Great nights sleep, a few laps of the pool and a huge buffet breakfast, not a bad way to start any day. The Rex is situated in the middle of a peninsula point, bookmarked on either side by the masterfully named Big Mountain and Little Mountain. Big Mountain to the north has a cable car running to the top which is first on my list today. It is only about a fifteen minute walk unless you get caught in a mid-morning shower halfway, then it depends how long the rain lasts, I huddle in a toilet block with a dozen locals for about fifteen minutes.
I get to the cable car station around ten and am informed it is not running (I could see that) but I cannot ellicit when it might be running, apparently the rain has something to do with it. Upon further thought I realise they are not going to turn the whole thing on for one tourist so maybe this afternoon. Vung Tau is very quiet through the week but fills up with Siagonese who escape the city over the weekend.
There is a "Museum" called White Castle a slight walk up the hill so I have a look at that, admission is only twenty five cents and rightly so. It only contains a small but interesting collection of artifacts recently brought up from a ship wreck off the coast here of porcelain and bronze cutlery and figurines from the fifteenth century belonging to a Chinese dynasty bound for Europe.
Covered in sweat I return to the Rex for a shower and begin a walk away from the coast into the township to explore and eat. I found Buddha so spent a few minutes in thanks. I ended up walking for two hours and found myself on the long white sands of a tourist beach around the point to the south of Little Mountain, exhausted I stop at a posh restaurant where the staff initially ignored me hoping I would go away (Yikes - he's wearing jeans, how uncooth!) but you know I can be persistant, I have the BBQ crab.
My legs and feet have had enough so after lunch I negotiate a ride back around to the wharf, stopping along the way for a photo of Vung Tau's very own "Christ the Redeemer".
He has an expression of - "I am so sorry the French have imposed my misinterpreted teachings on you people through the Dogma of the Catholic church" - or maybe that's just me?
I have a beer at the Ned Kelly Bar by the wharf, my little foray into the "passe" today, then get another bike back to the Rex for a late afternoon lay down. One good lesson to come of this trip is that I realise I do not want to live in Saigon. It has everything and anything that you want and ten years ago that would have suited and probably killed me but I have had enough of living in big cities.
After a nap I do another few laps in the pool and then head down to the jiggling mini skirt cleavage bar by the pool, hey i'm only human, right? I start off on vodka, "Ha" introduces herself to me and invites me to a game of pool. She kicks my butt in the first game and I foolishly think I may be in with a chance in the second game, spurred on with AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill" but as we move into "What do You do For Money Honey?" I realise that I never had a chance and that I should leave, the second two vodkas were a lot stronger than the first and I need something to eat.
Back to the same restaurant as last night, the warm woman who runs the place greets me with open arms and takes me to a table. It only takes her about two minutes and forty five seconds to start enquiring about my age and status and to point out two of the waitress' who are twenty five and single, there is a lot of that here. I know the same restaurant two nights in a row is not too adventurous but this is not some tourist place, the food is fantastic and I am seated amongst only locals unlike the other bars along the road where westerners gather in throngs - at this point I should explain that "throng" is actually about four or five people, there is only about twenty westerners in town. Also I cannot be accused of not being experimental - tonight I have the Ostrich - and it is awesome!
I wander back to the Rex and currently sit in the computer room writing this blog. The question now is do I go to my room or back to the pool bar to try and win a game of pool against Ha? Stay tuned.........
