Slept in a little late since we were really exhausted from our morning and late afternoon adventures around Saigon. Packed our bags because we were going to move to the original hotel which we booked, Phan Lan. The female receptionist was waiting for us, and after leaving our luggage there, we headed down one floor for breakfast.
There were three choices of breakfast, which was bread with omelette, bread with jam or instant noodles, while drinks were a choice of tea or coffee, served with pineapple juice. Went with the first and coffee option. The bread served was huge! And it looked like a mini puffed up baguette. Loved the strawberry jam which went very well with it. Finished our breakfast then checked with the helpful receptionist for directions to Vung Tau. She told us that we had to take the bus 26 from Ben Than market to get to Ben Xe Men Dong bus station, and gave us a simple map to help us find our way.
Walked to the bus station following the map, but there was no bus 26! Asked around and the people led us to take bus 19, which apparently would also bring us to our destination.
The bus was old and rickety, and we couldn’t help but to laugh at the very ‘special seat’ which was a plastic chair placed on top of a large lorry wheel. People actually sat on it! The bus ride reminded me of my younger days when I rode on the old pink minibas as we called it in hot and humid Kuala Lumpur. No aircond, so it was just sweat, dirt and grim for the next 45 minutes plus or so.
Finally got to our stop and the conductor was nice enough to gesture for us to get down, followed by a short walking distance to get to the actual bus station. Buses were lined up on the left in the compound, while stalls and shops selling food were on the right. Asked around and a security-uniform clad guy brought us in to the ticket counters to get our tickets to Vung Tau on this particular Kumho bus company.
The ‘bus’ was in fact, a small comfy van, and since there weren’t much people headed in the same direction as us, we managed to get two seats each to ourselves. The van stopped along the way to picked up more passengers, but it never really filled up (unlike my Phnom Penh to Siam Reap experience). We were even given bottled water and wet tissues as part of the package!
Two hours and a half later, we reached Vung Tau. Checked with the bus counter to find out what time the last bus for Saigon leaves, and it was at 6pm, so we made a mental note to get back before then. Next was to find our way to the beach, which was our main reason for something here. Asked the security guard but he couldn’t speak English, so we made swimming gestures. He then showed us left, and gestured to just turn left and head straight ahead.
It was very windy, so we were pretty sure that we were near the seaside, because it was a sea breeze, salty smelling, only that it was rather obscured by buildings! Came across two foreigners and asked if they knew where the beach was, but they simply said that they were Russians and do not understand English. Finally came upon a huge roundabout, and we took the 12 o’ clock road, and it led us straight to the beach with a shady walkway. People were sleeping and dozing off in the cool shade, strung up on endless rows of hammocks.
An air filled banner signaled the entrance to the beach. There were people lounging in the deck chairs on built cement platforms, and more empty ones scattered around the beach. The sand was terribly hot and scorching, and the beach wasn’t clean at all. Reminded me of Port Dickson actually.
We gave up trying to enjoy the beach despite our efforts to get here, and went in search of shade and something to eat, but all the stalls seemed to be only selling shellfish. Finally got someone to point us to the direction of a restaurant, where we got some food at decent prices, including vegetables. Ended up spending over an hour sitting inside the restaurant which was empty except for us, as it was too hot outside.
Well, we couldn’t stay in the restaurant forever, so we braved the sun and headed out to the beach again. Walked along the shoreline and came to another beach which was much more crowded, and not to mention, dirtier. Seems like the original beach we came from was an Ocean Park, so it was a little ‘cleaner’ but there was still litter everywhere.
Decided we had enough of Vung Tau and its dirty beach, we started to walk back to the bus station. Despite taking the same company, the van was smaller, and there were more people on the van. The driver was also crazier, and he swerved in and out of the traffic in a crazy manner. Like the previous van, he also stopped along the way to pick up people, to the extend some of them ended up sitting on the narrow space between the seats and the door, on the floor. Halfway, there was a short stop for those who needed the loo, and the driver appeared to notice that something was wrong with a tyre on the left. After starting our journey again, he called in at a tyre shop to get it fixed while we were all still seated in the van, so you could feel the van jerking up and down. It didn’t take that long to be honest, but the tyre shop was right in the middle of nowhere. We also ran into heavy traffic near Saigon, so it was almost 6.30pm when we got to the bus terminal.
Asked around for the bus which would bring us back to Ben Than market, and it was a great hassle. We had a great communication breakdown with the local due to different interpretation of hand gestures! Luckily my friend was smart enough to have a notebook along with her, and we got a security guard to write down the correct number for us instead, but by then, the bus wasn’t running anymore. We were then hounded by hoards of people wanting to sell their motorcar service to us, but we refused and went out to catch a taxi instead.
Back in Ben Than, exhausted from our adventures, we had burgers to reward ourselves then took a stroll around the parks like the locals. Also found a tailoring shop along the walk back to our hotel, so I placed an order for a cheongsam for USD35. They took my measurements and asked me to come back the next day to pick it up. Did more strolls before heading back to our hotel. We got a room which was on the 5th floor (the highest), and it leads up to a cooling balcony which got us very excited about it after a long and crazy day.
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