Vung Tau and Ba Ria

Intro - Saigon - Vung Tau - Da Lat - Nha Trang - Road to Ha Long Bay - Ha Long Bay - Ha Noi


	A river village on the way to Vung Tau

We drove from Saigon to visit an aunt and uncle in Ba Ria, a small, up and coming town southeast of Saigon.

At the aunt's house, I looked up and saw geckos on the ceiling. Many homes in Viet Nam do not have screens on their windows. So the little yellow geckos come in at dusk and eat any little bugs that come in. They also make a chirping noise.

We walked around and ended up at a brand new café listening to Norah Jones. The owners were getting ready for Christmas and were stringing lights around the cafe. I was completely relaxed in the dim, air conditioned atmosphere that smelled like coffee.

At the cafe, Cuong got his arm squeezed by a waiter at the cafe, which was possibly a come-on. I had another iced coffee and was content not to be squeezed, although the waiter did walk a bit too closely behind me a few times.

We visited a mall where our aunt owned a fabric store and we all got measured for various types of clothing. Once again, Ba Ria is the type of city off the beaten path that rarely sees westerners. Therefore, the stares were intense, but everyone was pleasant, and ready to smile.

We decided that we were going to see Vung Tau, which is a costal community favored by the locals for vacations. It is also where Hoa was born. We went with our cousin, Ut, and a hired a driver who was a family friend.

We stopped at an aunt’s house and visited. When I say aunt, I mean what westerners would probably say a distant relative. However, in Viet Nam, great-granddaughter of your great-grandfather’s cousin would be someone that you see almost every week.

We had lunch in a restaurant while I caught on to the fact that the locals here eat primarily seafood for almost every meal. It was the freshest that I have ever tasted.

Cuong and the driver bought a live lobster and had it steamed while they waited. They brought it back to the restaurant and we all dug in.

In Vung Tau, there were holy statues and temples. We hiked up to a giant statue of Mary carrying baby Jesus. From there, we could see the fishing boats out on the water.

Then we visited a Buddhist Temple, where Cuong told us all of the intricacies of this very ancient religion and then Ut and I climbed to the top of a Jesus statue and looked out through his arms, overlooking Vung Tau. We saw the sun setting over the sparkling water. On the way up, we saw a temple on an island that was only accessible during low tide.

We also visited another palace; this one was a previous residence of the last emperor of Viet Nam, Bao Dai. He had palaces all over Viet Nam, for this one would not be the last one that we would visit. Once again, we were treated with great views of the harbor and we all had a blast walking the trails.

After the long day of hiking up endless stairs carved into the side of mountains, we stopped by a bakery owned by a family friend. It looked so good, as we were starving from all the excercise. We bought tons of stuff.

Throughout the day, it was surprising to see that the Soviet Hammer and Sickle logo was still prominent on government buildings and I was told that that words Viet and Soviet were just coincidentally similar.

This town was definitely more laid back, but it was obvious that it was currently being built up and would be a big commercial center in the near future.

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