12th - Bright and early at the Grand Hotel Vung Tau. Woke to news and photos of the storm damage at my place and others in Maryborough. Roberta's daughter, Angie, and her husband Clinton and kids, went over this morning to survey the damage. The driveway was blocked with fallen trees and branches. The outside of the house was a scene from a movie and inside some water ingress but mostly all good. Thank goodness for Shannon's Insurance. I will put in an online claim today to start the process. Nothing we can do from here so we will deal with things when we return.

Back to Vung Tau: The Grand Hotel is joined like a Siamese twin to the Paradise Hotel, sharing pool, gym, and some restaurants including the breakfast buffet. We attacked the buffet this morning and left it scarred but intact. The hotel is an amazing tribute to the grand hotels of the past. One can imaging this place in its day with grand ball rooms, huge restaurants, superb rooms, hallways 3:00m wide, intricate carpet and ceilings, chandeliers, and superb furnishings. Although it is somewhat tired this is still a Grand Hotel.

A chill day today. A morning walk around the block and along the waterfront. Superb park with stone sculptures dotted throughout runs along the beach wall for some 300m with superbly manicured lawn and shrubbery. The local fishing boats are aground on the mud flats as the tide is out, with fishermen tending the nets and boat maintenance. A lot of the boats are painted a mid-blue colour which appears to be traditional. A few early morning swimmers were enjoying the water. 

In the main street which runs behind the hotel the activity is more frenzied. Did I mention the bikes? We found a beautifully presented park with a huge, 5:00m, bronze statue of a warrior dressed in "Genghis Khan" type body armour. Not sure who he was as the signs were all Vietnamese but must be important.
Chilled in the afternoon until the dinner bell rang. We took off walking along the waterfront heading for our restaurant. After 10 minutes walk we realised we were heading in the wrong direction so did a U turn and continued our walk. The weather by now was mild and a nice breeze which assisted our journey. We passed many sights of local eateries, more western restaurants, KFC, people out and about, bikes, cars, taxis and action.
Our destination, Davids Italian Restaurant was finally reached. Yes I know- eating Italian in Vietnam is a bit hmmmm!! but the food was great, Calisone and Penne Carbonara.
The end of another great, interesting, challenging day.