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 :)
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