Travelogue: 5d/4n Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) - Day 4 in Vungtau

Left HCM early on Monday (Day 4) for Vungtau.  While waiting for our van to be ready, took the above photos of street vendors, 5 foot way cafes, tiny little shop squeezed in between two tall buildings, school girls in blue aodai....  Nice.  Oh, btw, did I mentioned that the real estate in HCM is super expensive?  Approx. USD2000 per meter square.   So most of the buildings you find here are very narrow and tall.  Their new law, at least 3 storeys high.  Otherwise, will not be allowed to build.

Vungtau is basically just beaches.  Lots of local goes to Vungtau in the weekend to swim.  It was a 3 hours van ride away from Ho Chi Minh City and another 3 hours returnto get back.  Nothing to shout about.  Just a long stretch of beach.  That's all.  Good for gwailos (Europeans) for they love sun.  For people like me and mom, oh gosh, we almost died from the heat... hahahaha......

We were supposed to go swimming there and of course we didnt.  :p  We decided to head down to a local market instead.  After a quick walk around, and there was nothing else interesting to see, we decided to head back to Ho Chi Minh city.  :p  Basically it is like, from KL-JB (1hour)-KL.  Like that la... but worst cause their road is bumpy all the way...hahaha... felt like horse ride sometimes. :p

Note the statue of Jesus Christ on the hill top?  It was build approximately in 1975 if i remember correctly.

Along the way to the market, saw a cove filled with lots of little fishing boats.  So pretty.  Quickly got the driver to stop so that I can run down to snap a picture or two. :)

Saw a worker taking a nap in the middle of a foot decorative stone.

A vietnamese woman at the market.  I noticed that ladies there likes to wear clothing of same material for the blouse as well as the pants.  It's like one set one set like that.  Like our grandma's time.

Tobaccos sold in the market.  I think you are suppose to roll them up to make cigarettes.  

Met a not-snobbish French guy on our ride back to the city and talked all the way.  According to him, most French are snobbish kind of not nice.  Lols...  He speaks very good English (well, any how normal French speaks English...  we laughed so much keeping each other entertained throughout the long thing that I can understand is good to me :)) and was funny too. We laughed so much throughout our journey back to the city.  When we finally arrived, we bidded farewell...

It was so hot that afternoon.  I couldnt resist another DIY yogurt ice cream right opposite our hotel.  :)

That night, we supposed to go for a river cruise dinner.  Unfortunately, it was cancelled due to some dunno what reason.  We were both very upset about it cause we so look forward to it.  Sigh... Instead, we went for Vietnamese dinner at this little restaurant.  The food was really nice but a little too much for us both. We had this....

this...rice cake with fried dry shrimps...

this...dunno wat..

this...

and this, some bbq meat with rice cake...

Then put all the above on a prawn cracker and drizzled with some fish sauce....

We had this also, spring rolls...

Also this.  Mixture of vege and meat to be wrapped in the rice paper ....

After dinner, Mr Tai took us out for a night city tour towards District 5, Chinatown area and told us many stories about it.  Very interesting.  After he dropped us off at the hotel some 3 hours later, since it was also our last night there, mom and I ventured out again for a road side coffee...lols...

it was seriously pretty entertaining lor watching the traffics zooming by.  Some can chit chat as the drive side by side... some have 4 people on 1 bike... some where super high heels.... lols... Besides, it was also good for me to practise shutter speeds.

We decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel about an hour or so later...  That's concluded our last night in HCM.