Although all mention of it is strangely absent from my pirate version of Lonely Planet Vietnam, Vung Tau like many coastal cities in Vietnam is the site of a former imperial mansion. In Vung Tau, this is Bach Dinh mansion, the Vung Tau White House.
However, the history of Bach Dinh is a little bit different, say to the Summer Palace in Da Lat. Bach Dinh started life as a Vietnamese fort from which the French were successfully repelled in 1820. At the end of the 19th century, though, the fort was demolished and the site was used to build a summer residence for the then governor-general of French Indochina (the redoubtable Paul Doumer, who for a short time in 1931-1932 was President of France. He was assassinated at the opening of a book fair in Paris. You always knew books were dangerous things, didn't you!).Between 1906 and 1917 Emperor Thanh Thai having tried - like many others in the Nguyen Dynasty - to shake off French rule - was imprisoned here. Actually, he had a better fate in this respect than some of the other emperors, who got shipped off to French colonies in Africa or to off-shore Vietnamese islands.
Ask a Vung Tau local about Bach Dinh and they would say it's boring to visit. Sadly, they are right really. The ground floor is used as a museum of artefacts from a large Chinese ship that sank off the coast several hundred years ago. Upstairs is pretty much preserved with old furniture - beds, sofas, tables, etc. However, the house is in a prominent position, it's on the side of Big Mountain, and it's not unpleasant to look at.
Because there was a strong storm while I was there (having ridden on the mountain bike I had to wait it out) I didn't get a chance to explore the grounds.
PS - my actual visit was a month ago. I got so busy since that I forgot that I had even been!
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