Arrival in Saigon and moving on to Phu Quoc - big city life and isolated island

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We arrived in Saigon around 11. We bought tickets for the island of Phu Quoc in South Vietnam, we had to pay 52 $ for two tickets with bus and boat, and we had to leave the same night at 10. A bit expensive.

After this, we decided to go see the Cu Chi tunnels just outside the city, we shared a taxi with an Australian couple that we had met on the bus from Cambodia. The tour out there was okay, but we had to turn around a couple of times because the driver didn't know the way.

We saw a lot of their weapons and homemade traps, which where quite brutal. One of the tunnels was bigger than the tourists, so the tourists could try walking around in them (Western people take up a bit more room than the Vietnamese). I tried walking about 15 meters, and Stefanie continued, but I decided I had enough - its very very small and dark in there. We finished off with seeing their old kitchen and dining room and trying some of the food they had eaten (not very good, some kind of overcooked vegetable that was very dry).

The trip back was on the other hand very exiting! Our driver escaped a policeman in the heavy traffic and were close to hitting 3 or 4 bikes on his way, he drove really crazy.. We all four looked at each other shaking our heads but thankful to be alive when we got out of the car. When we came back we had a sandwich for lunch and walked around in Saigons streets. It is a really hectic place so we were happy not to spend too much time there.

The night bus to Rach Gia was confusing, we were a sleep but a couple of times we woke up and saw that the bus was on a ferry or going through a tunnel - maybe we imagined half of it. We arrived in Rach Gia around 5 in the morning and the boat did not leave until 8.

We slept on some benches until the boat left. When we got on the boat they lead us into the V.I.P room (even though we had normal tickets) and we had flatscreen TV's, crackers and water all for free, plus we were the only ones in there so we slept all the way.

We arrived at Phu Quoc around 10:30 and had to pay each 3 $ to be driven to Luna Resort. We got a nice little cottage for 15 $ a night. Vietnam is a bit more expensive than the other countries, so we felt a bit cheap during our time there, but also rich at times since we cashed out a couple of 100.000 dong at a time.

The water just outside our place was a bit dirty but a small hike longer up the beach it was fine and clear. Later we would find out we should have stayed on the other side. We spend the day at the beach and at our bungalow. In the evening we had a very nice shower after almost 3 days on the road.

We had dinner at the resort just next to ours and went to bed early. The next morning I woke up before Stefanie, which was a first. We found a much cheaper restaurant for breakfast, we only paid 90.000 VND for breakfast and fruitshakes for both of us.

We went back and washed our clothes. After this we went up to see the waterfalls, but there wasnt any water so it was just, fall? After this we went to see the local pepperfarm which was a really nice place, we ended up buying some very good spices to bring home with us. We also saw the fish sauce factory, which I hate, and it does not smell good! But it was fun to see though.

In the end we went to a pearl farm but I think the idea of it ws to make us buy the pearls rather than to see the actual farm. For dinner we went back to the cheap restaurant at the beach with the plastic chairs. We had some nice spring rolls and fried rice with chicken. Stefanie managed to drink a whole bottle of beer again, so proud!

The next morning we went on a snorkelling trip, and got surprised because the divers allready arrived at 8 and we were told we should be ready at 8:30, so we were in a bit of a hurry packing our things. It was a really nice trip, with som nice Austrialians and also a Vietnamese couple from the US. We were a bit disappointed in the snorkelling itself though, you couldn't see much and there weren't a lot of colours on the fish and corals.

We also tried fishing from the boat, Stefanie managed to catch a couple of fish but I wasn't patient enough. We finished of with visiting Sao Beach, which is a really beautiful bounty beach and we which we had known that from the start, then we would definetly have chosen to stay there.

We ate at our regular place, had some bbq sticks which were also great! Their small son that we had also talked with the other days was entertaining some of the guests with bowling with empty bottles and a ball. I had a great time with a couple of dogs - 5 stars from me to this little restaurant.

Anyway, next day we had to leave the lovely island in favor of Saigon.

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