Blogs from Kien Giang, Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, Asia

if you want bahn mi, there are plenty of stalls along the main road into town in the morning, with the usual scary, grey-looking pate basking in the heat, and some where you can have omelette inside, cooked there and then. By lunchtime they have trundled off. In the evening there are some local pho places which spring up from nowhere, plastic stools and all, for example outside the petrol station when it closes for the night. Mostly local young people, the occasional adventurous traveller on a budget. Otherwise you have to choose between the beach, the night market or the main road. The main road is cheaper, but there are some big big restaurants which have tour buses outside, and some smarter places, including a Spanish tapas one. Err....... A good alternative is to go ... read more

Yesterday was the day for a snorkel trip. We were picked up at 8.15 by John's Tours after a very parsimonious breakfast, just in case! There were going to be 20 of us but there were only about 11 on the minibus. The others wer picked up from the beaches to the north of the harbour, en route, using a long-tailed boat pulled behind us. Except that at one stop the people weren't there (not their fault, I'm sure!) so we had to wait, bobbing up and down, for about 20 minutes. Neither of us are fans of bobbing up and down! In the minibus we were given a safety card with info on what not to touch when snorkelling, and the penalty for losing their equipment. Turned out to be relevant to one couple later. ... read more

After last night's fruitless yomping, we just couldnt make ourselves go on a snorkel trip, so planned to do very little and then go into town for the night market. Russell, the Canadian who'd recommended Phuong Binh, also had a good place to eat in town, although we were by this time seriously doubting his distances. He'd also slightly put us off hiring a scooter with tales of illegality, police, insurance claims, so I posted on the TA Vietnam forum to ask if anyone had any information about how much we would pay as a bribe if stopped by the police. Grief! Did I really just do that? Then wish I hadn't, as I got a VERY arsy reply, would I think of mentioning bribes to someone visiting Bournemouth? Replied of course not (you tosser!) - ... read more

Phu Quoc is Vietnam’s largest island and a burgeoning center of tourism for the country. Lying in the Gulf of Thailand, it has a small population chiefly living in two towns: Duong Dong and An Thoi. Other than these two somnolent hubs, it is an island of thick forest and long beaches lined with tall coconut trees, the few roads occasionally lined with beach resorts, all of it providing a tranquil emptiness that was a whimsical reprieve from the Vietnamese mainland’s busyness. The peacefulness, however, is planned to end soon as the Vietnamese government is committed to turning Phu Quoc into the next Phuket, especially evidenced by some of the construction occurring. Happily, for the time-being, the island is still an escape. And it would have provided the perfect haven from our nearly-ending trip had it ... read more

Downwards and downwards we circled like a tiny drunken fly. Our 40 seater turbo prop plane from Saigon seemed happier in the air and seemed to want to stay aloft little longer but as we twisted and turned - in a loose figure-of-eight pattern - we saw the tiny jungly island which is Phu Quoc. Covered with rich, dark green vegetation it rose up us from below us. Finally we landed at ‘Phu Quoc International Airport’, a small but well constructed terminal which announces proudly ‘We have money here!’ The airport constitutes one of the few scars on the landscape but as you get to know the island you can see that ‘development’ is the name of the current game. At the moment this is a prime holiday destination for the Vietnamese but very soon all ... read more