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Having arrived at HCMC airport for our 10.am flight, I was distraught to be told the flight was cancelled due to technical difficulties. In true Heidi fashion every programme of air crash investigation flashed before my eyes! However we were pretty sure once we boarded the next flight at 10.40am that the technical difficulty lay in the fact the 10am flight was empty and luckily our new seats were right at the front so we got plenty of leg room, not really an inssue for me, but a blessing for Bon.
Phu Quoc is a relatively undeveloped island surrounded by powdery sandy beaches fringed with palm trees and turquoise waters, the area is due for massive development in the next few years and to see it unspoilt you need to go now. Something we were quite looking forward too. Having been feeling sick for so long now and having so much to see and do, spending some relaxing days lazing on the beach is just what the doc ordered.
We arrived at the airport and a couple of guys approched offering a free taxi to their hotels "if you don't like you no pay taxi" bonus!! We had a
look at the first resort both offering rooms for $20 - it was ok, TV, fridge, A/C and hot shower but the other place was offering a pool so we had to take a peek before deciding. We hopped next door to the Tropicana and to be fair the room wasn't quite as nice, sensing this the guy offered us a little cabin for $25 (it's out of season at the moment so there are lots of deals to be had - it's only a shame that the beach front chalets, which are gorgeous are only knocked down to $50!!). No TV in this room but the idea of the pool won us over and so the Tropicana would be our home for the next 3 nights!
The resort (like many) was situated right on the beach and yes there is powdery sands and clear waters and you can really feel the area is under developed, the roads are awful and there's not many places to eat and drink apart from the hotels - but it's a rustic little paradise and as its out of season, we practically have the whole place to ourselves. The weather is really hot
still, but we have been told that over the next few weeks rains become more frequent and winds pick up until the rain is constant and the seas to choppy to bath in - but for now it was perfect.
We spent the first day sitting on the beach, swimming and sunbathing and watched the sunset on the horizon before heading back to get showered before dinner. Taking our time, we left about 8pm in search of somewhere to eat - the hotel restraunt was closed, the beach was dark, but we took a wander, somewhere had to be open. Turns out somewhere didn't have to be open and places all shut up shop by 9pm. Hungry we wondered into the resort next door to us, which is a little upmarket and we were allowed to order some ice-cream (which wasn't ice-cream) with our drinks and we ended up having a little chat with the guy that owns it who has been there 12 years!
Hungry in the morning We ordered from our limited free breakfast menu, my ommelette and bread turned up covered in ants!! No wonder Bon said I could have that one, his was ant
free! Anyway with that behind us we decided to spend another day lazing on the beach - and leave the exploring until tommorow. Today we even managed to get out by 7pm and find somewhere to eat, even though we were the only people in there.
Next morning I changed my breakfast for the banana pancake which was scrumpcious and ant free and we talked about what to do with the day back in the room. Turns out today would be a day for me to save all creatures great and small as this really beautiful humming bird flew in our room and got trapped. We told the staff but they said no worries it was sleeping, but it wasn't. We left it for a bit to see if it would get out on its own but when we came back half an hour later it was still there painting and looking extremely stressed. It then flew over to the window and in exhaustion just fell to the floor, so I scooped him up, hung out the window in the bushes to let him go, but he just perched on my finger for about 5 minutes untill he had
recovered enough to fly into the nearest tree.
After this bit of excitment we decided to be lazy again and have another beach day (this also involved me saving a number of insects - butterflies, little bees and dragon flies from the swimming pool). In the afternoon we decided we should make some effort to see the place so we popped to 'town' to visit the local ice-cream bar Buddies - which is awsome!! On the way home we hopped on the back of two motorbike taxis for the ride home, which for me was pretty uneventful, but for Bon was a different story. He wasn't too happy being a passenger - mumbled something about being to tall and having a poor centre of balence - which is his excuse for why he almost died twice. First time the driver swerved as to not hit someone and he almost fell off, the second time was skidding sideways down our very steep drive - he was fine though (although I still haven't finished hearing about how he almost died almost 10 days on!).
We spent the last morning enjoying the last of the sunshine on the beach before heading back to HCMC for the evening before catching our overnight train to Nha Trang.
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Heather
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I loved your photos of the island! Looks so stunning, and reminds me of my own time in SE Asia! But I never had a Hummingbird perch on my finger! My blog is looking for travel photos, reviews, etc, to share (like good places to stay on Phu Quoc ;) If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email us at dirtyhippiesblog@gmail.com. Continued fun on your travels! Heather :)