Tam Hai Island (The Most Amazing Place On Earth!)
Trip Start
Mar 08, 2008
1
36
51
Trip End
Sep 06, 2008
Where I stayed
Tam Hai Island, Vietnam
Monday, June 30, 2008
If there's only one thing you learn from reading our blog, dear readers, it must be that you make your reservations for this resort. And soon, before anyone else discovers it. Let me be very clear: IT WILL BE THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF YOUR LIFE NOT TO COME TO THIS RESORT.
The manager of the resort arranged to have a private car pick us up in Hoi An and then take us by their speedboat across to the island. Upon arrival, the French-Vietnamese manager met us at the dock and escorted us to the resort. He had a fantastic French accent and when he called me "madam", my regard for the French went up one extra notch. With his sexy accent and linen beach pants, we felt a little like we were on the show "Fantasy Island." The island is very small, and le Domaine owns a third of it. The rest is inhabitated by local fishermen. There are 12 spacious, gorgeous villas on the resort, all with their own direct access to the beach. The bathroom was almost as big as the bedroom and it had the coolest partially-outdoor shower we've seen yet. The decor and design is meant to blend in with nature while still being sophisticated, so you got the best combination of natural environment but with all the cushiness you'd expect from a high-end hotel.
We were the only guests at the resort for most of the trip, so it felt like we had the island to ourselves. The service at the resort was impeccable. In addition to our charming French manager, there were people constantly looking out for all of our needs. Like if we went swimming in the infinity pool and brought a bottle of water with us, they'd bring us extra towels and two glasses of ice when we weren't even looking.
Meals were ridiculous. It was a French restaurant, but with a lot of Asian influence in it. We had the most amazing tiger prawns you'd ever tasted. They had this seafood platter that was probably close to 10 pounds of tiger prawns, calamari, clams, mussels, crabs, shrimp, and seas snails cooked in European and Asian styles. We were pretty sure our stomachs would explode if we ate it all but we were willing to take that risk of our lives because it was so freaking delicious. And they would set up tables directly on the beach so that at dinner we could watch the lightning on the other side of the mountains (storms on the mainland every night, but they never hit the island) as we ate dinner. Then, they'd move a sofa from the lounge onto another stretch of beach so that we could sip on our French wine while watching shooting stars and listening to the ocean. Pure heaven.
The island is very peaceful and quiet, but we still had plenty to do. But we did get a private boat ride around the island where we saw fisherman catching all sorts of fish. We tried paddling a traditional fishing basket boat, which was a lot trickier than it looked. And we took a bike tour around the island, during which little kids would run out of their houses to chase after our bikes and yell "hello!" at us. We saw villagers collecting seaweed and drying them on the beach to sell later in Saigon. And we climbed some volcanic rocks where there were goats hanging out in the cracks.
If you're looking to go to the most romantic place on earth and get pampered to death, this is the place to visit. But what am I going to do for Jeremy's birthday next year?
