Satellite
  • Day 164

    Bai Xep

    September 30, 2015 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We breakfasted on banana pancakes in the balmy heat as tiny geckos danced across the white washed walls. From the shade of the veranda we skipped across the hot sand to splash down into the inviting sea. The pull of the outgoing tide was very strong, the hungry waves tugging at our legs before surging back to knock us down into the stretching sand.

    It would be cliché to say that this place was ‘paradise’ but it felt like a close thing. We joked with the hostel’s South African owner, Alex (great name), about he had the best office in the world. Yet he sheepishly admitted that the sound of the waves could become repetitive at times – tough life.

    More than just a place for tourists, the beach and its sea was an industry for the village. Small conical fishing boats and fishing apparatus lined the shore and we watched as local men stood upright in these vessels to cross the surf out to their anchored boats. Driving their paddles downward, in a whisking motion that you would not imagine being particularly effective, these vessels were quickly propelled along. In the afternoon children in faded premier league football shirts sat in a group on the sand to eat long yellow ears of corn before working to fix netting and lines ready for use.

    At the bar we overheard another traveller giving advice to the barman as to how the hostel could better advertise itself to bring more customers in. Yet we questioned silently whether this was what such a place really needed or wanted. The beauty of Bai Xep is its small simplicity, something we hope it maintains long after we have left.
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