Vung Tau

We had a three day weekend last weekend due to Vietnam's National Day.  We seized the opportunity and headed to the beach town of Vung Tau via hydrofoil.  Because we were also celebrating my 30th birthday on Sunday, we booked a room at a 5-Star resort called The Imperial.  It was a beautiful hotel with stunning amenities.

As soon as our boat landed, we hopped a taxi and took a quick ride to the hotel.  We checked in, had our complementary "check-in" beverage, and headed up to our room.  We immediately changed into swim suits and headed for the ocean.

The water was a lot warmer than it was at the beach in Mui Ne and there were a lot fewer waves.  Owen was paddling around with his floaties quickly and even Oliver decided he liked to "ride the waves" in the ocean.  We spent about an hour splashing about before getting ready for dinner.  (Sorry no beach pictures...  I didn't want to get my iPhone wet!)

We met up with a huge group of our colleagues/friends that were also in Vung Tau for dinner.  I'm not sure that the restaurant we went to had ever seated a party of 17 before.  The grown ups were chatting, the children were hanging out, it was a lovely evening even if the food wasn't the greatest.

Sunday morning the boys slept in until 8:00.  That alone would have made it a great birthday as they usually wake at 5:30.  We dressed and went down to the buffet breakfast provided by the hotel.  The breakfast was good with a lot of options, but very traditionally Vietnamese.  We haven't quite made the switch to morning pho, so we stuck with waffles and omelets.

Vung Tau

After breakfast we rode a gondola to the top of the "Big Mountain" in Vung Tau.  At the top there was a giant happy Buddha and a carnival type amusement park.  We got to ride a few rides,  have some ice cream, and see some interesting statues.  It still impresses me that there can be places of worship inside the grounds of a carnival.  They just seem so mismatched.

Once back at the hotel, we ordered room service for lunch and put the boys down for a nap.  Once they were asleep I went down to the hotel spa and had a traditional Vietnamese body scrub.  Very relaxing.

I then went back to the room.  Owen was awake, but Ollie was still sleeping (yay!), so I grabbed Owen and took him to the pools.  Yes, pools.  The hotel had four different, beautiful swimming pools.  Owen and I spent some time in each one and the finished in the ocean.  By that time, Oliver had woken, so he and Derek joined us in the ocean.  Derek, of course, wanted to check out all the pools, so we went back through all four of them again!  Lot's of afternoon swimming for the Swanson family!

For dinner we went to an "Italian" restaurant called "Good Morning Vietnam."  (I put Italian in quotation marks because it was faux Italian food.)  Derek told them it was my birthday and asked them to sing to me.  They didn't quite understand what he meant, but they did understand "birthday" and "song."  So for the next 45 minutes, we listen to dozens of different versions of the Happy Birthday song.  (It didn't get obnoxious until the 30th time or so.)  We then had some ice cream and went back to the hotel to put the kiddos to bed.

When we got to the hotel, the receptionist scurried toward me and Owen with a cake that said "Happy Birthday Swansan" on it.  Derek had set it up to be delivered when we got back from dinner.  (Too bad he has somewhat scribbly hand writing.)  The cake itself was about an inch of cake surrounded by three inches of whipped cream with a few strawberries for decoration.  It wasn't very good, but watching the boys scarf it down made it the best birthday cake I've ever had!  

After I helped get the boys cleaned up from their cake adventure, I went back down to the spa for an incredibly relaxing massage.  Two spa treatments in one day!  This kind of lifestyle is starting to become addicting...

We had breakfast by the pool Monday morning and the took the 8:30 hydrofoil back to HCMC.  We took the boys to JoyMax for lunch, had a family nap time, and ordered in from our favorite vegetarian restaurant for dinner.  At 9:00, we woke up Owen and watched the National Day firework in District 1 from our balcony.  

It was a busy yet relaxing weekend.  The hydrofoil only takes a bit over an hour to get to Vung Tau, so Derek and I are thinking we could even make going to the beach a day trip.  It's not much farther than going up to Denver to go to the Children's Museum or Aquarium.  

Now we are busy planning our next trips.  We have a week off in October, three weeks for Christmas, two weeks in February for Tet, and a week at the end of March.  That's four vacations we need to arrange!  Should we go to Hoi An, Bali, Singapore, Bangkok, Hanoi, Dalat, Phuket, Nha Trang, Siem Reap, Bejing, Kuala Lumpur,...????????  So many exciting choices!  Stay tuned!