Phu Quoc

Until a few weeks ago I had never taken a vacation for the sake of simply relaxing and doing absolutely nothing. So on November 2nd Ryan and I departed from Hanoi to the beautiful island of Phu Quoc to do just that. We spent seven amazing days chilling out on the beach and riding around the island on a motorbike taking in the sights.

A little information about Phu Quoc: It's located in the Gulf of Thailand situated between Cambodia and Vietnam, but it's actually closer to the former even though it's technically part of Vietnam. There have been disputes between Cambodia and Vietnam over who rightfully owns the island.

Phu Quoc's main exports are nuoc mam (fish sauce) and black pepper. They are also known for an indigenous breed of dog: the Phu Quoc ridgeback.

Day one: We left from Hanoi around 8am and landed in Ho Chi Minh City about two hours later. We then flew one more hour to the island on a small propeller plane.

We booked a bungalow on the beach at the Thanh Kieu-Coco Beach Resort and they graciously picked Ryan and I up from the airport. From there it was only a 15-minute ride out to the resort.
















The view from our bungalow was absolutely stunning! Although we didn't have air conditioning or hot water, it was still pretty cozy. It had a hammock! A hammock!

We arrived at the resort around 1pm and napped until sunset. We were exhausted after getting up at 5am and traveling for six hours. I would have actually slept through the sunset, but Ryan woke me up so I wouldn't miss it, and I'm glad he did.


We ate dinner at the Rainbow Cafe attached to the resort and called it a night.

Day Two: That morning we resigned ourselves to spending the majority of the day on the beach swimming and taking in some ultra-violet rays...and that's just what we did. We literally roasted our white bodies in the Phu Quoc sun.



Day Three: After waking up with sun burned skin, we decided to take a break from the beach and rent one of the motorbikes available through the resort and explore the island.

The manager at our resort advised us on some places we may be interested in visiting and we set off to drive around the Southern part of the island.

We drove into a weird garden of sorts with large animals made of stone, pretty flowers and some children who were smoking cigarettes. The boys pointed us in the direction of some crocodiles, so we got off our bike and took a gander. The crocs were behind a fence, but the boys kept joking with Ryan that he should climb over to see them.




We drove a little further into the garden and found a sign for a waterfall. We paid 1.000 vnd (sixteen cents) and started hiking through the jungle. It kind of felt like the hike I did with my brother in California back in May.

On our way out of the jungle we stumbled upon a woman selling jewelry. I bought a pretty green beaded bracelet from a young woman. After purchasing the bracelet she offered Ryan and I some delicious ice-cold tea. It was so delicious
that we bought two bags from her...I wish that we had bought more.

Off we were again on the motorbike. We drove through a fishing village called Ham Ninh and then through another called An Thoi.




From An Thoi we drove to Bai Sao (Sao Beach), one of the most beautiful and pristine beaches on the island. Once we reached the shore we found a little cafe right on the beach and ordered some lunch and a few beers.















On our way back to our resort we stopped at a Pearl Farm where we expected to see boats bringing the pearls ashore. Much to our chagrin it was just a little gift shop and cafe owned by an Australian man. We did, however, get a chance to see a cow/wildebeast sort of creature on the way:


Day Four: On this magnificant, exquisite, fabulous, euphoric, joyous day we got the news that Barack Obama was elected as the 44th president of the United States! A part of me wanted to be home so I could celebrate with my friends and family, but I was just as happy to be where I was.

Ryan and I took the bike out again and explored the north western part of the island. We had to stop at a little town to buy face masks so that we wouldn't breathe in the red dirt as we drove.


We drove through Phu Quoc's national park. It felt like the road through the park went on for ages, but it was so beautiful so it was quite nice. Maybe because we were both in utter elation from the news we heard earlier that day, but we couldn't stop commenting on how pretty everything was or about the amazing weather.

At one point we stopped in a little town to get some delicious locally made sodas. I had a lychee one while Ryan had a salty sour lemon drink.

We continued on our way and found a bunch of boats parked right off of the coast. We stopped to take a few pictures.

Ryan and I started to head back to the resort, but the way back took a lot longer than we expected. It started to get dark, and there were threatening clouds moving in. The rain started to come down pretty heavily at one point and because the rain was so cold, I didn't quite know where we were, and I couldn't see anything I actually started hyperventilating. This isn't something that I normally do either, so it freaked me out. Before too long we started to see a few familiar points and we returned to our resort safe and sound. Phew.

Day Five: We decided that perhaps today we would take a break from the motorbike and just chill out on the beach. We swam a bit and paddled around in the sea in rented kayaks.

Day Six: Today we took the motorbike out yet again and traveled around the north eastern part of Phu Quoc. We drove out to Bai Thom (Thom Beach) and arrived at a small cafe right on the coast. We enjoyed some delectable fish while sitting within perfect view of Cambodia off in the distance only four kilometers away.

From Bai Thom we wanted to take a long road that would have brought us along the eastern coast down to the fishing village of Ham Ninh. We began towards our destination on only an quarter of a tank of gas. There was a bridge early on in the road that had collapsed, so we took a smaller route that took us around. The further we drove the worse the road became. At some points I had to get off of the motorbike so Ryan could drive up steep muddy parts of the road. I started to become nervous and reluctant to continue because we didn't have much gas left, and we weren't 100% sure that this side road would have connected to the main one. When we continued a bit further past the mud the road began to narrow immensely until it was obvious that only one motorbike could pass through at a time. All of a sudden a monkey jumped out in front of our bike and back into the jungle. I immediately jumped off of the back of the bike and refused to continue. Admittedly, I kind of freaked out. I was already hesitant to continue before the monkey, but once that happened it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I wasn't going any further. So we turned around and later discovered that the side road did eventually make its way to the main one, but we didn't know just how much further and if there were any gas stations along the way.

After that little adventure we headed back to the resort and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Day Seven: Since it was our last full day on Phu Quoc, we spent the day just lying around on the beach and read whatever books we had with us.

That evening we went squid fishing with a few other tourists. Ryan and I both agreed that out of everything we did during our vacation this had to be our least favorite. Neither of us caught anything, it was quite boring, and the food that was served on the boat wasn't very good.

Day Eight: Back to chilly Hanoi!

You can go here to see more pictures from our trip.