great on the inside, so after checking into our "deluxe room" with a view of the rubble in a vacant lot next door, with AC that hardly worked, the exercise room closed, we decided to check out and go to another "resort" hotel that was right on the beach across the street, which had been recommended by the taxi driver - we hould have listened to him in the first place. We got a cute little "bungalow" -- a separate thatched roof looking unit - much nicer with great AC, HBO and ESPN, and a nice little fridge that they stocked with water, beer and fruit juices - still a little Spartan in the furnishings and only room for one double bed we have to share. All during this time it is alternating pouring and drizzling - hotel staff speak broken English so you aren't quite sure what they understand of our questions.

Our hotel seemed very deserted when we checked in but the dining room was almost full for buffet breakfast this morning - nice little individually made fried or scrambled eggs but nothing but hot peppers available to add to make an omelet. Maybe 80 people at breakfast (all Japanese and Vietnamese tourists, no Americans at all or Europeans that we could tell.) All the "nice" hotels seem pretty deserted - after all it's the rainy season and it has rained EVERY day, but yesterday was the first day with no sunshine, the cab driver said there was a typhoon in Japan, affects all weather - the Internet says 60% chance of rain every day and cloudy. Nice sandy beach and water - very shallow, you can wade out 50 yards and the tide went out about that far, but Vietnamese people are not too concerned with cleaning up their trash, unfortunately. And none of the hotels or beach restaurants are either. Last night we found a very upscale new shopping area - European designer brands and it has a Starbucks type chain called "Highlands Coffee" here, from Montreal, great upscale coffee and we are there now using the Internet - hotel internet doesn't work! So we are happy hanging out hoping for sun, at least for another day, if it's not sunny by Sat. we may head back to HCMC - Aly's idea - she really likes the kids, the monk, Philippe and Xuan!