19/3/14 Roosters, Room & Really good Lau

Wednesday 19^th Vung Tau

The guard was set to wake us at 6 and had boiled water for our noodles but we were up anyway. Ken arrived shortly after and sent us off in a taxi with one of his men accompanying us on a bike to the bus depot to ensure we got away ok. All went like clockwork and we sailed through in 4.5 hours. As seems to be common in Asia, a young fellow had the role of standing on the step yelling out to the people we approached inviting them to board. He made it his business to keep us comfortable and informed (wordlessly) of what was going on and when to get off. He then noticed us heading off on foot and shrieked at us to come back to the bus to get a free lift to our hotel.

The people on the bus were all kind and friendly to one another and to us. An hour or so into the trip, there was a muffled squawk from the back of the bus, followed a few seconds later by an unmistakeable echo from the rooster in the wicker bag next to us. We had thought it was just a bag.

 The rooster in the wicker bag.

 This continued occasionally throughout the trip until towards the end when they brought in another 4 wicker bags with more chooks from the outside luggage hold. Round about then we started to smell them. Later on, the girl next to us shook the bag to see if the rooster was ok and it failed to respond – a few times. The driver, the money collector and the girl all looked concerned, although the chooks were all travelling as unaccompanied  luggage. When the rooster later stirred and crowed again, everybody breathed sighs of relief and beamed at one another.

 Just before we left the depot this motor bike was wedged into the gap behind our seats and the door way.  Chris had to climb over it when they stopped for the short lunch break.

 

We had a 2km walk to the hotel, which we chose to do because we had spare time and needed the exercise. (Another very hot day and the walk was rather draining even with only the small backpacks) We set a course for the beach and followed that to the hotel.  They let us in early and we were happy to find our room on the top floor with the promised sea view and balcony. Great J

 

We headed off at about 2pm, at which time there was almost nobody about and we wondered whether there would be anywhere to eat. We did eventually find somewhere but it was not up to the delicious fare we have enjoyed thus far. We went on down the beach and wandered inland on the way back when we spotted something of a local shopping precinct. We had been asking for English menus and were curious about the Lau (stockpot) options that most of them offered, always at a much higher price than other dishes. Eventually we found an unpretentious little place where they called over a neighbour who spoke some English to talk to us. She said they would make a special seafood lau for us for about $10 that would fill both of us. That was a very good deal so we said we would come back in a couple of hours.

We had bumped into an offbeat  Canadian woman on the beach who freaked us out with the somewhat exaggerated claim that she had been “raped” 2 weeks earlier. She was saying we shouldn’t be carrying bags or wearing watches etc. At the risk of being arrogant, we have probably travelled a lot more than she has and in some of the worst places for getting mugged. But we did load everything non-essential into the room safe and went out again very lightly equipped.  You just never know.

The lau was delicious. The secret must lie in the stock, which bubbles away on a burner somewhat like a fondue with various seafood bits cooking in it, while we added fresh vegetables and poured the mix over noodles from the great mound they had brought us. We messed and muddled and asked for clues while our hosts were also eating at a nearby table. We ate until we were comfortably full although there was still plenty of noodle, vegetable and fresh stock waiting.

We left them with more than we had agreed, despite their resistance – tipping does not seem to be that common here. We felt that we had enjoyed warm and friendly hospitality and a very delicious meal.