We caught a flight back to HCM & took a Grab from the airport to the closest beach area, Vung Tau…about 2.5 hours. We'd booked an apartment near the beach…turns out not the best beach. The 11th floor apartment was great with lots of space, great view, balcony, pool and….ta da…a washing machine! I immediately filled it with clothes we'd been handwashing for over 2 months! We erected a clothesline in the room & soon had everything hanging to dry! You don't know how good clean feels til it's been a looong time!! Since we were bummed about the beach, next morning we headed out to look for a better one. We found one just a 15 min car ride away. We checked out hotels near there but they were 2-3x more expensive…and not as nice as what we had. So we decided we'd just jump in a Grab each day to get to the nicer beach & that's what we've been doing. Found a good grocery store to stock up on some food & we're staying put till it's time to fly home. Beach, pool, eat, read, cards, call home, sleep, repeat….
Something very unique about this building we're in: on one side we have an about 25' Buddha & temple and on the other side an about 25' Mary holding baby Jesus & church. In town, there's a mosque & on top of the tallest mountain, there's a huge Jesus looking over the bay. Roger recently was reading a book where one of the Christian characters was talking to a Jew & a Muslim. He said he believes there's many bridges that take people to heaven and his parting words were, "I'll meet you in heaven!" Believing that would sure eliminate lots of grief! At the beach each day, I've picked up a bag of trash. I realize it's only a drop in the bucket here but I feel like the beach deserves it. One day as I was filling my bag, two young kids asked me what I was doing. I told them & asked if they wanted to help. They eagerly began scurrying about picking up trash. One asked me, "Why do people throw so much trash?" When the two bags were bursting, they took off. I smiled thinking how lucky to meet 2 Vietnamese kids who spoke English & hopefully, will be future beach cleaners! There are almost exclusively Vietnamese on beach enjoying the waves & playing in the sand. If only they each filled a bag every time they came!! Rog & I haven't gotten tired of eating shrimp & egg rolls. They are so scrumptious that we can't help but order them most everyday! What a treat! Speaking of treats, I decided I couldn't leave VietNam without my nails done. It was easy to find a salon. One girl did my fingernails & another my toenails. I think they put at least 10 coats on. All done for $14. I was happy to give them each a big tip. I love how they turned out. Our pool time was especially fun on Saturday because lots of the local families were splashing & laughing in it. We figure this apt/hotel complex is the weekend retreat for Ho Chi Minh families. It's sure been a great retreat for us! So restful which is what we were looking for these last few days!
