Vietnam Day 10 (Vung Tau and a visit to Father Joseph's aunt's farmhouse)

Today was an early start, our driver arrived around 7 a.m. local time to drive us to Vung Tau which was over 2 hours away. I didn't realize it was this far, but it was worth it since this was a special Marian Shrine along the sea, and in addition they have the Vietnamese version of the Christ the Redeemer found in Rio de Janeiro. We started with a nice breakfast along the way, which included more good food I cannot pronounce or remember. After that we stopped at a local coffee shop for some coffee and the traditional green tea which is served at any sit down.

 After breakfast we went to our first stop, Mother Mary and the child Jesus shrine. This was a beautiful setting a nice short climb to the top of hill with stairs where the statue stood. Along the way was an great life size mysteries of the rosary, all 20.

This shrine overlooks the sea where there is drilling for oil in the area. Amazingly the water was far cleaner that I would've expected, and was way cleaner than the other shore side I visited near Thanh Hoa. After the shrine we stopped by the local Redemptorist community to say hello to some of Father Joseph's confreres. After some nice conversation we headed to the Christ of Vang Tau, a shrine that was copied from the Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. This one was a far more challenging hike, which included over 800 steps to the top, and probably another 100 or so to the top of the statue which you could go inside of to the top. I had to stop half way, my fear of heights and claustrophobia was bothering me too much, which is rare that I not finish.

The views again were amazing overlooks of the sea at many different points was a nice consolation during all our rest stops to the top. We had a great moment as we discovered some benefactors from our Pennsylvania area. One was even from Father Joseph's parish of Visitation in the Kensington Philadelphia area. This was a pretty providential find.

We met a couple nice people along the way, one lady from Oregon, another couple from Holland and Thailand, and a man from Germany. From here our driver picked us and we went to grab some lunch at another great place along the way known for "ghost rice".

Lunch was pretty awesome and very affordable, I had seconds and the bill for 3 people was only $10 American. It's easy to get spoiled in Asia and Africa with the great currency exchange rates. Vietnam has been phenomenal for that. As a tourist you can truly make some peoples day, what is a couple dollars to you, is hundreds to them.

After lunch we made our way to Joseph's aunts house on our way home. She was in the country side of Vietnam. We took back roads and roads that the whole thing was basically a pothole, and all types of others crooked paths to get to her farmhouse where she had chickens roaming, cats and a barking dog, growing of Vietnamese bananas, green tea, squash and so much more.