The Long and Dusty Road...

...That leads to... nowhere in particular.

With apologies to Paul McCartney, I figured this the best way to sum up Sunday, our last day on Phu Quoc. We wanted to explore some other parts of the island, so we hired a bike and set off. This turned out to be a mistake, as quite frankly there was nothing to see - at least, not within half a day's travel! Aside from Duong Dong, most of the island is incredibly un-developed, with hot, dusty, potholed roads with little or no view to speak of.

At one point the track got narrower and narrower, until we had to stop and ask a family for directions through the bushes.

A lady kindly offered to lead us back to the road on her bike, although help doesn't come for free it seems, as she asked a fee to cover her petrol - probably 4 or 5 tanks-worth it seems for only a 5-minute ride, but we couldn't exactly barter with her. No wonder they're smiling so much in the photo. This must happen to many a tourist on this route. Suckers!

It's well publicised that the Vietnamese Government wants to invest some $2 Billion US on turning Phu Quoc into something like Phuket in Thailand, along with its own international airport. We think this will be a crying shame, as it will undoubtedly lose a lot of its charm. That being said, it definitely could do with a little bit of money - some decent roads and some signposts will go a long way.

As it was, we got fed up with our 'Road To Nowhere' and turned back to enjoy what remained of the day on our beach.

Namaste!  

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Gone Fishing!

On Friday we headed off to the South of the island on a tour of the nearby archipelago for some snorkelling action. The ten of us boarded our small but comfortable boat and it 'put-putted' (ed: that's the sound of the engine!) off at almost glacial pace... We didn't mind the slow progress as there were plenty of deck chairs in which to lie back and enjoy the view.

The snorkelling wasn't the best we've seen, but it was all still enjoyable nonetheless. While we were out swimming, the crew cooked up a storm in the galley for our lunch of fresh seafood dishes, including some freshly-caught sea-urchins. Here you can see them cutting off the spines from the back of the boat:

And this is some of our group tucking into it all:

Later on we all had a go at line fishing off the side of the boat. Though we both completely failed to catch a thing, Hazel is convinced if we'd had some better bait (such as SPAM!) we could have landed a whopper.

Everything else caught by our more successful companions was thrown straight in the frying pan. You can't get fresher than that!

A nice surprise to end the day was when they took us to a remote beach on the other side of the island, where you could walk out 100 metres into the sea and it was still at waist-level. This brought on great frivolity for the group, splashing about in the water.

Anyway, here's the obligatory 'Couple Pose'. Breathe in now, and smile for the camera!

Namaste!

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Phu Quoc Island - Birthday Bliss!

Despite the delay in Rach Gia, we managed to get to Phu Quoc in time for Hazel's Birthday. It had been recommended to us by Rich and Charlotte, and it was definitely worth the seasickness Hazel endured on the boat over (and back).

Minibuses are available to take the ferry passengers to the main town on  the island (Duong Dong), although our driver took us directly to his beach-front guesthouse. Fortunately it was one of the two we had in mind, and it turned out to be great value - compared to some of the others nearby.

The sand was white and the sea calm and blue, and Hazel was in a very happy place! We were treated with a number of delightful sunsets while here. Check out the fisherman below:

As well as this one:

And this:

 

And not forgetting this one:

Here's a statistical breakdown of our time here:

• Drinking cocktails (or Saigon Beer), 10%
• Staying horizontal (sleeping/sunbathing), 60%
• Eating, 10%
• Strolling aimlessly up the beach and back, 30%
• Commenting on how amazing it all is, 7%
• Sightseeing, 2%
• Playing French people at chess (and winning!), 1%
• Floating (because swimming was too much effort), 10%
• Hour-long Massages, 4%
• Watching Newcastle beating Portsmouth on the telly 3-0, 0.6%
• Blog writing, 0%

All giving a total of 134.6% of a great time! :)

Namaste!

del.icio.us Tags: vietnam,beach,sunset,phu quoc