We left for Vung Tau on Wednesday afternoon with Anh Thang (Chu Dung's driver), Chu Dung, myself, Chi Cindy, and Chi Linh. It was barely even the holiday yet and still traffic was slow leaving HCMC and it was at minimum at 2 hour drive anyways...On the main roads in the city and highways, autos are only allowed in the left lane (or center and left if there are three lanes), while motorikes can zoom by in all lanes. Hence the cause for traffic because we were in essentially one lane for maybe an hour.
En route, we talked about many things but Chi Cindy and Chi Linh were specifically interested in medical school and they balked about the student loan process. In Vietnam, the government does not hand out loans to students and banks generally do not want to give so much money, especially to someone not working...I am eternally grateful that the US government will support me and my $300,000+ debt so that I can follow my dream (screw you Ron Paul!). Though Chu Dung and his wife Co Hao were able to go to university and graduate school for free, now the new generation has to pay a little bit of money for their education. I imagine it's much like the German education system? (Not sure 100%...)
Anyways we got into Vung Tau around 6 pm and headed to our hotel. Chu Dung rented a private beach house (2 bedroom, 3.5 bath, sleeps 4) for $110. You can see the beach from our back door...Just a short walk to the beach and also includes breakfast buffet and chair rentals - though the price tripled the next night due to holiday! We changed, rested up, and then got ready for dinner.
We drove into town and went to a popular seafood restaurant. Across the street, you can buy fresh food and then have it cooked in the restaurant. Picking out the live lobster and crabs to eat was oddly depressing for me. Pick out chicken breast? No problem. But pointing and saying "I want THAT lobster to fry RIGHT NOW" was weird, also because they looked so freaky weird and unappetizing...I almost threw up looking at the large shrimp moving around because they looked like large disgusting centipedes....everything tasted great though, ha!
a selection of live sea creatures awaits...lobster, crabs, shrimp, and snail, oh my!
my lobster...about $9
BEFORE...(enlarge the pic and you'll see what I mean by "unappealing"...)
and AFTER...
The meal can only be described as complete seafood gluttony. I got jokingly chided when I asked for rice, because I still had my lobster and crab to eat. I have little cuts on my thumbs from where they put up a fight, but it was worth the deliciousness. We also had sweet and sour fish soup (with pineapples and tomatoes, we have this often in the US but with the fresh fish it's just too good), snails (not a fan), small oysters (hard for me to open with my clumsy American fingers), oh and steamed okra (<3).
I'm sitting with Chi Cindy. Chu Dung and Chi Linh are across.
Total = around $40.
Afterwards, we burned some calories by walking around the boardwalk near a large hotel, the Imperial, which reminded of the themed hotels in Las Vegas (though not nearly as big or grand). A good day in Vietnam ends with coffee (or also fruit, but never fortune cookies), and so we enjoyed some drinks and rested for the long Thursday.
Enjoying drinks with Chu Dung at the Imperial Hotel.
1 comment:
even tho i am allergic to seafood, I AM SO JEALOUS!!!
Post a Comment