Vung Tau Province

On Sat we left our home for a 3 hour van ride to the beach. I should have known that 3 hours is never really three hours. We arrived 9 hours later. In order to have the van paid for our friends, girlfriend did some business on the way. These people love to save money. We did not mind as we got to see some very beautiful towns. It was not like HCMC at all. It was country and very well kept up roads and beautiful flowers and landscaping. Our friend kept saying I sure wish HCMC looked like this. We did too!! We arrived and checked into a very quaint and rustic cabin type hotel near the beach. Rooms were only $35.00 a night and we had TV and Air con. Mark and I took a walk along the beach. It reminded us of Cambria. Many rocks and tide pools. The beaches here have a ton of shells and they are all different colors and most are in tact. I have a good collection going from our two beach trips. We were able to watch the youth group, college age, play a tug of war game and later in the evening they had a bon fire and skits and music. We left around 9 as company arrived !!! Mark did not get his chance to speak. Oh well we go with the flow. On Sunday we had a great western breakfast, omelet and bread. Then we were entertained by a parrot that was speaking Vietnamese. That was too much fun. Then as we were waiting to check out I saw a family of four also leaving. It was the typical way to travel for Vietnamese. The father had one motor bike with a large Styrofoam container, probably of fish on the back and then he put a suitcase in the front. He then proceeded to plop his 3 yr old daughter on top of the suitcase. See my picture. Mom had her motor bike with their son on in back of her. No car, no problem !! After leaving the hotel we headed to another beach area and had a great seafood lunch. They had all kinds of live seafood that you choose and they take it in the back and cook. I wanted lobster but at $40.00 a kilo I opted for salmon. It was good. This city reminded me of Catalina Island. Again all landscaped and modern hotels and shopping areas. The tour buses came in by the groves. Oh, did I mention that on the way up and back we stopped at a place that Mark and I call dairy land. This area has tons of dairy cows. They sold everything having to do with milk, low fat, skim, whole, yogurt, ice cream, pancakes made with their milk, candy and then on course there were the miniature cows that when you pull there sting there utters move like you are milking them. That gave us a good laugh. We arrived home around six pm and today I am trying to get the kinks out of my back and get my legs circulating again. Tonight we head for the Philippines. Will write more about that later.