Phu Quoc

---

Up early today to get to the airport for our flight to Phu Quoc Island. It was another small plane where we met the people we had travelled on the bus to Vang Vieng and had also seen several times when we had been travelling south in Vietnam. The flight took just under an hour and we then got a taxi to the place where we were staying. We had looked on the internet the day before for somewhere to stay and had called up the beach club to book a bungalow. When we approached the place we were a bit worried, we hadnt paid anything though so we decided we would have a look and if we didnt like it we could look elsewhere. However, once we had gone down the track to the resort it looked great. There were 4 bungalows, 2 pretty much on the beach and 2 slightly set back. Behind these there was a building consisting of 6 rooms and in the middle a restaurant which opens up onto the beach. On the beach were a few sunbeds with parasols and a couple of hammocks. We had a bungalow set back slightly but it was still in an amazing position. It reminded me of the huts we stayed in when i went on safari in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. The roofs were made of palm trees and instead of being circular they were little squre bungalows. Like the ones in SA we had several lizards living with us, but thankfully no bats in the roof!

We got some lunch and watched the locals drag in their fishing nets. They used home made man powered winches which pulled in over 1km of line. It took them over an hour for the whole process. In the net were 5 or 6 huge jellyfish which they chucked out onto the beach and then loads of fish. There were several different varieties, a couple of squid and a few crabs. The lady from the resort bought some to cook for their tea and said she didnt serve them to the guests because they were too small but at dinner we could try some. It was fascinating to watch. Once they had packed their nets away ready to relay, we took a dip in the sea. It was warm like a bath but with loads of hermit crabs scurrying about and so Dm would not touch the bottom. After swimming for a little while, Dom also got stung on the eyebrow by a plankton.

After sunbathing for a little while dom went into town on the back of a motorbike taxi to organise flying back oto the mainland while Rachael sunbathed some more.

When Dom got back and after a little more sunbathing and book reading we wathced the sunset behind the clouds looking out over the sea. The different shades of red, pink and yellow were beautiful but you could tell this wasnt the best it could be.


For dinner we sat in the restaurant and had some of he fresh fish which we had watched being caught that day. They were in a chilli and lemongrass coating and had been bbqed, they tasted lovely!

After the meal we played monpoly and battleships and got interrupted by a dung beatle type bug which was huge and flew with some mechanical type arms. It had a hard shell and was having difficulty flying, eidently it was quite poisonous.

In the hut after a few hours of reading we managed to fall asleep to the sound of the waves.

---

Comments

[R,s Mum]

Bungalow sounds good. warm sea must be wonderful. Could do with some of that! Didn't know plankton stung. Was it bad? Sunsets like Mortehoe? You must have quite a tan by now.