Settling Down in Vũng Tàu

Being located on Phan Chu Trinh, you should have your finger on the pulse of Vũng Tàu's retirement community and have the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the numerous elderly foreign gentlemen thereof.

Another source of information are the three open groups for expats on Facebook. Most anything that is happening in town will posted there, and you should be able to get some recommendations for a housekeeper.

In terms of music, you know about Art Mio, and there's Cask Bar and Chill Garden, where there is sometimes live music, and also Peace & Love, although they seem more rock-oriented for local kids. The Black Pearl is another place. Not really recommending any of these places but just tossing out some names.

You might also stop by Cafe Bảy (7), where a number of long-term North Americans gather in the evening. Twisted Sisters is a restaurant of sorts run by a Canadian guy who is a part of that group.

johnross23 wrote:

Being located on Phan Chu Trinh, you should have your finger on the pulse of Vũng Tàu's retirement community and have the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the numerous elderly foreign gentlemen thereof.

Another source of information are the three open groups for expats on Facebook. Most anything that is happening in town will posted there, and you should be able to get some recommendations for a housekeeper.

In terms of music, you know about Art Mio, and there's Cask Bar and Chill Garden, where there is sometimes live music, and also Peace & Love, although they seem more rock-oriented for local kids. The Black Pearl is another place. Not really recommending any of these places but just tossing out some names.

You might also stop by Cafe Bảy (7), where a number of long-term North Americans gather in the evening. Twisted Sisters is a restaurant of sorts run by a Canadian guy who is a part of that group.

Thanks John! Very helpful. I was just now online looking for your profile to send a PM.

Cheers!

Hi ocean, any plans on putting on a performance? How's life in your new home?

Canman63 wrote:

Hi ocean, any plans on putting on a performance? How's life in your new home?

The new home is great, thanks.

No performances scheduled now.

We'll see what the future brings

Hope all goes well for you. At the moment I'm in Alaska and Canada for 3 months but will be arriving in Vietnam on December 20th. We usually head down to Vung Tau for a stint. Would be good to catch up.

Wadey wrote:

Hope all goes well for you. At the moment I'm in Alaska and Canada for 3 months but will be arriving in Vietnam on December 20th. We usually head down to Vung Tau for a stint. Would be good to catch up.

That sounds great! Keep in touch

Just chime in to welcome OceanBeach to VT.  Hope you'll be happy with your stay and decide to make this town your home base. 

Also, I would like to share my best find:  the closest to pizza napoletana one can find in Vietnam, even without the wood oven:  Luca, located at 230 PCT.

We've tried quite a good number of Italian restaurants in Saigon, Nha Trang, Đà Nẵng, and VT.  None of them have met my standards and expectation especially where it came to pizza.  VT is a big disappointment if one trusts the restaurant recommendations on FB and Foody. 

Today, we decided to order a take out pizza from Luca -- and WOW! 

Thin and slightly crispy crust that's soft to the touch and in the mouth.  Perfectly spiced and thinly sliced toppings that are not at all salty (unlike the options for most pizze made in VN:  bland or salty, dried out or chewy, take your pick).  It's so light I could've eaten the large pie by myself without qualm. 

We haven't tried other dishes on the "limited" menu (16 dishes, not too bad for a one-month old restaurant) but while waiting for the pizza, I talked at length with the staff.  Some of the things I learned from the conversation:  the owner is a Napolitano, the Vietnamese chef was trained by the Italian chef who has been working at the owner's other decade-old and very successful Italian restaurant in Mũi Né --  more training will be given several times a year -- and some of the staff came down from Mũi Né to help run this new location.  I asked about the food preparation (everything is made on premises), the ingredients used in the sauce (yes on San Marzano tomatoes), the frequency of shipment of mozzarella di bufala (yes, it's from Campana).

I promised that we'll return soon.  If only half of the menu is as good as the pizza, this restaurant will be it for us.

Ciambella wrote:

Just chime in to welcome OceanBeach to VT.  Hope you'll be happy with your stay and decide to make this town your home base. 

Also, I would like to share my best find:  the closest to pizza napoletana one can find in Vietnam, even without the wood oven:  Luca, located at 230 PCT.

We've tried quite a good number of Italian restaurants in Saigon, Nha Trang, Đà Nẵng, and VT.  None of them have met my standards and expectation especially where it came to pizza.  VT is a big disappointment if one trusts the restaurant recommendations on FB and Foody. 

Today, we decided to order a take out pizza from Luca -- and WOW! 

Thin and slightly crispy crust that's soft to the touch and in the mouth.  Perfectly spiced and thinly sliced toppings that are not at all salty (unlike the options for most pizze made in VN:  bland or salty, dried out or chewy, take your pick).  It's so light I could've eaten the large pie by myself without qualm. 

We haven't tried other dishes on the "limited" menu (16 dishes, not too bad for a one-month old restaurant) but while waiting for the pizza, I talked at length with the staff.  Some of the things I learned from the conversation:  the owner is a Napolitano, the Vietnamese chef was trained by the Italian chef who has been working at the owner's other decade-old and very successful Italian restaurant in Mũi Né --  more training will be given several times a year -- and some of the staff came down from Mũi Né to help run this new location.  I asked about the food preparation (everything is made on premises), the ingredients used in the sauce (yes on San Marzano tomatoes), the frequency of shipment of mozzarella di bufala (yes, it's from Campana).

I promised that we'll return soon.  If only half of the menu is as good as the pizza, this restaurant will be it for us.

I think having just 16 items on the menu is great.

The amount of times I have been to a VN restaurant and they have about 100 dishes to choose from is overwhelming.

Ciambella wrote:

Just chime in to welcome OceanBeach to VT.  Hope you'll be happy with your stay and decide to make this town your home base. 

Also, I would like to share my best find:  the closest to pizza napoletana one can find in Vietnam, even without the wood oven:  Luca, located at 230 PCT.

We've tried quite a good number of Italian restaurants in Saigon, Nha Trang, Đà Nẵng, and VT.  None of them have met my standards and expectation especially where it came to pizza.  VT is a big disappointment if one trusts the restaurant recommendations on FB and Foody. 

Today, we decided to order a take out pizza from Luca -- and WOW! 

Thin and slightly crispy crust that's soft to the touch and in the mouth.  Perfectly spiced and thinly sliced toppings that are not at all salty (unlike the options for most pizze made in VN:  bland or salty, dried out or chewy, take your pick).  It's so light I could've eaten the large pie by myself without qualm. 

We haven't tried other dishes on the "limited" menu (16 dishes, not too bad for a one-month old restaurant) but while waiting for the pizza, I talked at length with the staff.  Some of the things I learned from the conversation:  the owner is a Napolitano, the Vietnamese chef was trained by the Italian chef who has been working at the owner's other decade-old and very successful Italian restaurant in Mũi Né --  more training will be given several times a year -- and some of the staff came down from Mũi Né to help run this new location.  I asked about the food preparation (everything is made on premises), the ingredients used in the sauce (yes on San Marzano tomatoes), the frequency of shipment of mozzarella di bufala (yes, it's from Campana).

I promised that we'll return soon.  If only half of the menu is as good as the pizza, this restaurant will be it for us.

John Ross also recommended it to me, so I'll definitely check it out soon.

An easy walk there from my apartment...

😎👍

colinoscapee wrote:

Ciambella wrote:

Just chime in to welcome OceanBeach to VT.  Hope you'll be happy with your stay and decide to make this town your home base. 

Also, I would like to share my best find:  the closest to pizza napoletana one can find in Vietnam, even without the wood oven:  Luca, located at 230 PCT.

We've tried quite a good number of Italian restaurants in Saigon, Nha Trang, Đà Nẵng, and VT.  None of them have met my standards and expectation especially where it came to pizza.  VT is a big disappointment if one trusts the restaurant recommendations on FB and Foody. 

Today, we decided to order a take out pizza from Luca -- and WOW! 

Thin and slightly crispy crust that's soft to the touch and in the mouth.  Perfectly spiced and thinly sliced toppings that are not at all salty (unlike the options for most pizze made in VN:  bland or salty, dried out or chewy, take your pick).  It's so light I could've eaten the large pie by myself without qualm. 

We haven't tried other dishes on the "limited" menu (16 dishes, not too bad for a one-month old restaurant) but while waiting for the pizza, I talked at length with the staff.  Some of the things I learned from the conversation:  the owner is a Napolitano, the Vietnamese chef was trained by the Italian chef who has been working at the owner's other decade-old and very successful Italian restaurant in Mũi Né --  more training will be given several times a year -- and some of the staff came down from Mũi Né to help run this new location.  I asked about the food preparation (everything is made on premises), the ingredients used in the sauce (yes on San Marzano tomatoes), the frequency of shipment of mozzarella di bufala (yes, it's from Campana).

I promised that we'll return soon.  If only half of the menu is as good as the pizza, this restaurant will be it for us.

I think having just 16 items on the menu is great.

The amount of times I have been to a VN restaurant and they have about 100 dishes to choose from is overwhelming.

It seems that quality drops as the number of menu items increases.

Wishing you a good time in Vung Tau. Once I'm in Rach Gia in less than three weeks we can compare the beauty of our ocean views. 

What happened to Vung Tau Rider?

I'm so jealous of all of you guys still in Vung Tau or other ocean cities in Vietnam. I had to  leave Rach Gia like a bandit back in March when the pandemic was declared but looking forward to spending next winter (2022) in Vietnam again.

davidwalshaia wrote:

What happened to Vung Tau Rider?

I don't know.

He's gone silent on YouTube.

I've sent messages to him recently but no answer

WillyBaldy wrote:

I'm so jealous of all of you guys still in Vung Tau or other ocean cities in Vietnam. I had to  leave Rach Gia like a bandit back in March when the pandemic was declared but looking forward to spending next winter (2022) in Vietnam again.

Hopefully by then a vaccine will make that possible.

Hello boys and girl, I hope everyone is happy, safe and well there...

Was wandering if there are any good news for new commers...Been planning to move to Vung Tau by  May last year...Still planning since...
Can't find any news, can somebody  enlighten what is happening and if we're aloud in if we did 2 weeks quarantine on arrival?
Also don't see any news from byke rider on utube..
Would appreciate if you guys have any new info...Ocean Beach, other active serious posters?
Be safe guys, still hopping to see you there some day.

AUStan wrote:

Hello boys and girl, I hope everyone is happy, safe and well there...

Was wandering if there are any good news for new commers...Been planning to move to Vung Tau by  May last year...Still planning since...
Can't find any news, can somebody  enlighten what is happening and if we're aloud in if we did 2 weeks quarantine on arrival?
Also don't see any news from byke rider on utube..
Would appreciate if you guys have any new info...Ocean Beach, other active serious posters?
Be safe guys, still hopping to see you there some day.

No good news yet.

Borders are closed to casual (tourist) entry without any current projected plans for reopening.

Give a little quick scan of the threads in the main Vietnam forum and I think you'll see a lot of recent information about only experts and investors being allowed in.

Here's the most recently active thread:

expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=915788

Keep checking back, as I'm sure someone will post about it when borders reopen.

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

AUStan wrote:

Hello boys and girl, I hope everyone is happy, safe and well there...

Was wandering if there are any good news for new commers...Been planning to move to Vung Tau by  May last year...Still planning since...
Can't find any news, can somebody  enlighten what is happening and if we're aloud in if we did 2 weeks quarantine on arrival?
Also don't see any news from byke rider on utube..
Would appreciate if you guys have any new info...Ocean Beach, other active serious posters?
Be safe guys, still hopping to see you there some day.

No good news yet.

Borders are closed to casual (tourist) entry without any current projected plans for reopening.

Give a little quick scan of the threads in the main Vietnam forum and I think you'll see a lot of recent information about only experts and investors being allowed in.

Here's the most recently active thread:

expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=915788

Keep checking back, as I'm sure someone will post about it when borders reopen.

Thanks OB, appreciate your reply.

BTW, today would be a great day to be in Vũng Tàu, if you didn't need to breathe...

iqair.com/vietnam/tinh-ba-ria-vung-tau/vung-tau

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

BTW, today would be a great day to be in Vũng Tàu, if you didn't need to breathe...

iqair.com/vietnam/tinh-ba-ria-vung-tau/vung-tau

[img align=C]https://gordythomas.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/screenshot_20210116-131954_chrome.jpg[/url]

Thanks OB, sounds good but I don't care much about it, lived in Thailand and BKK for 10 years so one can imagine the air....
The air is always good in place where  your heart is happy