What’s more exciting than a spontaneous long ride to a beach on a weekend? Last night, Ce Phan spontaneously extended his invite to me for a motorbike escapade to Can Gio, a 2-hour ride down south of Saigon. I have been craving for a real out of town wanderlust adventure since I got here aside from my usual Visa runs in Moc Bai by bus (west of Saigon). So without much decision-making process, I said yes. 🙂
This morning we headed to Can Gio beach but since I am a new rider, I just took the back seat. From Binh Than District, we drove for 45 minutes to get to the ferry boat that took us and our motorbikes across to the other side of the river, where we had to drive another 1 1/2 hours. It’s really fun to go to tourist attractions with the locals. I was with 8 Vietnamese locals who are all from the English Center that I recently started to work for as a part-time ESL teacher, except for Cuong, a friend I met from Horizon school where I also work as a part-time ICT teacher. Locals here are generally friendly to foreigners, especially the millennials since they have a real hunger to practice their English.
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Posted by The WanderWalkers on Wednesday, February 3, 2021
The beach itself, however, is not the best place to go to when driving to Can Gio. I’m used to the beaches of the Philippines where the water is clear and the sand is… well, sandy. 🙂 The beach in Can Gio is muddy because it’s where the river (fresh water) meets the ocean (saltwater), which is the best condition for life to spring up… “Life” as in SEAFOOD. 😀 Here in Vietnam we have a similar dining concept to Ph as “Seaside” where we buy from the market fresh sea food and have them cooked by the locals. However, I deem it’s cheaper here.
Since it’s a Sunday, I had to be back to the city by 3pm so by 12:30 we already started heading back to Saigon. It’s grueling for my butt to sit for such a long time but I thought I should already be thankful because I wasn’t the one driving. Less focus, less stress 🙂 I made it to the 3pm service just on time and praised God for another year that He’s allowing me to adventurously spend. Today I rededicate my life to Him and make it always available to His disposal. Send me wherever, I’ll faithfully go! But I will definitely be back to Can Gio to try the Monkey Island and Mangrove adventure! #YOLO.
