Vung Tau or Visiting Giant Jesus

This is a bit of a late entry, finishing up our time in Vietnam. It's mid-term time on the ship and things are busy.

On our last full day in Vietnam, we took the opportunity to take a hydrofoil boat down the river to the coastal city of Vung Tau. The hydrofoil boats regularly run up and down the river, connecting Saigon with various coastal communities. The boats are apparently a Soviet design from the sixties, explaining why they look like something a James Bond villain would take to get to his secret island hideaway where he was plotting the destruction of Western civilization.

We boarded the boat after securing tickets from a scalper who somehow had five tickets for the boat that was leaving five minutes before we arrived at the river-side terminal. I don't understand the economics of the transaction since he charged us exactly the fare listed on the ticket after a bit of haggling. I can only figure that since we refused to pay more and the boat was about to depart, he ended up making no money on the transaction. Either way, we got a one-hour trip out the river and south to Vung Tau for a bit more than $11 U.S. The ride was uneventful and the windows were so caked with grime that we didn't get to see any sights along the way. We arrived to find all the return tickets to Saigon completely sold out, so it was clear that we were in for an adventure one way or another. We didn't have to be on board the Explorer till the next day, so we'd have to figure out some way to get home.

G.J.

We spent the day walking around the town exploring this quite pretty seaside community. Vung Tau seems to be a bit of a vacation spot for locals and there were plenty of Vietnamese tourists on the streets. The beaches were crowded on this beautiful Saturday and the local food sellers seemed to be doing quite a good business. We walked south along the waterfront on our way to a Catholic shrine where the Church has built a large statue of Jesus looking over the ocean - likely a legacy of the French although we didn't get the whole story of how the statue got to be built. The whole place was kind of Rio lite - there's about a thousand steps up the small mountain to get to a statue that stands some sixty feet or so. We climbed the hill with a gaggle of tourists. Most of them were Vietnamese although I heard French, Italian and Russian (I think) as well. Definitely a tourist attraction. The climb was well worth it as the top offered a beautiful view of the city on one side and the beautiful beaches on the other. From the top you could see another large statue on the far side of town. This statue was of Buddha, sitting on his own little mountain. It was nice to see that the Buddhists were getting equal time with the Catholics. It's nice when people get along.

Departing the shrine, we continued to tour around the peninsula soaking up the local flavor. We enjoyed an awesome lunch (fried rice with seafood for me!) and visited a local market that was very much local. It was along a dirty little back street with barely enough room for two people to walk abreast. This didn't stop motorcycles and scooters from pushing their way through, requiring pedestrians to step right into the booths and displays to let them pass. I kept expecting to get burnt by a passing tailpipe, but managed to step lively and make it through unscathed. At the end of the market street was a cool little harbor filled with the beautiful blue Vietnamese fishing boats. Most of the boats have continued to be in the harbor while the long Tet celebration was still going on throughout the country. It was a nice little slice of local life - we didn't see any tourists in this area and in fact we often got curious looks of the "what are YOU doing here" type.

We got out of that area and returned to the more upscale side of town. After a fabulous dinner (noodles and more fantastic seafood for me!) we set about finding a way back to Saigon. We had spoken with a cab driver who told us in his limited English that he would be available to get us back to the big city. We had the restaurant call him for us, and we negotiated a two-hour cab ride back to Saigon. The total price was one and a half million Dong. For the six of us that amounted to 250,000 Dong, or exactly the same price as our hydrofoil trip down! Perfect. When I took some money out of the ATM I checked my balance. with 22,000 Dong to the dollar I look quite wealthy when expressed in Vietnamese currency!

The cab ride was uneventful except for the car ferry we had to take to get into the city itself. The ferry dock was a hexagon, with ferries simultaneously landing on five sides and dumping us into the sixth side and the road to Saigon. As we drove off the ferry, there was a long line of cars waiting on the other side. I have no idea how they figured out which ferry to get on with five to choose from. I was glad I wasn't driving!

We got back to Saigon before ten p.m. allowing us to make a quick trip to the night market in town and get back to the ship before midnight. We departed the next day and I didn't leave the city. Instead I just walked around the port-side area, checking out the cathedral and all the cool French architecture left behind by the French after the war. By 1600 I was back on board ready to depart for Singapore, our next stop. Vietnam has been my favorite stop so far. This is an amazingly vibrant country and I can easily see trying to come back and explore some more.