Hearty Pho in Viet Ville, Then a Joyride

So far, the yummiest pho we've ever had was in Rene's Saigon Restaurant in Bancao-Bancao Road, near the airport.

But the little road trip we took a few Sundays ago up north led us to Viet Ville Restaurant, which was on the same level as Rene's Saigon on the deliciousness scale.

There used to be a small Vietnamese village there that was put up by a Catholic group to shelter some Vietnamese refugees. 

There are hardly any refugees left, but the restaurant still stands and is part of the city tour.

While waiting for our orders, we roamed around, and found a small creek behind the restaurant near the restrooms.  We entertained ourselves by watching the white ducks eat their lunch.

They also had several signs announcing that they accept bulk orders for French bread.  Vietnamese eat their pho with French bread, since they were colonized by France for quite a while.


This one was by the roadside.

And this was in the restaurant.

I was curious to find out how Vietnamese mango jam and Vietnamese bagoong (shrimp paste) would taste like, but put off buying some, and just made a mental note to remember seeing them here.

There is also a small church there, as the village was put up by a Catholic community. 

It is also the home of Our Lady of the Vietnam Church.

After having our fill, we rode on the car again and just kept on driving north to the mountains hoping to reach the sea and take in some new scenery.

We crossed several bridges.

We even stopped the car for a while to watch a carabao soak itself in the mud. 

 After thousands of coconut trees...

We decided to ask for directions to the coast, they laughed and were told that it was still very far away.  "Ang layo-layo pa po."

So, we turned back.

When Rene checked out his pictures on Google Earth, we would have reached it if we drove 10 more kilometers!   We were so close!