Vung Tau

Today we decided to go to the Southport of Vietnam, Vũng Tàu. Tri was so lovely and took us all the way to the bus station again so that we didn't have to wait to hail a bus on the main road. We jumped on the next bus and to be honest we just did our Vietnamese the whole way so it was a pretty nondescript journey. I feel like I need to apologise to my readers as I don't think our journeys are half as crazy as Laos!! I must say it is nice to just relax on a bus instead of fearing for my life 😂

We booked a luxury room for vùng tàu as it was pretty cheap, so thought why not! The room had 2 double beds, a mini bar (of course we didn't take anything from it), a separate shower and toilet cubicle (honestly you have no idea how luxurious that is, being able to go to to the toilet without it being soaked is an amazing feeling!), AC and a balcony!! Ah living the dream! That evening we just wandered down towards the beach, ate crab noodle soup and headed back to practise more Vietnamese and watch Friends 😊 (Will has never seen it so when he was ill at the beginning of our travels he started watching it).

The next day we hired a scooter to sight see everything in in vung tau and I mean everything. First stop was to get some Banh Khot. You get a plate of crispy egg pancake filled with prawns, a huge plate of salad leaves, herbs, veg and a sweet fish sauce dip. You then roll the ingredients into the lettuce leaves and dunk it in the sauce. Its delicious!! It was a very very filling breakfast but amazing! We then headed to the lighthouse on top of "small mountain". It was a fun drive up the winding mountain and although it was a bit cloudy it had a nice view.

We then headed to "big mountain" where we were hoping 6o get a much nicer view of the island. We drove all the way to to the top, it was pretty rough terrain, to find a huge gate for the theme park. Bit annoying... but spirits still high we decided to try the other side of the mountain. We were able to see a couple of viewpoints along the way but had the same problem at the very top. It seems the entire top of the mountain is dedicated purely for a theme park and a super expensive one to get in too.

On our way down we grabbed a Bánh mì for lunch and headed down the tiniest little alley to the shoreline to watch the fishing boats. The alley was full of locals eating their lunch or sitting outside socialising. All the kids came up to us and watched to say hello and say the few words they could. On our way back to the bike I saw Bánh xèo! I've been looking for this everywhere so we had a second lunch 😂 We practised our Vietnamese by ordering the Bánh xèo, asking how much it was, asking where can I get coffee, I even understood their replies! We were very excited and they were very impressed 😊 Banh xéo is a big coconut pancake filled with prawns and bean sprouts. You then wrap small bits of this with salad in rice paper a bit like a summer roll and dip into a chilli pickle. We were so so full but sooo happy.

We then carried on seeing the sights including climbing up 700 steps to the top of a hill to see a cross and nearly dying. The one must see in In Vung Tau is the Jesus at the top of 837 steps. When dying on our way to to the top of the Cross we realised we were running out of time before Jesus closed so we sprinted down and rode back to small mountain to see the huge statue of Jesus. Just our luck... It was closed for Good Friday! To be honest I don't think I would have made it up another 800 steps... We finished the day going to a recommended ice cream place (it was absolutely terrible and grainy and unbelievably overpriced) and finished the evening with Tốt Lon, noodle soup and planning our next destination Mũi Ne.

In the morning we went for breakfast at the same Banh Khot restaurant and then jumped on the bus to Mui Ne.Read more