Today Sherri and I took a trip to Vung Tau, a small community and local beach resort. This is a popular beach destination for many Vietnamese tourists, and some foreign tourists, too. The draw is not only that it is a lovely beach, but that it is so close to Ho Chi Minh City..only 1 1/2 hours by hydrofoil!
We left at 8 a.m. and arrived by 9:30. We had some coffee at a little restaurant across the street from the ferry station, and then walked the 2 km to Back Beach. On our way we walked along the rocky Front Beach, where many people were fishing. We saw wee crabs pushing their balls of sand, a starfish, and even some goats in the park! Before arriving in VT, I had been warned about: a) the crowds, b) the trash, and c) the vendors who come up to you every 5 minutes and sell you all sorts of things from food to little plastic necklaces and guns. To my surprise, it was beautiful! Peaceful, quiet, empty, and hardly any vendors..
There are makeshift shacks along the beach that might be used as houses, or for storage of chairs and other things people rent to visitors. In front of the shacks are lines of lounge chairs and umbrellas. You can rent a chair for 15,000 Vietnamese Dong (VND, less than $1 US) and an umbrella for 20,000 VND; $1= about 17,000 VND). You can buy drinks, so we had some soda, and when you get hungry you can buy food..A woman walked by selling noodles. We both decided that we were hungry and wanted some, but when we tried to flag her down to get some, she didn't see us. We got some spring rolls from the next woman who walked by.
We sat on the beach relaxing, then did some swimming and exploring. We saw some little squid and some shells. When we decided to work our way back to our 5 p.m. ferry, we walked up the beach a bit further and watched some fishermen pulling in their net. We also so a BUNCH of jellyfish washed up onshore.
We decided to take motorbikes back to the ferry, but we both had wrap-around sarongs on...so we chose to ride on the bikes SIDE-SADDLE. Vietnamese women are skilled at this! They perch on the back of the motorbike and sit so gracefully in their beautiful skirts and high-heels. I was not very good at it-I was off-balance the whole way back (up-hill and around on curvy roads...fortunately there was hardly any traffic!). When we arrived, the drivers were guffawing..I can only guess that this is what they were saying:
How's your drive?
Not good, foreign lady can't ride side-saddle!
Yeah! Mine either! She kept squirming..I thought she was gonna throw us to the ground!
Oh, yeah!
She was so bad she had to hang on..wrapped her arms 'round my waist..I'm still trying to get a full breath of air!
Hehe.
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