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Published: March 26th 2009
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Phu Quoc is about 100kms offshore from Rach Gia, due east, which on the map shows it to be closer to Cambodia that Vietnam, sitting just 15kms south of the Cambodian coastline. It's over 1000 sq kms of mountainous protected rainforest and some none too shabby coastline. The main stretch, called Long Beach is made up of a few high-end resorts, small guesthouses and a smattering of overpriced beach huts. We opt for Lam Ha guesthouse, which is set back from the beach in really lovely gardens. It's the best of both worlds...just a few steps from the beach, with a secluded and shady garden to retreat from the searing midday sun.
Long Beach is, unsurprisingly, very long and the few businesses have a lot of space. Some seem better than others at keeping their patch clean, and we're a bit disappointed to see plastic bags washed up on the shoreline. It is a really beautiful place for now, but if something isn't done about the rubbish soon then it could be ruined. I'm not sure if it'll be caught in time as the kids here don't seem to be learning about the environment at school and we often see
them chucking rubbish out of bus windows or over the side of boats. If they aren't learning better ways then the future is looking...messy. Still, our guesthouse keeps the area around it pristine and we can just try to make the minimum impact ourselves whilst only using businesses who take their environmental responsibility seriously.
One sleep and it's my birthday! I'd been musing on a lie-in, lazy beach day, maybe a massage and seafood dinner but am woken shortly after dawn by the alarm. Ritch has just raised the birthday bar even higher by booking us onto an island hopping/fishing/snorkelling boat trip around the An Thoi islets at the southern tip of Phu Quoc. A big converted fishing trawler is now all sundecks and loungers and with about 14 others aboard, we head off into the turquoise Gulf of Thailand.
It's a lovely sunny day and the water looks really clean (no plastic!) We stop for a bit of fishing, but all I manage to hook is myself with one off-target cast off, happily unwitnessed 😊 Then we stop for some snorkelling which I have much more luck with. It's really sunny and the water is perfectly calm
so visability is excellent and we stay in the water til we're totally pruned, chasing fish over the coral.
When we clamber back aboard there's fish, noodles and salad for lunch which is demolished in no time, though the tofu for veggies goes largely untouched. Together with a Steve Coogan-esque new friend, we conduct a scientific experiment: we discover that if you throw a scrap of fish skin in the water, hundreds of tiny silver fish appear and hungrily devour their kin. They will also make short work of raw carrot and cabbage, but try a little tofu? Nope, the fish are not biting. Conclusion: tofu is not food.
After lunch we head to another, even more stunning spot for more snorkelling, before heading back to Phu Quoc, to the island's most beautiful beach, Bai Sao. It is incredible. There is a small beach shack restaurant with a couple of huts to rent under the palms and apart from that, it's just nature at it's best. The bay is really shallow and it's now low tide, so we walk in ankle deep water across rippled sand for some way before giving up and simply sitting in the crystal
clear water, surrounded by tiny fish. Some local boys are attempting to play football in the mirror-like shallow water; the ball skidding all over the place as they fall about laughing. This is easily my number 1 beach of the entire trip so far...all bright turquoise, lush green and shimmering silver...there is not a scrap of rubblish and barely any other people. It is picture postcard perfect.
It's a pretty perfect birthday too (if I ignore the whole 33 thing) ended with a few sunset cocktails back on Long Beach at the Eden Bar. We're served by a brilliantly surly waitress, who struts around barking orders to the bar and kitchen through her walkie-talkie. She gets our order totally wrong and then heatedly tells us off for not knowing that the menu has completely mixed up drink names and descriptions. She is absolutely priceless and has me in stitches everytime she glares at everyone around her. We finish the day with a feast in our guesthouse garden of chili prawns, beef satay and fresh spring rolls. I am in birthday heaven, thank you again Ritchie x
We have one more lazy day on Phu Quoc before we must
return to the mainland. Our visas expire on the 19th and we plan to cross the border into Cambodia by boat from the nearby port of Chau Doc. I'll send more from the other side...
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