Vietnam and beyond

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Island great value, our accommodation on the beach is $20 per night for room with ensuite. Lovely place, beautiful beacn. Weirdest thing is the English guy running it comes from Berko (for our Aussie friends who don't know that is our home town in the UK). Weirder still is the fact that the year we left he moved into a house 3 doors down from where we were living when we left.

Fantastic fresh fruit juices here and great food.

Took a boat out snorkelling a couple of days ago, crew managed to ground the boat - hilarious watching them try and get it off the sand bar. great people but no-one speaks english which makes for interesting times. Floating fish markets are amazing and just to see how many little huts they can fit on a small beach - very different life, hard work but they seem happy. Watched a young lad catch a huge fish from a polystyrene square board with just fishing line.

It could be paradise but a few thorns exist - they net fish huge areas every day and the fish are running out, fisherman are giving up as they can't catch enough to feed their family's. One snorkelling spot was so full of rubbish it was awful and many beaches are littered with plastic bags and such like. They also imported hunting dogs to the island which has decimated the local wildlife. For once I think tourism might be the answer, create jobs and stop other stuff. Need some eco tourism though, not the awful high rise things that are being built.

Hired a jeep yesterday - fantastic day. Only downside was that the driver did not know how to drive it and the gears were stuck. Just meant we kept getting stuck across the road if he tried to tirn round. He had an amazing habit of stalling in very bad places, namely the middle of very deep puddles in clay soil.

We went north (as we had gone south as part of snorkelling day out). Scenery is stunning, most of the island is National Park but you can't yet go in it unfortunately. So many empty beaches. Took a walk up to a waterfall and had a look at a fishing village. Pearls here are plentiful and are sold everywhere. Pepper is the main crop - fresh pepper is absolutely wonderful. Fish sauce comes next - didn't think we could stand the smell so did not go to the factory (harbour was bad enough).

Off for a swim, last lazy day before trekking off towards Cambodia

Have fun all

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Comments

[Sue]

Great to see you guys are having fun exploring. Love the Travel Blog, keep it up.if i don't hear from you beforehand, have a great Christmas. Sue