Marshall and I took our first weekend get-away to the coastal city of Vung Tau. It's about 1.5 hours from HCMC and we opted for the speedboat ferry instead of the charter bus, which commonly has people puking out the windows (people are used to riding scooters, not in cars or buses here). The ferry was a little bit more expensive but we thought it was worth it for the adventure and scenery. (A year ago or so, one of the boats caught fire and sunk... but never mind that, they've supposedly fixed them all!)
The ferry ride was pretty awesome. There were some great views of the city, bridges, country side, and HUGE ocean freighters. Here's our route that I recorded w/ Strava:
Vung Tau is a smaller city that's a common place for local HCMC residents go for a quick vacation - it's not really tailored for foreign tourists. There are some sights and attractions but it's really about swimming at the beach and eating a ton of delicious food.
We did see some nice sights - we went to a city park which we've named Rat TnA. It was a park filled with carved granite statues (all with obvious boobs and butts - except for the angry dolphins) and was infested with rats. It would have been a great place to lay under a palm tree with a book except for the fear of rabies and the plague.
On Sunday morning, once again, I felt like a crazy foreigner. Since we've been a little light on exercise since we've moved here, we decided to go on a hike to the top of the local 'mountain' to see the old lighthouse.
We got a bit of a late start, around 10:30 am and followed the curvy road near the ferry terminal to the mountain top. From the reviews I read on tripadvisor, it said it would be a nice shady 30 minute walk. Nope. The whole way was on narrow, uneven sidewalks and was completely exposed to the sun. It took us closer to an hour of walking... at least it felt like it!
At first, I was a little curious why no other people were taking advantage of this great little walk! Now I know why... it was super hot and the whole way we were being passed by teenagers on scooters who gave the occasional heckle. Luckily, there was a lovely restaurant about 2/3 the way up where we could enjoy a coconut drink and the beautiful view.
At the top, we were tired and the views were nice enough for a few pictures... but we had just passed another cafe that had hammocks, shade, and home made yogurt so we quickly made our way there to relax and call a taxi. I kind of felt like a wimp with getting a ride to the bottom but it just wasn't worth getting sun stroke. Plus the taxi fair was only $1.20 !!! SO worth it :)
Here are some pictures of our trip:
The ferry ride the way back home was a little more eventful. The sea was pretty choppy and the swell was pretty big. The hydrofoil boat was struggling in the waves, threatening to tip over or break in half - it was a pretty wild ride. The crew started handing out sick bags and bottles of water. People were running past us to the outdoor "look-out" areas... I was really nervous that it was going to turn into a puke-a-rama. Also, Marshall noticed a pretty sizable crack in the wall next to us that would get larger as the boat flexed - but no worries, the maintenance crew had obviously noticed it and applied some 'structural paint' to hold it together ;) Just before all hell broke loose, the captain eased back the throttle and we put-putted along until we got back to the calm river.
Vung Tau was a great place to visit for the weekend, we spent 2 days/1 night there and we would have been quickly bored with any more than 3 days there. There is still more to explore (there's an amusement park with alpine slides and a gondola) and tons more to eat (I still didn't get to try their pancakes that Vung Tau is famous for!) And it would be a great place to start a coastal motorcycle/bicycle tour - I can't wait until my bike gets here... if it ever does! I'm sure we'll be back!
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