Day Seven: Joints and Jesus

Sunday was our earliest day of the trip. We were on the bus by 7, for the long trip to Vung Tau for a beach day. I can’t say much about the ride, as I was asleep the entire time, but I woke up to the Vietnamese Coast, and, interestingly enough, my first look at the Pacific Ocean. Before heading to the beach however, we visited a giant statue of Jesus that was on top of a nearby mountain. To get to the statue, we had to climb probably a thousand steps in the dead Vietnamese heat, it was pretty exhausting. I did however finally get a rice hat at a shop on the trek up. Once we reached the top we were able to go inside the statue (after we took our shoes off) and go to the top. The view from the top of the statue was incredible, you could see miles of coast and the surrounding towns. Afterwards we headed back down to the bus and had a quick drive to the beach. The first thing we did was head immediately into the water, as we were all sweaty and hot from the hike up to the statue. The water was so warm, nothing like any of the Jersey beaches I’m used to. We played some games on the beach with the UEF kids that came with us, and hung out in the pool at the hotel we were at for the day. Lunch was in the hotel, and there was tons of food. At the end of the meal they brought out hotpots for each table, which were even better than the last time I had one. After lunch we got to spend a few more hours on the beach before boarding the bus and heading home. Yes I got sunburned.

On the trip back we stopped at a Vietnamese truck stop, which as really cool! There were tons of small stores and vendors. I tried Vietnamese whole milk, which was really sweet, and shrimp paper, which was rice paper with hundreds of tiny shrimp in it. Everyone got different candies and we passed them around on the bus so we could taste each one. They were great! After getting back to the hotel everyone headed back to their rooms to shower and get ready for dinner. For dinner we split into two separate groups. One group (about 14 people) went to a Restaurant called Soul Burger, which is supposed to be one of the best burger places in Ho Chi Minh City. I went with the smaller group of six with Kate, deep into the city to a small corner restaurant (because I can eat a burger when I’m stateside right?). There we got Bun Bo Hue, a dish much like Pho but with different broth and noodles. I also got to eat pork joint! Which I won’t do again! Sorry this post is a bit shorter than others but most of the day was spent sitting on the beach.