VUNG TAU ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~August 07-10, 2010

~ Saigon's bolt-hole ~

Vung Tau is Saigon's seaside holiday town. Could it be kitschy? Could it be tacky? Could it be both? It's probably a little on the expensive side that's for sure. I plan to stay just three or four nights. I've heard it's quiet during the week and busy with local tourists out of Saigon in the weekends.

Aug. 07. My visit to Vung Tau. Mid afternoon, the direct local bus from Nga Trang rolls into the bus station. We've taken the coastal road from Mui Ne rather than the main drag. Thankfully we've missed the under-construction-for-endless-kilometres' Bien Hoa to Vung Tau highway. A change indeed the centrally-located Vung Tau bus station. I don't have too far to hike to find a cheap room then. However on closer arrival there don't appear to be cheap-room places nearby. I have the mandatory coffee and cigarette right outside the station. It's not really anything to do with having no idea about where to stay. Just a 'traveling habit' on arrival in a new town. Getting ready for a walk. In this instance, reflecting on my lifestyle too.

I've lived in Saigon off and on for a couple of years. I've somewhat incredibly never been to Vung Tau before though. The closest I have gotten in the past is checking out the fast-ferry at Saigon's district one wharf. Last year I'd had the thought when I was only working weekends that I could live down here. Contemporary Saigon's 'motorbike madness'. I'd commute for weekend work up in the city. Much more sanity-preserving in the long run.

The usual big city in the developing world syndrome. Noisy with polluted air and waterways. A rat-race best avoided. Most that live there have the "I gotta get away" from here feeling occasionally. Vung Tau. I had it but never did make it down to Vung Tau. You can spend a lot of time and energy on the big-city soul-destroying merry-go-round! It's hard to find the 'off' switch. This visit's about checking the place out. Seeing if maybe I could handle living here. Perhaps working here too. Or doing that commute. Starting over.

Right now I'm outside the bus station. Am I ready? Low enough on funds. Stop the gallivanting. Oxymoron or not, the thought does dimly flicker across the darker recesses of my mind that I need again to find a job to survive. It's a split decision. The lure of further travel is real. Sooner or later, when necessity and instinct combine the transient teacher is like a scavenging animal. It's difficult for me to get moving sometimes once I'm in a sedentary phase. Once I hit the road...the nomad definitely takes over. It's very difficult to stop! Until it's absolutely necessary, that is. It's been my lifestyle here in South East Asia for the past eight years. Moving on. Seeking greener pastures. But somewhat reluctantly to start with. Always losing contact with people I've been a bit closer to than normal to along the way. Surviving. On a shoestring most the time. Out of choice. If there's really such a thing.

Vung Tau fills up with Saigon locals on weekends. At the bus station it's a Saturday. The main part of town is situated at the western side of the narrowest part of a peninsula. I begin to wander carrying everything I own. To find Duong Hoang Hua Tham. It's a main street a couple of kilometres long that runs across the peninsula. At the western end of Hoang Hua Tham there's the esplanade along the Saigon River estuary. At it's eastern end is the 'ocean beach'. I reckon on finding a cheapish place halfway between both ends. That way it's not too far from the town, the esplanade and the ocean beach. I want to have a good look around.

I turn left out of the bus-station and walk about one and a half kilometres down Nam Ky Khoi Nghia to intersect Hoang Hua Tham. So far so good. I take a wander up and down for a couple of hundred metres each way. I recognize one place from a guide book. But the Phoung Nhi Hotel's now closed. There's a likely looking hotel right next door. I have as good a room for as cheap as I'll get around this town. After a bit of lighthearted bargaining I agree to pay VND200k for today, Saturday. Subsequent days will cost VND150k per night...until next Saturday! Like most low-budget hotels there's an hourly rate for the casual local visitors with their girlfriends. After the weekend I'm the only 'permanent' guest.

Vung Tau's at it's busiest. But the weather isn't cooperating. It's overcast for the entire three day stay. The ocean beach is alive with people. Living in Saigon one never sees into the distance. Never sees hills. Never experiences wide expanses of much at all apart from long streets and avenues brimming with motorbikes and their colorfully helmeted riders. So though it's not been a 'beach day' weather-wise at 5.30 in the evening the sand is still alive with families new and old. Families of orientation and procreation. People scramble down to the beach from the street that fronts the beach. There's a bit of an esplanade. And a lot of street stalls. This is a pleasant surprise. Not yet fully developed!

The Sunday is a lazier than normal day. In the evening I hit the streets and head back up-town to the Vung Tau market near the bus-station. The market's quieter than on a weekday. The rain's been intermittent again today. It's approaching that time of the year. On Nam Ky Khoi Nghia outside the market there are stalls with flowers, fruit and veges. Just to the right of the market entrance there's a sidewalk coffee place. It's an ideal place to relax and observe.

Aug. 09. Late morning on Monday I'm out and about and heading for the western side of this peninsula town. I wander towards the esplanade bay that's situated on the upstream side of the ferry-to-Saigon wharf. I arrive at the esplanade about noon on yet another overcast day. It's unusually windy too.

The Saigon River isn't that inviting compared to the 'ocean beach'. It's not as polluted as I expected though. What's happening? There's a cyclo. Some kids are watching a para-surfer. There's a wedding photo-shoot going on. The bride's in voluptuous red. The groom's patient like he's got to be from now on. The crew are constructing a set, suspending a swing from a tree bough. Those are photos for a lifetime. I stand my distance. It's an intriguing scene. I'm being entertained. Earlier, I caught a glimpse of square and a big church. It turns out to be the Vung Tau Cathedral.

On the way back to the room, I stop off at a cheap corner restaurant near my hotel. It's still open for lunch but deserted. I'm the only customer at 1.30pm. Lunch time in Vietnam is usually from eleven thirty to one. I think they've cleaned up and don't really need a late, strange-looking foreign customer. But they oblige showing me the menu. The food's reasonable...nothing special but all right. The staff and their kids are friendly. It's a makeshift building with huge, filthy ceiling fans. Afterwards it's 'siesta at the room' time.

I venture out again in the evening. I'm moving on tomorrow to Can Tho. So it's back up to the bus station. There are good, cheap local buses that can take me there directly by skirting round most of Saigon. I have a coffee at the market nearby.

My Vung Tau stay's been surprising...and interesting. It's OK. I'd anticipated that it'd be way too expensive but tacky and I'd hate it. Vung Tau's been a pleasant surprise. I'm heading to pay a visit to an American friend, BigManJohn. He's now back from his China visit and living again in Chau Doc on the Mekong near Cambodia. A border town. He reckons it's a laid-back, friendly, interesting and cheap place to live! We'll see. First I'll stop off at Can Tho the Vietnamese Mekong's main town. The big 'delta city'.