Unspoilt Island and back for more
Trip Start
Jul 22, 2009
1
21
29
Trip End
Dec 24, 2009
Where I stayed
Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tom and I were relieved to have finally escaped the hotel from Hell and for the first time on our trip we were perfectly happy to get up to 6am. We took a taxi to the ferry and had enough time to grab a quick Pho (beef noodle soup - yum, yum) and Tom's favourite - fried egg baguette.
We boarded our hydrofoil by a lady who was dressed like an air hostess, sat in 'first class' at the front with a big TV screen and it was then that we foolishly became optimistic about our two hour journey. Well, there was nothing wrong about the boat itself and despite choppy waters the ride was smooth. The only thing that managed to spoil it for us was their choice in ferry entertainment. For the full two hours at full blast they played an appalling program which I can only compare to a bad Vietnamese version of the 'royal variety show'! Tone deaf women caked in make up sang screechy folk songs and an old over weight women (and to be overweight in this country is almost unheard of!) tried to do sexy dance! We cringed through the two hour ordeal and hoped that our ear drums would repair themselves.
On arrival to the island (at the port 30kms from the main town and beach) we were harassed by touts, one of whom offered us a ride for $20!!!! Having read it would be only a dollar or two we politely said no and he continued to follow us down the jetty. We finally agreed on $1.5 each to our hotel. Well, you do have to admire them for trying it on, after all if we were wealthy and ignorant of transport costs then that guy would have made a weeks wage in one trip!
We were dropped off at a large resort on Long beach which was included in our package. The resort catered more for Asian tourists but was up to western standards. The room was large, modern and clean, with nice extras like bottles of shampoo and sewing kits - much needed by the money conscious backpacker.
Our room overlooked the pool, which was both huge and empty - perfect!
We arrived on Wednesday and nobody was around. I had heard that Phu Quoc was a place popular with Saigon weekenders, but I still expected there to be other tourists about. It was lovely to have the pool and beach to ourselves for two days, but it was also amazing to see how quickly the beach filled up on Friday night
We spent two days on the island going back and forth from the pool, beach and room. Our hotel's bungalows were built along the beach and we Had our own sun-loungers. The beach was a long clean stretch of white sand which went on for kilometers. The town to the north of the beach was an interesting hour's stroll but, that was about all we did. Because we had spent our budget on the package trip we didn't indulge in the activities available on the island. For example, there was scuba diving, fishing, island hopping, motorbike tours of the pearl factories and the smaller abandoned beaches. If we had more time and money it could have been more adventurous, but it was a nice break anyway.
The best thing about Phu Quoc had to be the sunsets, which made Long beach the perfect location. The handful of restaurants on the beach had set up tables and chairs facing the ocean to capitalize on this.
7th, 8th and 9th November
We caught our 1pm flight to Saigon (included in the tour) at were back at Natalie's flat by 3pm. We spent another weekend with Natalie which included drinks in posh places like the Sheraton, dancing in cheesy sleazy places like Apocalypse Now and eating wonderfully flamboyant (but still less than half the price of UK) food.
On Sunday we went to Damsen waterpark which for the bargain price of 2pounds allowed you endless rides on slides which would never pass EU safety tests. We got away with minor injures but had an absolutely amazing time, for a start, I had never seen that many people in a 'lazy river' before! Forget relaxing in a rubber ring, here come 300 screaming Vietnamese children! We had loads of fun on the rubber ring slides, zip wire, we even braved the Kamikaze, which whisked away my bikini top and Natalie's bikini bottom (thank god I wore shorts!)
The most memorable slide of all was called something like the ''twister'. It involved a long steep tunnel which threw you into a huge circular toilet bowl shaped pod. You then continued to slide around the pod until you are spat out of the bottom into shallow water. A comment was made by one of Natalie's friends that during this ride she had felt a bit like a giant poo!
After a day of packing and another trip to the orphanage we said goodbye to Natalie and left for Cambodia early on Tuesday morning.
