One Year Away

Joseph

We’ve uploaded a new album with photos from Southern Vietnam, including Phu Quoc.  It’s on the left hand side of the page.

The tear shaped island off the south end of Vietnam is home to about 50,000 people, mostly fishermen and their families.  Of more interest to us though were the beautiful beaches that ring most of the island. 

The main town on the island is sleepy Duong Dong.  Just south of it is a long stretch of fine golden sand beach with about a dozen guesthouses or small hotels that rent bungalows; this is where most visitors stay.  The island has so far managed to avoid attracting any mega resorts or large hotels  so travelers who come here typically rent a small bungalow on the beach.  Not wanting to buck that particular trend we did exactly the same thing and settled in for a few days of relaxation. 

Long Beach is the strip of sand where the hotels are located and many people are happy to spend their entire time on Phu Quoc there.  The sand stretches away in both directions as far as the eye can see, palm trees provide shade and small fishing boats work just off the shore.  During the dry season (now) the water is very calm and warm, perfect for swimming.

There are only a couple of restaurant/bars on the beach but most of the hotels and guest houses have their own in-house places.  They make a fine place to have a glass of freshly squeezed mango juice or Saigon Beer and watch the spectacular sunsets.  Our bungalow was right next to one of the larger operations, the Tropicana Hotel, and we had dinner there every night.

On our second day there I rented a small motorcycle from the hotel.  Never having driven a motorbike I was given a 10 minute lesson in how to operate it by the bemused rental guy.  We drove around a couple of times on the cobble and sand road leading to the guesthouse and I was ready to go.  Phu Quoc is a good place to learn how to ride a motorcycle; there is little other traffic and no reason to go anywhere fast.

With Penny riding behind me we set out to visit the southern half of the island.  We took the road across the island and after about 8 km we reached the other side at a small fishing village.  As is usually the case in Vietnam we were soon surrounded by small children all saying, “hello, hello, hello…”  We pulled away and walked down a long pier so we could see the houses along the shore.  Most were built on stilts with bamboo, thatch, and usually a blue tarp or two.

Although they are lucky to have easy access to the sea the population of the island is quite poor and their houses reflect that.  The soil is very bad for growing crops; everywhere that we saw gardens or  fields they were covered in a white layer of salt.

We left the fishing village and continued south along the coast to what was billed as the most beautiful beach on the island.  We found the one restaurant close to the beach and ordered a lunch of fresh shrimp and noodles.  After eating we took a walk along the water.  Bai Sao Beach indeed does have silky white sand and beautiful palm trees.  However, there are no hotels on the beach and no one picks up the litter that is left there or the trash that washes ashore.  The result is a beautiful beach that is  ruined by the large amount of rubbish on it.  Unfortunately, littering is very commonplace in Vietnam and most people seem to think nothing of it.  We were disappointed with the beach so we left early and continued to drive around the island. 

The main artery along the coast is a red dirt road which took us by the houses of fishermen and along the southern end of Long Beach.  As the sun was setting the views kept me looking to the left.  I should have been looking straight ahead as we almost ran into a herd of cattle being led down the road! 

Our time in Phu Quoc felt like a mini vacation before some harder traveling we’re coming up on in Cambodia and Laos.  But our time was up and we left for the Cambodian border and what promises to be more rugged travel and adventure.

Details –
Hotel: We stayed at Hiep Thanh but there are about a dozen places that rent bungalows on the island. 
Cost:  Bungalow prices range from USD $10/night to USD $25/night depending on whether you want AC and how close you are to the beach.  Motorcycle rental is USD $7/day.
How to get there: There are two main ways to get to Phu Quoc.  We took the ferry from Rach Gia on the mainland to get there – about USD $10 and 2.5 hours.  We took a flight back to Rach Gia on the return journey –  about USD $20 and 25 minutes.