We got up to wave Jayne off at 8:30 (after breakfast) and then went for a coffee with Ramie, Jo, Anne and Donna. My last egg coffee (Dave). We then headed back to the hotel and said our farewells to Anne and Donna.
At 12 we checked out and met up with Jo and Ramie who were staying in the same place as us. After visiting the travel office , in a lovely colonial style building , to pay for the next few days we headed off on a 3 hour car journey to our hotel – Dhawa in Ho Tram.
Jo and Ramie were due to fly back via Doha so had had their return journey delayed by 9 days! We met several others who had also been re-routed or had flight delays.
The hotel was like a different world compared to the homestay accommodation on the river that we had been in just a few days before. It was well set up for families and there was an even a foam party at the weekend, which made for good spectator sport!!! It’s a popular place for Ho Chi Minh residents looking for a weekend escape from the city. There are a lot of French tourists and things really quietened down on the weekdays.
There we fell quickly into a new routine! This comprised a four course breakfast, reading in the morning, swimming in the afternoon, lazing by the pool and then meeting Jo and Ramie in the bar at 5 o’clock for happy hour cocktails, dinner then bed! Very indulgent and extremely relaxing!
We went on a beach walk one morning towards Hampton‘s pier (the longest pier in Asia) in the distance. It was quite shocking to see all the rubbish on the beach as soon as we ventured out of the confines of our hotel. There was loads of plastic pollution. There were people fishing in the shallow water – we were not sure for what!
We researched local launderettes and basically realised that we were fairly trapped in the resort and nothing was accessible. So we decided to splash out and get our last bit of laundry done in the hotel. The service was impressive and when we got it back, it was all ironed and presented in plastic bags as if we had just bought it new in Marks & Spencer‘s. 🤣
Fortunately, the food was very good. There were two restaurants, one Vietnamese style and one Italian. For the first three days we ate Vietnamese. We then gave in and opted for a burger!! It was very good!! The breakfast buffet was extensive and we ate so much that we didn’t need any lunch. There was the typical omelette and pho station and a vast array of other choices, including lovely fresh fruit.
We were able to eat breakfast outside looking out to sea. We tried to take some cheesy photos on the beach swing. It was very funny because Dave used his new tripod and we thought we had the perfectly framed shot only to get a strange photo of a roof. A very cute toddler had taken a fancy to Dave’s tripod at the vital moment. His mother then clearly decided that she’d never seen anyone who looked quite like Dave, so asked him to pose for a photo with her son!!! 🤣
All in all, a beautifully relaxing few days. We would definitely add extra days before and after a tour in future.
A great blog. I enjoyed every day!
Thanks for this