A Sunday trip to the Beach with family and friends

Vietnamese Boy finds Jelly Fish in the surf

Sunday January 17th 2010 - We rented a van from one of my Father in law's friends and he drove me, Mark, Thoa, Daniella, Thoa Anh, her son Keh Anh to Long Hoi for a day at the Beach.

We found a nice place where you can rent Tiki Huts to have a picnic and enjoy the beach.
The cost for renting these huts is $200,000 VND or about $10 USD for the day.

This was fun for a few hours and we bought some kites to fly on the beach. The kids had a blast running in the surf and looking for shells while Mark and I held down the fort at the Tiki hut.

Nini flying her new kite at Long Hai Beach

It was very hot today on the beach and the humidity was high so we only stayed there for about 2 1/2 hours before packing up and driving an hour north to a place that has hot springs.

Vietnamese Tourist Trap!

Harry's Father in law suggested we go to the Hot Springs Eco Resort so we could sit in the many hot springs and foot bathes. After an hour driving past many beach resorts that are being built or planned along the coast of southern Vietnam we finally arrived at the Hot Springs.

This is one of the Hot Springs where the water actually boils and the natural temp is around 220F degrees

When we pulled up to the entrance to the Hot Springs resort and exited the van we looked behind us and saw 3 big tour buses filled with screaming and yelling Vietnamese school children that were on a field trip.

Mark and I looked at each other with looks of despair. We were Hot, Tired and Hungry and the sound of all these kids plus the crowd of them really was going to spoil this venture.

We made the best of it and walked with all our gear and stuff to make lunch for the family about a quarter of a mile into the resort.

Once into the resort they charge you again for each amenity whether it be mud baths, foot baths, hot tubs or the swimming pool area.
It was filled with screaming kids and I was getting tired of the place after just a few minutes.

Mark and I made lunch for the family and then walked around to the spot where they boil eggs supposedly in the hot water.

Needless to say we didn't stay long and I will put some notes up on travel advisor that I think the place is a sham.

Mud people of the tourist trap

After walking around the Hot Springs we spied some Aussies that took the mud baths and I guess they thought it would be fun to cake mud on their bodies. It was over 1,500,000 VND ($81.00USD) for this amenity - We of course didn't want to pay that to cover ourselves in mud!

Later that afternoon we had to hurry back to get Thoa Anh and her son back to the bus in Vung Tau so we could have enough time to stop and swim in a private beach area. It was rocky all around but we found a nice little beach to swim out to the rocks and enjoy and afternoon cool off.

I was out sitting on the rocks and the waves were splashing over my head. It was great fun and adventurous way to wrap up our beach trip!

Harry braves sitting on the rocks in the South China Sea