Phu Quoc Rocks!

4 May

There is an airport on the island of Phu Quoc. This makes it just a quick jaunt away. However, by the time my group of 6 friends decided to visit this undeveloped island south of Vietnam, all the flights were full. So we had no choice but to drive to Rach Gia and then take a three-hour ferry to the island. Traveling to Phu Quoc from Hanoi took as much time as it takes to fly across the world.

Getting dropped off at the boat yard in Rach Gia was a low point of the trip. It was a blurry dream but I think we sat on little stools and drank coffee until the sun rose. While exhausting, the travels went smoothly. And I can’t complain because I had four nights in paradise.

We stayed at SEA STAR resort – the bungalows are everything a non-snooty traveler could ask for – AC, clean bathrooms, and just a stone’s thrown from a beautiful beach. I could have spent days on end reading on the beach, but this island has so much to explore!

There are dogs with blue tongues, a fish sauce factory, snorkeling, motor biking, trekking, night squid fishing, and pepper farms. The night market, prison, and local fish market are also big draws. We went on snorkel trip through John’s Tours. The snorkeling was nothing special for an avid snorkeler (is that an oxy moron?) like myself, but it did lead us to meet John – just 27, he has made a name for himself on the island and dominates the island activities market.

John offered to take us on a special tour of the island. We ate an amazing lunch of fresh seafood, vegetables, and rice on the floor at his mother’s house and then set off for a beach that only Vietnamese people are allowed to go to because it is supposedly the most beautiful. Luckily, the guard was asleep so we got in without having to don Vietnamese beach costumes (pants, socks, jackets, face masks, hats, sunglasses, helmets, and umbrellas). The beach was awesome and the herring spring rolls we ate are my new favorite food in the whole world!

I had heard a lot of hype about this island. It is the only place in Vietnam that travelfish.org truly raves about. It is beautiful and HUGE (approximately the size of Singapore). People slate it as being “the next Phuket,” but it is nothing like that yet. There are still dirt roads and creaking bridges. They are building an international airport that should be completed in three years. Hoping to attract an international crowd, Phu Quoc will be the one place in Vietnam where it is okay to show up without a visa.

I hope to get back to this island before it becomes filled with fancy resorts. But next time, I will book a flight!

Comments 0 Comments
Categories profoundfluxpudding
Author admin

No comments yet

Premiere Pudding

Moved while sitting

I just got back from seeing two documentaries at Cinematheque – a cultural mecca for movie lovers that has become one of my most frequented spots in Hanoi. Both documentaries were extremely intense and relevant to my right here, right now life.
The first documentary was The Most Dangerous Man in America. The film told the [...]
From Market to Market!

I wrote the request for a cooking class on Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning, Nam arrived with the ingredients for our meal. I wanted to make typical Vietnamese food. Together we decided on tofu stuffed with pork in tomatoes, nem (fried pork spring rolls), salad, and soup.
We had to start at 10 AM to [...]
Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?

Driving up to Fresno from San Diego, I had time to reflect and digest my last few months and the most current events that have occurred in my life. While coasting up the 5, I also got to stop at In-N-Out burger and then digest the secret menu…

Now that I am back in the US [...]

travel guides

Phu Quoc Rocks!

There is an airport on the island of Phu Quoc. This makes it just a quick jaunt away. However, by the time my group of 6 friends decided to visit this undeveloped island south of Vietnam, all the flights were full. So we had no choice but to drive to Rach Gia and then take [...]
Top 10: Angkor Wat and Siem Reap

From something as small as soap to something as big as Angkor Wat, Siem Reap is full of awesomeness:

The temples – this is obvious. Besides the famed Angkor Wat, there are many more amazing temples. Some of the other ones we saw: Angkor Thom, Bayon, the Women’s Temple, and the Jungle Temple. I felt really [...]
Off the beaten Bangkok

I have been in Bangkok for one week now. Despite the fact that I still have to sit at a desk from 9-5, I have taken this opportunity to explore the city. Here are some of my favorite spots so far. I don’t pretend to be an expert on this city, but if I had [...]
Even More: Days 5-8

*This is really in-depth and probably not that interesting unless you really love me or you are planning a trip to Burma.
DAY 5:

Spent the morning enjoying the relaxing town around Inlay Lake. We bicycled 45 minutes on a rural path to a hot springs. The road seemed to go to no where, so we climbed [...]
More on Myanmar: Days 1-4

People seem to want more information on this trip. Vietnam Airlines is opening up a direct flight from Hanoi – Yangon soon so I think more and more people from Hanoi plan to go to Myanmar. While everything is still fresh in my mind, I might as well craft a little travel guide based on [...]