Thread: BLD Goes to the beach

Just back from another short trip to vietnam, we flew vientiane to saigon , then took a short flight with Vietjet airlines to phu quoc island , then took the hydrofoil from saigon to Vung tau .

In saigon we stayed in the new liberty hotel which ran me about $80, great view of the saigon river and close to District 1 which is where a lot of Tourists seem to wind up



It was absolutely pissing down when we landed making me wonder why we were of on a beach holiday in the first place.

A Hydrofoil coming in from vung tau, The viets bought these things from Russia where they were already considered to old to be in service, They get going at a pretty good clip and its a fairly comfortable 1 and a half hour trip down the saigon river to vung tau





View over saigon



Saigon has about 10 million population and is absolutely Frantic with traffic



i was gagging for a drink so we headed out to the Historic Caravelle hotel for a drink in the roof top bar







District 1 has got some amazing old architecture



The building in the background is the Bitexco tower, the tallest one in saigon and also a good place to get a drink and a view over the city, Plenty of eye candy about to


Plenty of floating restaurants down by the river



we took heaps of photos but im having drama uploading them on photobucket so will post some more of phu quoc and vungtau later .

what i did notice in vietnam is they arent big on punters bringing tarts back to the Hotel , Not very sporting of them really

Cheers, always enjoy your posts

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

BLD Goes to the beach

Quick, someone get the harpoon ready

^Don't believe everything you read.

Spent a couple days in Vung Tao back in 66. Visited My step-father on a Swift Boat Repair ship the Tutwila. The Navy really knows how to live. No hydrofoils about back then. Just the continual explosions from hand granadeds being dropped along side to keep VC swimmers away from boats at night.

Vung Tao was the site of most Aussie's in country. Town was more like a village to me with a few bars, restaurants and willing bar girls. I was told it was the week-end retreat for much of Saigon's Military and political elite at the time.

Caught a hop on a Huey down to Bangkok, then a C-130 up to Quen hon, and a Bird dog down to Cam Ranh Bay...Pretty easy to hook rides back then.

Excellent BLD, love the shot of the whole city from the roof top bar, that's a top shot.

Originally Posted by ltnt

^Don't believe everything you read.

Spent a couple days in Vung Tao back in 66. Visited My step-father on a Swift Boat Repair ship the Tutwila. The Navy really knows how to live. No hydrofoils about back then. Just the continual explosions from hand granadeds being dropped along side to keep VC swimmers away from boats at night.

Vung Tao was the site of most Aussie's in country. Town was more like a village to me with a few bars, restaurants and willing bar girls. I was told it was the week-end retreat for much of Saigon's Military and political elite at the time.

Caught a hop on a Huey down to Bangkok, then a C-130 up to Quen hon, and a Bird dog down to Cam Ranh Bay...Pretty easy to hook rides back then.

Your showing your age now itnt, Vungtau is still a weekend retreat for saigoners if you go by bus from Saigon its about 3 hours , the hydrofoil makes it real easy at an hour and a half even though they are as old and dilapidated as you maybe? these days its a big offshore oil base for international companys and a lot of shipping passes by , it used to be all russian expats there im told, but mostly aussies and scotsmen around now, good crack with the ones i met, Anyway i will get to the vungtau bit of this thread when photobucket starts uploading a bit quicker with my pics . Still a bit of nightlife in vungtau from what i saw, but my gig was eating seafood and drinking piss

Originally Posted by Dillinger

Quick, someone get the harpoon ready

Moobshots galore, should give itnt the horn i reckon

looks really good BLD! nice hotel room too. Stuff trying to navigate that Hell of a traffic pile up though!

Fucking nightmare trying to cross the road, but they say you should always just stride purposefully across , dont flinch or waver, they will go around you, confuses them if you panic and stop mid road, still i did a couple of times until i got the hang of it, Helps to get a bit of dutch courage in by way of 20 beers before attempting it i found.

Sorry if theres any Dutchmen reading

Above info spot on. I found the ex-Russian Hydrofoil to be decrepit & puking Diesel fumes into the rear compartment. Always book a fwd seat a few days before you go. My White Beach Hotel in Vung Tau was the aptly named Phuc Dat. Golfed @ Paradise GC c/w Canadian Off Shore Oil guys. Great fun, albeit slow play by Korean Tourists. I didn't like Saigon. Not as crowded as Hanoi, but stupidly hot & humid even in January.

Great set of pics.

Originally Posted by cdnski12

My White Beach Hotel in Vung Tau was the aptly named Phuc Dat.

Ha ha, Would this be it



we stayed at a nice place on Front Beach called seabreeze resort, Back beach has a 5 star hotel now callled the Imperial, Bit pricey for me that one

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

whats all that about ? a wall missing in the bog ?

Glass window nige, even worse if "YOUR" lying in bed feeling amorous and have to witness the missus backing out a bad boy. a bit kinky for me that

Glass window ,, a viewing point ?

Bloody hell ,, kinky gits .

I reckon if we stayed there and the missus saw my ablutions first hand she'd be filing for divorce , under the grounds of unreasonable behaviour

Great thread mate. Crossing that main road from your hotel to the river used to do my head in especially at night.

Only done it twice and thought, " Fok That "...........

You got wonder when they will get there shit together and construct a walk over pedestrian bridge. I mean its not that hard is it ?

I was in Saigon last Christmas, bloody fantastic it was. Some of the girls where absolutely stunning. Friendly lot as well.

The vietnamese girls are hotties tell, sexy little beasts i reckon, got some pics of em coming up

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

The vietnamese girls are hotties

Now now, BLD the wife is standing nearby...showing my age indeed. The buildings were soi high when I was there with walls made out of tin roofing and the streets were mostly red dirt.

Looking forward to more of your thread. Interesting to see the changes.

Photobuckets done its trick. i will crack on . In Primos earlier vietnam thread he advised using only vinasun or Mailinh taxis, that advice proved to be spot on those 2 companys will rarely fuk with you and the meter getting switched on is automatic, A bit different in vungtau where ripping of farangs is a sport though




cathedral in saigon



The central market in saigons good for a look , pushy vendors though




Cute girl selling watches in the market


The wife bought about 2 kilos of these dried shrimp, still trying to get the smell out of my bag




pretty bleak weather in saigon but at least it wasnt filthy hot






View from the hotel along the river at night

Still banging around saigon we headed over to pham ngu lao street



plenty of farang and viet style style eateries and even a couple of girly bars

Now thats my type of gal with the BBQ !

Cor she's a stunner ! looks like she would stand for no crap

with a final couple of beers at the Bitexco towers we called it a night and headed back to the hotel , early start in the morning for the flight to phu quoc


we flew with vietjet airways who seem to be a serious answer to vietnams version of airasia, Decent planes and cheap to, paid $135 for 2 return tickets saigon phu quoc, flight only takes about an hour .


Still Raining


I read that when they first started in 2012 they got in a bit of shit for having the hosties wearing bikinis on the first flight and copped a large fine,
Doesnt seem to have done them much harm though as they have just placed an order for 90 more airbus







The other way to get to phu quoc is to fly to rach gia and then take the ferry over

where's the bladdy beach

great thread bud

Nice thread again, BLD.

Shame about the weather in Saigon - it can be really quite pretty when the sun is shining - especially sitting out on the terrace of Saigon Saigon at the Caravelle late afternoon.

Looking forward to the beach report.