May 10

For the second half of our weekend day trips, we went to Vung Tau beach, about two hours south of Ho Chi Minh City. Our first stop at Vung Tau was to the giant statue of Jesus on top of a mountain. From the beach we made the long journey up the steps to the statue. The views from the top were absolutely incredible as we could look out over the city, into the mountains, and onto the sea. Next, we climbed into Jesus himself, through a very tight staircase, to get an even better view. The view from the statue was worth both of the challenging walks up to the top. After that, we went to the beach and swam in the warm and wonderful East Sea. We played games and relaxed in the water and on the beach for the afternoon. Lunch was fantastic, family style meal of mostly seafood that we ate faster than anything we have yet (I'm pretty sure the calamari was gone in 45 seconds). I managed to avoid sunburn while at the beach, but not everyone was so lucky (causing me to lose a friendly wager with Bryan). Upon returning to the city, some of us decided that burgers and fries sounded like a great idea for dinner. So with some advice from Bryan and research, we found the best burger place in Ho Chi Minh City and decided to try it out for dinner. We were all very satisfied with our decision as dinner concluded another awesome day in Vietnam.