The Paradise Resort

Water lily

Drifter and I brave the deadly gauntlet and after an hour or so, arrive at the turn off towards an old seaport town called Doc Let. The driving became much more pleasant now that we were no longer grasping out motorcycle seats with our clenched butts. Only the occasional 10000 decibel horn snuck up behind us to make sure our old hearts kept on beating quickly. Cruising over a flood plain with beautiful rice paddies and Lotus plants we drove. A pleasure…I am sure we stopped for lunch somewhere and had a story…….. wait!! The fishing village, OK I carry on. In our now established pattern, we were determined to go where no fogie has gone before and turned down a small lane headed straight for the ocean in an area that looked like it was populated by fisher folk. Of course there was the curious looks and the surprised kids faces. We reached the end of the lane as it steeply lowered to the sea. Forced to park and walk, a beautiful ant soft white sanded beach lay

Down to the beach

 in both directions as far as the eye could see. There were fishing boats, water baskets, and unfortunately garbage everywhere. (now for my spin into informative part of the blog)

Vietnamese people are not environmentally consciousness. A wrapper or a napkin…… anything gets thrown to the ground where they stand. It is a peeve of mine!! A bus will come to pick up a large family from the hotel next door, and by the time they are loaded, there will be empty cigarette packs, plastic bags with half eaten food, and plastic bottles littering the road. Even my own

Doc Let Beach

family!! Sitting in the lobby of my hotel I come in to see my nephews throwing seed shells on the lobby floor. Hey I yell!! You are acting like a bunch of pigs!! The lobby must always look clean!! This is not a Vietnamese style of budget hotel. I am not sure if they ever caught the point. Anyway…. The plastic bag has to be the meanest thing the western world has ever done to these people. There is nowhere you can go where they are not tangled in bushes and trees. Even in the jungle canopies. If they are anywhere near a road or a town, they are strangled by clinging plastic bags. And back to the

Gals on the beach gambling

 beach….. it was covered bu the garbage that was thrown off of all the fishing boats in the harbor. A Damn pity! They have a jewel here and do not know it.

We spend some time walking and interacting with some local gals before heading back to the main road. Time to go to a nice beach I know in the area and have a cold drink. We sat by the ocean sipping on a cool beer before continuing on. I decided I wanted to talk to an old Frenchman that I knew

Honeymoon suite at the Paradise

lived in the area that had a resort. After some trouble finding our way, we bounced down some dirt roads in an obscure area and finally arrived at paradise.

Mihic Sor’I bought a piece of ocean front property years ago for a song and has built a resort he calls the Paradise. It consists of a number of bungalows that you can have all to yourself overlooking the waves, or get a great honeymoon suite in the main building, The resort is almost in the middle of nowhere. The Paradise resort is all inclusive and has an open well stocked

Beach at the paradise

 kitchen. Three meals a day are served, and the kitchen is open 24 hours a day for anything also you want. IT is also stocked with wine and beer that works on an honor system. If you take a bottle to consume in your room, tell them and it will be added to your room. Do not forget!! He has to make some kind of profit after all. Mihic showed us around and gave us some pleasant conversation, but it was 2 pm and he was tired for a nap. Drifter and I spent a short time looking around and concluded that for a cost of 20 dollars a person for an all inclusive deal, there is perhaps no better value to be found in all of Vietnam. I will be back when I need a break.

Time to leave and check out a little more of the area. Drifter and I spent some time driving down some small dirt paths, dodging fallen mangoes and soft sand traps exploring the country. A lot of fun!! We bounced along enjoying the almost unseen sights, then headed towards home. Again we have to run the gauntlet that is highway 1. On the two hour drive home, we encountered a couple of places that we cannot be sure of. Smack in the middle of the country a modern building displaying a western woman dancing on a pole…… hmmmmm…. Maybe a trip for another time. The day ended with us arriving at the hotel with big grins on

A paridise cabin

 our faces, and rubbing our sore bottoms. We agreed that there would be no road trip tomorrow…. Maybe we could find some other trouble to get into. Maybe………….

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3 thoughts on “The Paradise Resort

  1. While travelling to Phan Thiet after my fabulous time at The Tide Hotel I witnessed a road crew putting down a seal coat on a newly asphaulted road, well with the wind blowing from the passing trucks and buses you can only imagine the debri stuck to that mess. Everything from plastic bags to banana leaves and empty water bottles and plastic knives and forks…..gives one pause.

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