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Phu Quoc has to be one of the most beautiful islands I have ever been on. It is a small island and in the shape of South America. We were lucky enough to get a direct flight to the island. As luck would have it, there were 6 seats left and 5 of us that were going! YAY for that guy we met in Hoi Ann that helped us so much.
The first day was mostly cloudy and that had us in a down mood. Most people caught up on sleep. Finally after lunch the sun decided to come out and stayed out for the rest of our trip.
One day we took a scooter ride to the southern most point of the island. It said in the Lonely Planet that is had the most white sand beaches. It was a little difficult to find the public access to the beach but once we did it was well worth the horrible road we had to drive down. We had to walk through a restaurant to get down on the beach. I thought that was pretty interesting. The beach was gorgeous. The water was crystal clear and the warm sun was shinning high in the sky. It was an amazing day trip.
I have to tell you about the two monkeys that were at our hotel. Well before I tell you about them, I should note that we stayed in Bungalows. Liz and I shared one and ours was infested with mosquitoes. I had never been bitten by more mosquitoes in my entire life. They only bit me on my lower legs. I looked like I had the chicken pox! EEEEK. After a couple days and tons of mosquito incense burning in our bungalow the mosquitoes learned that our bungalow was no place for them. It was the first time I actually had to sleep in a mosquito net.
Back to the monkeys. There were two of them that lived in a cage at the hotel. The cage was not nearly big enough for them and that made us all sad. We thought about buying wood and volunteering to make a new cage while we were on the island. I mean we had 4 days to do it! I never learned the names of the monkeys. They were very smart of course. They loved anything you gave them. It was funny to try and watch them un-do the lid to a water bottle. The hotel was nice enough to give us small bananas to feed them. We all enjoyed that.
The day after our day trip to the south we decided to go on a fishing/snorkeling tour. So we got up early and got on a fishing boat. The fishermen showed us how they fished. Not with poles like we do int he US. Instead they had spindles. It was the first time in my life that I was sea sick. I am not sure what my problem was. So I caught my one fish to contribute to the meal that came later.
After fishing we dove off of the ship with flippers and snorkel masks. We were surrounded by gorgeous coral. The water was so shallow in certain spots that you could stand on the coral (being careful of course). I stood on a piece of coral long enough that the fish started swimming all around me. It was like being in an aquarium that you would visit in the US. AMAZING!!! I saw so many wonderful bright colored fish and coral. I even saw some large fish which can be difficult to find at times. The waves were a little rough on us all but once we got our "fins" everyone seemed to do just fine.
While we weer snorkeling the fishermen were preparing our lunch. This included the fish that we caught. We also got the chance to try sea urchins. I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. The texture is what causes most people not to enjoy them. First you put salt and pepper into the shell and then squeeze a lemon or lime. Then you take a spoon and scrape around the edges, then down the hatch. I think what freaked me out the most was that even though they were supposed to be dead, they were still moving on the outside of the shells. EWWW. Almost everyone tried them. I am glad that I did, although I will know to pass on it if it is ever offered to me again.
We spent our evenings and nights drinking on the beach and enjoying each other's company. We found a pretty fun bar next to our hotel that seemed to be decent enough to be our bar on the island. They even served their version of a bucket, but much larger so they called it a trough. Ha ha ha. We had to share that one, as it was way too much alcohol for one of us to have in one sitting.
"Teht" is known as the Lunar New Year. For those of you that aren't familiar with this holiday, it is very important in the Asian cultures. All countries in Asia celebrate this holiday. It is said to be the equivalent of Christmas in the United States. We were in Vietnam the entire time of the Teht celebration. However we were on Phu Quoc when most people vacationed during Teht. We had a huge problem trying to get off of the island when we needed to. Luckily we got on a ferry, although we left a day earlier than we wanted.
Our route back to Saigon (Ho Chi Man City- the capital of Vietnam), was not a short one. We had to take an hour van ride to the port to catch our ferry. From there we took the ferry for 2 hours.
After the ferry we were shuffled onto a bus. The bus was the worst. There were dogs in bags shoved under seats, no air conditioning, and people were crammed in. I had to "share" a seat with a very large man. I say share because he took up part of my seat and part of his small wife's seat. Most of the trip they were all over each other!! The seat was so high up off the ground that my feet couldn't even reach the ground! So I had to put a crate under my feet so that I had some balance. Mind you I had to be careful because there was a dog in a bag under my seat. Oh and all the old men on the bus decided that it was ok to smoke as often as they wanted! The bus ride took two hours!
When we finally got off the bus, we needed to find a way to Saigon still. It would be about a 6 hour drive. That was another mess. They wanted up to pay upfront and we not very trusting people. All the tickets for the sleeper buses were sold out. We had to finally suck it up and get in a van and pray that we wouldn't be kidnapped. I have to say it was one time in my life that I was seriously afraid of what was going to happen to us. On the positive side, we were all together. I would rather be in a group of 5 than alone that was for sure. After another van change mid way through the drive, we finally made it to Saigon. I think that we all sighed a HUGE sigh of relief when we got into the city limits :)
Na Trang is said to be one of if not the top tourist spot in all of Vietnam. It was supposed to feel like South Padre beach. I have never been to South Padre, but I felt that there was a fair amount of tourists there. Why not? The beaches were gorgeous!
We arrived to Na Trang again early in the day. Unfortunately we did not book a hotel in advance so we spent part of the morning looking at rooms in various hotels. I have to say that I was no impressed with the rooms in any of the hotels. I guess the hotels thought that eventually people had to pick a place to stay because all of the really nice hotels were either booked or way out of our "young backpacker's" budget. We ended up getting a great deal at an empty hotel that was right on the beach. Pure luck!
We spent our time in Na Trang on the beach and taking lots of scooter rides. There are lots of small islands that you can do daily tours of, but they left too early in the morning for our group of late nighters. We were quite happy with our scooter excursions. One day we drove through the mountains and into a small fishing village. On our ride, we ran into some cows just hanging out on the paved roads. It was sort of dangerous! When we got to the fishing village, we saw how impoverished the country really is. The interesting part was that all the people were smiling and so happy. The children were running dirty and skinny throughout the streets, just happy to be alive. Seeing things like that really put your life into prospective and you learn to be very thankful for all that you have.
The last full day that we had in Na Trang, we spent in the mud baths. This was an amazing experience. The mud baths were in this small mountain. It was very difficult to find but well worth the trip. We soaked in mud and had mineral baths. There was also a huge heated swimming pool that had minerals in it, waterfalls, steam rooms, the works. All of us decided to get traditional Vietnamese massages. It last 45 minutes, and I thought it was the best massage I had ever had. The woman are so small that they actually do a "dance" on your back. There are poles that run along the ceiling that they hold onto while they jump on your back! I don't have any pictures from this part of the trip because it wasn't a place that I trusted having a camera because I knew it would get wet and muddy. Bad idea.
The night life was pretty good in Na Trang. We found out that the city was known for these drinks called "buckets". Everywhere served them and they were always the special for the happy hours. It basically was like a mason jar filled with lots of liquor and maybe Red Bull and a juice. We decided that the best bucket had: Vodka, Whiskey, Rum, Pineapple Juice and Red Bull. After one bucket, you were pretty set for the night. Although we were there for a few nights so every night we could drink a little more of the buckets. It was GREAT!! I fell in love with the buckets and think that more bars in the US should serve these. They were cheap too. I think it worked out to be $3/bucket!
One of the downfalls with Na Trang was that the theft was really high. Us girls had to wear our mini pack on the front of us. While it might not have been the most fashionable thing to do, it was the safest. One night Anna and Dave were harassed by a group of Vietnamese people and Anna ended up having everything in her wallet stolen. After that we all locked our passports and traveler's checks into the hotel 's safe.
Overall I loved Na Trang. I thought as a group that we had more fun in Na Trang than anywhere else at that point in our trip.
The next city on the Vietnam tour was Hoi An. This city is along the cost but farther south that Ha Long Bay. It is known for its tailor made clothing shops. We took a quick one hour flight from Hanoi to Hoi An. We reached Hoi An mid morning, and headed straight to our hotel/resort to drop our backpacks and hit the city.
It was a beautiful day. The streets were busy with people ducking in and out of tailor shops. We were so overwhelmed by all of the shops that we decided to head to the river where we heard there were great markets and cafes, to grab a bite to eat and make a game plan. After getting lost trying to reach the river, we finally reached it and went into the first place we saw that had balcony seating where we could chill out and watch the people and the boats on the river.
We were in luck because that cafe ended up doing more for us than just providing excellent Vietnamese cuisine and cheap wonderful beer (10cents a glass). We met a man that worked there and spoke excellent English. He sat with us and talked to us about our trip and where we were headed next. it just so happened that he was a travel agent for Vietnam airlines. Long story short, he booked our flights for the rest of our trip, including the impossible flight to the island of Phu Quoc. We were so ecstatic. After that, we asked him where a certain tailor shop was that we had read online had the best reviews. Not only did he take us there, but his girlfriend worked there! At that point, we made his cafe our meeting point.
Getting tailor made clothing was quite the experience. There are so many decisions that have to be made, and you have to make all of them. After deciding what I wanted made and had all my measurements taken and material picked out, I had to step into a photo booth that had a grid on the inside. They took pictures of me to help the seamstress be able to get a feel for what I actually looked like and my shape. That was it for day one.
The next day we had hoped to take a scooter trip up and down the coastline there in Hoi An. That ended up not being possible, because our day was filled with fittings and adjustments. You had to get over the whole being embarrassed of changing in front of people, because the ladies came in the dressing room with you to pin things and make adjustments. Also the fitting rooms and about 3 other ladies with their workers in there as well. There was a sheet that acted as the door and well every time someone came in you just hoped that you were not exposing yourself to other shoppers that were walking by your "changing room". Wearing a swim suit at all times helped me get past this. I mean if I can wear it on the beach I don't care who sees me in it when I am trying on clothing right?!
It amazed me how fast they made the clothing. I had a wool coat made in about two hours! All in all the prices were very cheap. I spent $30 on my coat and it is 100% wool with Vietnamese silk lining! I also had two dresses, two pairs of shorts, and an authentic Kimono (robe) made.
The architecture of Hoi An reminded me of Miami. All the buildings were bright yellows, pinks, greens, and blues. It was clean and the people were so friendly. Some of the best and cheapest meals I had in Vietnam were in Hoi An. I think that it was one of my favorite and the group's favorite cities.
