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Published: June 23rd 2008
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A German word which I may or may not have spelt correctly. It encapsulates the joy one feels when faced with the suffering of others. Any way, right now I'm feeling quite a lot of schadenfreudic joy. This is because I am on Phu Quoc Island right now and everyone else I know isn't. Admittedly just being on Phu Quoc itself is enough to make me joyful. But this feeling is increased exponentially with the knowledge that as I write, everyone else is having to deal with a Monday morning.
As my first stop in Vietnam Phu Quoc makes a pretty good impression. We crossed the Cambodia-Vietnam border at Prek Chak/Ha Tien where my visa I acquired in the UK months before was thankfully accepted without comment. After assuring the nice Vietnamese man at disease control that our bowels were in full working order and that neither of us had any venereal diseases we wanted to share, Yvonne and I made our way to a small docks just outside Ha Tien. We then proceeded on a small wooden motor boat downriver and out onto the open sea. We then rendezvoused with a larger bright blue wooden boat and transferred our
rucksacks over stowing them and ourselves below deck. We then spent the next 3 hours travelling to Phu Quoc with 3 Vietnamese families whilst sitting directly over lots of live chickens.
Once on the island we found a brilliant family run guest house right on Long Beach on the west side of the island. We got a bungalow with an en suite and double beds with mosquito nets, oh and the beach a mere 10 metres away. I hope the pictures do some justice to the island because I'm not sure I can. The sand is so fine you start sinking if you stand still for too long and the sea is the perfect temperature as well as quite rough on Long beach. This enabled Yvonne and me to indulge in some serious wave jumping. The trick is to stand sideways, because then the waves don't hit such a large surface area. Also you can look ahead to see how big the waves are and then look away quickly when one hits you without moving your body. Yvonne insisted on standing with her back to the waves, also she's quite short. She wasn't amazing at it.
The day
after we arrived we went on a snorkeling trip to the small An Thoi archipelago to the south of the island. At first when I got into the water I wasn't that impressed as the water was quite cloudy in places and the coral didn't seem that impressive. But once I got closer to shore the sea life that was on display was the most impressive I've seen. There were corals in so many shades but the fish were more amazing. At one point I floated over a section of coral to find a large shoal of fish that while I remained still were content to swim around me sometimes mere inches from my face. I also found a huge purple and green sea anenome that looked very ominous.
Whilst here we've also taken a trip inland to some of the waterfalls on the island. These are technically a tourist attraction and you have to pay a small fee to get in, so imagine our surprise when we reached the largest waterfall to find a couple...how to put this...canoodling in a state of undress. We noticed them before they noticed us. (Their attention was quite clearly elsewhere at the
time.) Bypassing the pool they seemed to have claimed as their own we climbed to the top of the waterfall during which the couple did notice us. Upon seeing us the woman tried to hide behind a rock. The man however was very friendly and waved at us, although not with both hands. We waved back. I was quietly snorting. When we got to the top we paddled a bit and Yvonne took photos. Unfortunately the current was quite strong and washed away one of my flip-flops. It went over the fall and landed in the couple's pool. Very kindly, after explaining what had happened to him, the man swam over and tossed it back up to me.
Phu Quoc island is definitely one of my favourite places and I hope you understand my undignified crowing. Still, let me offer you your own jolt of schadenfreude: I'm leaving tomorrow and I really don't want to.
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