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Published: November 20th 2009
I am back... sorry for the delay in blogs but as you all know I am now home... the last week was just so crazy (and relaxing) that my blogs got forgotten for awhile! After settling in, getting back to work and have unpacked (well half of my stuff) I am ready to sit down with a cup of tea and try remember everything we did! Crazy times!
So we left our little hotel Bich Duyen and got a taxi to the airport... for some reason it was only $8 on the way back out (even though they had charged us $13 for the trip in) .. thought that was a little strange but the convenience factor weighs in I guess! We got to the airport, checked in and went to wait in the lounge area... I was afraid that we would be going on a small plane but felt reassured at the gate to see a 'normal' sized plane waiting near our gate.. all good.... that was until we were told it was boarding time and a bus pulled up at the bottom of the stairs... I had taken two valium but the panic set in... especially when it
was pointed out to me by a kind Aussie gent standing next to me on the bus which plane was in fact ours.. this set off the chain reaction of frantically swallowing another two pills without water and a lot of 'OMG' sounds .... it was a 'small' ATR72 twin propellor plane... not the smallest thing in the world but TOO small for me! Shit!!!!! Oh well paradise is just a small hour death flight away.....
Thankfully McKay warned me that when we were set to take off it would get really loud with the propellors.. she was right... and I was okay with that (maybe the valium had something to do with it) ... A short flight later we circled over Phu Quoc Island for landing.. the landing strip was TINY! Once safely on the ground it was a quick 2 minutes until we were out looking for our transfer.. it failed to show and so we negotiated a taxi ride paying 80,000 dong (probably should have been half but it converted to under $5 so who could complain!)
Arriving in Paradise
Once arriving at our resort we were quietly excited, not really sure
what to expect... we had originally booked into the famous 'Beach Club' that everyone raves about but had to change rooms twice while there and were then going to head over to Mango Bay for the last night.. but after lots of travelling around we decided at the last minute to get a hotel where we could just stay put for the 4 nights... we are so so thankful we did.. the place was perfect.. We had chosen Cassia Cottage and had a little bungalow about 10 meters from the pool and less than a minute from our beach chairs...
We had heard alot of mixed reviews of Phu Quoc, with alot of people saying that the beach wasnt THAT great, that is was quite dirty.. however we couldnt believe our luck.. we had chosen a time of the year where it was beautiful one day, perfect the next.. Having walked up to Beach Club and all the way down to Saigon Phu Quoc (last resort heading north) we both agreed that our location was perfect.. we were right in the middle of the beach with restaurant options both directions... We were surprised about Beach Club getting the reviews
it does.. we almost didnt find it as it was SO remote.. you had to walk around a rocky headland at one end of the beach... and once around there the walk between there and Beach club was on a really really narrow piece of beach and it was so dirty.. rubbish everywhere... Beach Club had hardly any beach... and we agreed that we were both stoked to not have chosen this location in the end...
Anyway back to the start, I've digressed a little... so we check in (where we were produced with a large plate of fruit while we signed our paperwork) and then shown to our room which was perfect... it was the first time we had to share a bed (it was our last option when we booked) and they had a little romantic WELCOME on the bed... GREAT START! It took us about 5 minutes to get into our bikinis and settle in on the beach front... we ordered some lunch and cocktails and proceeded to relax and get our much needed tans!
After a few hours of tanning we deciced to do the walk along the beach and headed north.. we got
as far as Saigon Phu Quoc Resort and have to say as fancy as it looked we werent impressed.. the guests had NO beach there at all... it was horrible... on our way back we were craving coffee so stopped in at Luna Resort ( a new resort which looked nice, and was cheap to boot) and had coffee and accessed their free wifi! The sun was starting to set so we slowly walked back to our resort taking photos before settling down with a beer to watch the rest of the sunset at our resort.
Once the sun was down we freshened up and headed off to find some dinner... we were both intent on gorging ourselves on seafood while on the Island and gorge we did! We ended up at a little resort Nhat Lan and gorged ourselves on bbq fish and prawns... During dinner we were saying that we needed to find some other people to hang out with that weren't 'couples'... Phu Quoc was a little bit of a couples island... we saw a group of guys eating near us but they left soon after... we were like 'hmmmm where could they possibly be going!?'
After dinner we decided to walk back down the beach home and maybe stop at a quiet bar for drinks... just near Eden Bar we saw three guys walking towards the bar.. before I knew what was happening McKay was off... running after them.. yelling in her best American accent "excuse me excuse me...." ... When she caught them she was like "what are you guys doing"... the guy looking slightly startled replied "going to play pool here" pointing to Eden Bar... and McKay was on it "can we hang out with you?" .... Ummmmmmmm sure! LOL
So we ended up playing pool with Steve, Enda and Noel... Steve was from the UK and travelling by himself.. and Enda and Noel were Irish brothers... Noel lives in Saigon teaching English and Enda was over visiting him... A little while later some of the guys that we had seen at dinner ended up at the same place and said they had been to 'town' but it was shite so were looking for the action.. I told them with my best smile that THIS was all the action! They settled in for beers too! I feel bad as I have
forgotten one of the boys names but they were from the UK (Suk, Sam and unknown boy... I shall name him John Doe) LOL
Tough As!!!!!
After a few beers I decided to act cool and show the boys a 'pool trick' ... its basically where you balance the white ball on top of two other balls against the wall down one end of the pool table.. you then tell people that you are going to shoot another ball up from the other end and hit the white ball without touching the two it is balancing on and without any ball leaving the table... what you do is shoot the ball up slowly... and when it is almost there you hit the table with your fist.. it causes the balls to roll away.. the white to drop and the ball hits it!
Unfortunately I had drunk too many beers and instead of slamming my fist on the table.. I slammed my wrist... and the pain was unbelievable... there was NO way I was going to let them know I had injured myself... NO WAY.. I smiled.... while I had pain shooting up my arm and
hand... my ring and little finger were numb... I think I may have had tears in my eyes!!! LOL... I then made a graceful exit to the bar for 'a beer'... Once at the bar I was like "give me ICE NOW" ... I then ran to the toilet and iced my wrist... it had blown out like a golf ball was sitting on it... F%!$(MISSING)K!!!!!!!!!!
Once I had regained my composure I went back out, pulled McKay aside and showed her.. I then swore her to secrecy! LOL And.... the game went on! We called it a night around midnight and left the boys still playing pool... we arranged to meet up with Suk, Sam and John Doe the following morning to go motorbike riding around the island but when we woke up the next morning decided to cancel and laze on the beach again..
Blissful Laziness
Day 2 was pretty much a lazy day on the beach... woke up, had some breakfast.. moved to the sunloungers.. lathered ourselves in sunscreen, ordered cocktails, put in the Ipods and slept the day away... broken up by the occassional dip in the ocean... We moved to
beers after the 3rd cocktail as we werent convinced they actually had any alcohol in them .. It was bliss.. tall glasses of Ice with Saigon beer over the top.... My wrist was now turning a nice shade of purple and black!!! Late afternoon I wandered to the massage hut for an hour long massage while McKay continued to sleep... We arranged to meet up with Steve, Enda and Noel for dinner later that night.
We turned up at Steve's resort for dinner... it was located right next to Eden Bar and had an awesome seafood bbq... We ordered 20 scallops, 8 prawns and a massive fish (and that was just McKay and me) and downed it with Saigon beer. Not long after we sat down the funniest thing happened... McKay sneezed.. about 20 seconds later I noticed the biggest piece of snot on her arm... hehehehehe... I was trying not to laugh but didnt want to embarrass her in front of Steve... so while he wasnt looking I did the whole eye thing at her arm.. she eventually looked and cracked up laughing... we were in stitches... Steve was looking at us like we were freaks... and we
tried to cover it up by talking nonsense! We later told him but at the time it was just too hysterical...
Noel and Enda eventually turned up and after a few more beers we went to Eden bar for more pool and beers... Suk, Sam and John Doe eventually turned up... Sam with his ankle strapped... we had been reluctant to motorbike at Phu Quoc as I have heard many horror stories about the roads.. and sure enough.. Sam had barely made it 200 meters from the resort before stacking it (oh that was after he stacked it at the resort right at the start of getting on!!!).. like a trooper he had got back on and driven around the rest of the day with a sprained/broken ankle (cant remember how bad the damage was)
From Eden we decided to head to another bar around the corner near the main road that the boys had found the other night.. on the way there though we heard doosh doosh music coming from somewhere so decided to follow the sound... we wound up at some resort down in a random basement nightclub.. that was full of Vietnamese dancing... hilarious.. we
were straight on the dancefloor with the locals.. there was a few young Vietnamese boys with really random dance moves, a girl that we think was a local prostitute type who took a shine to McKay and I and then later on the boys... a ladyboy... the standard old Westerner guy looking out of place and all of us!
After busting some moves on the dancefloor we headed to another bar but after one beer McKay, Steve and I all called it a night.. we walked Steve back to his resort and then headed on to our own... stumbling down the beach in the pitch black with only the moon leading the way!!
Blissful Laziness Part 2
We woke up on Day 3 to some rain and wondered if our sun luck had run out.. but not long after breakfast the rain cleared and the weather turned perfect... we strolled down to the sun lounges and spent the entire day sunning ourselves and drinking more beer! We were perfectly content! At one stage McKay caught a crab after I dared her saying they were too quick... it took her all of 30 seconds to prove
me wrong! I was taking a photo of it in her hand when she decided it would be hilarious to throw it at me... not only did I scream like a complete sissy but I threw my camera away into the sand.. very funny moment and I am happy to say the camera survived!!
Enda and Noel had left that morning and Steve was due to leave the following morning so we decided to head on out for dinner with Steve.. we went into town and wandered around a small nightmarket.. it was very small and the best thing about it was the deep fried bananas... from there we ended up at a recommended restaurant Ocean Grill, where we dined on seafood and wine... The service and food were excellent.. one of our most expensive meals in all of Vietnam but so nice... At one point Steve had sauce on his chin so I made him smile for the camera before handing him the camera in stitches... what I should have done with McKays snot the night before! Luckily he saw the funny side of it.. After dinner we ended up at the Dog Bar which was a tiny
bar in the middle of nowhere run by an Aussie dude.. he was your typical Aussie and sooo nice.. We even decided to have a few Fosters beers since Fosters is known as the Australian beer everywhere overseas (god knows why when we dont drink it here!!).. From there we walked home drunk and tired... McKay crashed out so Steve and I went down to the beachfront and had a couple more beers and a midnight swim! Lots of fun!
And More Blissful Laziness....
Day 4 started out a little hungover.. we stumbled to the beach, ordered hamburgers then crawled to our sun lounges to soak up some sun.. our tans were coming along very nicely by this stage.. and the weather was perfect... AGAIN. While laying there we noticed that a bunch of local kids playing in the surf collecting stuff... we went to investigate as we had seen them doing the same thing the day before.. they were clam hunting digging in the sand at the waters edge so we joined in and spent the next half hour digging for clams.. lots of fun and the kids loved it.. after a while I jumped
in for a swim and suddenly had them all surrounding me.. the boys kept touching me and giggling and I think they were all laughing at my big boobs.. I started to feel a little self conscious so got out for a beer... and McKay took my place.. she spent the next half hour playing with the kids in the water.. they were climbing all over her and making her swim while they all held on.. at one stage she had about 5 of them hanging off her! Very cute!
I ended up giving one of the boys my NY cap and he put it on sidewards and wore it with pride in front of the other kids.. we felt bad we had nothing else to give and McKay was refusing to give up her cap as she happened to be wearing her favourite one.. its times like this we wished we had bought little gifts for the local kids.. they were such treasures...
Once they had moved on we settled back in for more tanning and more beer.... We then decided it was time for a walk and decided to head up to the Beach Club.. I
have already spoken above about our thoughts on the Beach Club and its location so I wont go into it here as well... we ate lunch there (food was really great) and then wandered back down to our hotel... Once the sun had gone down we decided to head back to the night markets and try out some food there.. they had a stack of roadside stalls with fresh seafood and had quite a crowd the night before... we ordered a feast of crab fried rice (one of the best things all trip), scallops skewers, prawn skewers, beef skewers... all washed down with Saigon beer and cost us less than $10! We were pretty wiped out so McKay grabbed herself another deep fried banana and I grabbed a three bean coconut drink (very yummy) and we headed home... a quiet night was needed!
Goodbye Paradise
We woke up feeling a little dodgy on our last day and were dismayed to see it was raining.. our plan had been to check out in the morning and hang on the beach until flight time but the rain was making us depressed.. we tried to change our flight to
an earlier time but were unable to, so we checked out and spent some time in the internet room... At lunch time we wandered up to another resort for lunch and had burgers.. We then went back to get ready for the airport. The resort were kind enough to let us use an empty room to have a quick shower to freshen up... then we were off...
Once at the airport my depression at leaving paradise was offset by the sheer panic at seeing that not only were we on another small plane out of there, but that it was clearly the oldest one that Vietnam Air own! It was so old and dodgy looking so as per usual I downed a few drugs and had a beer... becoming a bit of a habit! LOL....
Anyway that is the marathon email on Phu Quoc... we didnt really do much but we met some great people and had a load of fun and relaxation time and I will definitely be back.. it truly is paradise... Wow!
Stay tuned for my Saigon / KL blog... probably the last one until the next trip! Sorry about the 3 pages of
photos! Couldnt make it any less!!!
Love Reet xxx
PS... John Doe does have a name.. its Jack... close ;-)
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Rene
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Phu Quoc
Another excellent read, Phu Quoc sounds like a great little place, really going to miss your blogs Rene xxxxx