Phu Qouc Island, Vietnam

Upon arriving at Duong Dong Airport in Phu Quoc I got a taxi to my hotel, the A74. I checked in and was shown to my room by a very friendly concierge. The room smelt a bit funny so went back down and asked if I could change rooms and they put me in a much bigger room, which still has some odd odour in it that I cant identify but I guess the whole place might have that smell.

I did some washing in the bathroom sink and nearly accidentally tore it off the wall. it turns out it was only held up by the plumbing and two flimsy little brackets, which I bent a bit (and then bent back as well as I could).

I went for a walk towards the main part of town and stumbled across the night markets, where all kinds of fresh seafood was available to be purchases and BBQ'd up for you there on the spot, along with some fruit stalls and souvenir stalls.

I found a place that made avocado smoothies, one of the amazing discoveries from last time I was in Vietnam and was happy to find it was just as tasty as I remembered.

I bought some squid that was fresh enough that you could poke it and it's skin pulsed through different colours and a garlic sea snail. The squid was divine but I'm not so sure about the texture of the sea snail.

The enthusiastic and friendly guy who talked me into buying from him told me he's a guide during the day and offered to take me around the island on his motorbike tomorrow. His name was Nsit and he seemed like a good guy so I agreed.

After I ate I bought some fruit with a name I'm not sure of. As I was paying I got distracted by a very young beggar boy, who I ended up giving some of my change, but in the process forgot to actually take the fruit I paid for with me :(

I got a motorbike home and chilled out in my room for the night. After about half an hour it bucketed down with rain, prompting me to check the forecast for the next day and it didn't look great. 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms. Maybe a day for me to go without my phone and camera, wear contacts and take a rain jacket and expect to get really wet!

I woke up the next morning and could hear from the traffic going past that the roads were still wet. I looked outside and saw that the sky was overcast and it was spitting a little. Bugger! I started to wonder if it was even worth going if it was going to be wet all day, but Nsit arrived at 8am as we'd agreed so I grabbed my bag + a rain jacket and jumped on the back of his bike. There were a few drops here and there but not enough to merit putting on the rain coat. It sure did look miserable though, but at least it was cooler.

First stop was a winery that makes wine out of a fruit called the sim. I got to taste a few types, mostly very sweet wines. I felt a bit pressured to buy something, so bought a small bottle that was only $5. Nsit led me out into the orchard and we found some of the fresh fruit for me to try.

We got back on the bike and headed off down a red dirt road, which was a bit scary with the recent rain meaning lots of mud and puddles, but I'm told the rain actually makes the road better so I'd hate to see how it is normally.

We stopped at a pearl farm, and where shown some oysters being opened and the pearls cut out of them. I did the expected walk around with zero interest in buying anything. I'm not into jewellery in the in first place, but pearls just seem very old fashioned to me. We left that place went went down the road to another one which I wasnt at all interested in and ended up taking more interst in the beach the farm was next to and the sheer amound of rubbish on it. A sad sight to see, which makes me appreciate the hard work by the people who go along the main beaches each day picking up all the new rubbish that's washed to shore.

The sun started to come out and we got back on the bike for a much longer ride to the coconut tree prison, which depicted horrible acts committed by the "USA" and the south. There were small barbed wire cages called "tiger cages" that they'd put prisoners in wearing very few clothes in the hot sun, so that pretty much any time they moved they got gashed by the barded wire. There were maniquens set up showing some of the torture they did, burning prisoners genitals, driving nails through ankles, crushing their chest between two boards and even removing their kneecaps. Pretty messed up stuff. There was also an impressive tunnel on display that prisoners had dug out in order to escape.

The next stop was right across the road, the fish sauce factory. It was interesting to see just how manual the processing there was. There were big open vats being filled so they could be filtered, and a person bottling the sauce by hand with a hose and a heat-gun to heatshrink the seals around the lids on.

Next stop was Sao beach. I walked up and down the beach taking a few photos, and found the sun had gotten really fierce now. I could hardly see at all without my sunglasses but I'd opted to wear contacts this day so there were not an option initially. Where all the sunglasses guys now, hey? I accidentally rubbed a contact out of my eye at one point, so i switched to prescription sunnies and things were a lot more pleasant. I went for a nice swim in the lovely warm water with a large number of Vietnamese tourists, and not another westerner to be seen. Afterward I set on a deck chair in the shade on the beach and had delicious shrimp and cashew nuts for lunch.

After a few hours we headed off towards a temple along some rather sketchy roads, which I filmed a very shaky video of for a bit. The temple was in a beautiful location up on the hill overlooking the coast.

Last planned stop for the day was a pepper farm. I got to eat some green peppercorns fresh from the tree, which have quite a delayed kick to them. I nibbled on one and thought it wasn't that hot so I chewed on the rest of it and it suddenly got very hot indeed.

At one point a large group of Vietnamese tourist started trying to whack down some fruit from high up in a tree with piece of bamboo, which Nsit told me was apparently very sour. A little 11 year old boy shared some of the odd sour fruit with me and commented on my 1UP mushroom hanging off my bag, so later I got some ripe berries for him from one of the trees that were too high for anyone else to reach. He was from HCMC and spoke great English.

On the way back to my hotel Nsit offered that we could visit his home. It was interesting to see how the locals live. The place was fairly basic but well cared for, and had cool fences surrounding the block made of cactus :)

His family was very friendly, I got a nice photo of him and his dad who works as a snail fisherman. The house was built as lots of separate buildings of different ages, instead of one single dwelling that was added to over time. Nsit tells me he has 6 sibblings but only him and his brother are still at home with the parents, the rest have all married and moved out.

Nsit dropped me off at my hotel and I gave him some money. He'd told me the night before to pay what I thought at the end, and I'd had a good day so I ended up giving him 500K dong, which after spending a week in Vietnam I'd come to treat as a lot of money, but as a reality check is actually only about $25 AUD, but Nsit seemed very happy with it.

After resting in my room for a while I went for a walk down the beach, and on to the night market again. I stopped in at the pharmacy and bought more doxycylin (my anti-malaria stuff for while I'm in asia), which cost only $3 AUD for 100 capsules, compared to $14 aud for 30 back home, no prescription required.

At the night market I had a delicious durian milkshake and then ate a mantis shrimp (to try and absorb it's awesome powers) and a sea urchin for dinner. Both were really tasty!

Each night on the walk I'd had a very smiliey man in a chef hat try and get me to eat in his restaurant, laughing in a friendly manner and telling me how much he loved Australians. I felt a little bad for him since most people (and myself) keep walking on to the night markets, but I was still a little hungry on the way home so I stopped in for some more shrimp BBQed with garlic and chilli which were amazing. All the food here is so great. While waiting for the food to come I met some older Aussie travellers, probably about my parents age, and we chatted for a bit.

After I ate I was pretty tired so I came home and slept.

On the last day I decided to have a lazy day and give myself some time to actually write up these blog posts. I sat for about and hour and a half at a vietnamese coffee bar, observing how the locals drink their ice coffee very slowly so the ice melts and the flavour becomes a bit diluted; and generally lazed about enjoying the cool shade. I spent some time better organising my bag so that less frequently used stuff doesn't need to be unpacked all the time, and even went for a run along the beach right to the end. The perfect way to end my time in Vietnam.