We were picked up by a cab the next morning at 4:30am and made our 6:30 flight. However, because the flight had a stop in HCMC, we didn’t get into Phu Quoc Island until around noonish. The plane we took was by far the smallest plane I have ever flewn in. There were only about 15 other people….all couples that seemed as though they were on a honeymoon or celebrating an anniversary.
For those that don’t know, Phu Quoc Island is a secluded island right southwest of Vietnam (part of Vietnam territory, although Cambodia and Vietnam had fought over this area once in the past). The island is about the size of Singapore, with very few people and businesses. However, in just the past few years, about 30 more hotels have been built along the popular beach coast on the west side. We were told that an international airport will be built within the next five years. These flights will include the US, Europe, Korea, Japan, China, and some other countries. It is expected to be the up and coming new tourist beach spot. This is one main reason we wanted to visit the island…before it gets too busy and commercialized/ touristy.
Well, as soon as we landed we immediately took an SUV cab to Bai Sao beach, which we heard was very isolated with beautiful soft, white beaches and with the clearest and calmest water. This location was also known for the place to watch the sunrise. When we arrived, we began our adventure by staying at the first hotel that we saw on this beautiful beach. It was a family-owned business and had maybe only about 8 or so little bedrooms. They had fans in them and open windows, plus later we little ants on the opposite bed in the room we had chosen. They must have been attracted to something we had in our bags that we put out on the bed, but once we put everything away in our bags, they all left back out the window fortunately. We also learned that lights (and the power) were out by 10pm, so you mostly just used sunshine as light at this hotel. In addition, there was a shared bathroom, which had the toilet in a separate room/stall than the sink…which only had a hose for water that dripped into a bucket. Later there was a big scary bug, similar to a bee with longer wings, that was flying around in the bathroom as I was brushing my teeth. This place was definitely rougher than any hotel I had stayed at! But it was only $7 to stay there for the night and we weren’t going to be at the hotel for very long…we were going to adventure all day/night and get up extrememly early (again! And keith’s idea again! ) to watch the sunrise. Plus, we wanted to help out this family and their new business, instead of the popular hotels on the other side.
When we went by the beach to see the view, we saw that there were palm trees everywhere, as well as hammocks for us to lay on and tables to sit at with straw canopies over our heads. The hotel owners spoke few English, but enough to hold a short conversation. They had chickens and a rooster walking freely around the hotel, as well as the popular Phu Quoc dogs. These little dogs were very sweet, obedient and very playful, and had their trademark of a ridgeback….you can see from the picture. I had never heard Keith talk about his love for dogs as much as he did while we were on this island. He told me that if he were to ever get a dog, a Phu Quoc ridgeback dog would be the type he would get because they’re smart, loyal, and not whiney like other little dogs.
We first walked down the beach and saw a few other small resorts. The water was so clear, that even on the plane flying in we could see the shadows of the sun in the water. It was a perfect day out; with the sun shining and not many clouds…it was nice finally being in my swimsuit and getting away from the cold weather in Korea. We saw a lot of coconuts fallen on the beach from coconut trees. We also saw a few ships out in the sea, as well as little white crabs on the sand that would run away from you as fast as possible as soon as you had stepped on their little sand holes. We took a rest at one bar that was part of a resort, and treated ourselves with a passion fruit smoothie! Delicious! They don’t have this flavor back at home.
We decided that we would walk along the one path (dirt road) to find the popular sports activity beach so that we could snorkel or fish. We had amazing views on all sides of us as we seemed to be walking alongside the jungle. After about 30 minutes of walking we came across a small resort, which was actually a hotel that was far down the same beach we were staying on. The staff members working on this hotel were extremely nice and we quickly made friends with all of them. Hye (“Hi”), an older Vietnamese woman was our favorite! She had a great sense of humor, and told us she loved America and that her boyfriend now lives in California. She helped us book a tour with her friend who had a bout tour company who worked on that sports activity beach. The tour would be the rest of the day, so from about 3pm-10pm…we would take a private boat out, go snorkeling, then go fishing, then have dinner at sunset, then squid fish. We would also be picked up and dropped back off at our hotel. This package was for $50 each. It sounded like a great deal, so we took it and hung out with the hotel staff until Hye’s friend, Aye (“I”) picked us up. We took some pictures with the staff and then got some sun laying on their beach.
Hye then picked us up in his new SUV with a/c, right away gave us some water bottles, and took us to the ports. While we waited for his boat, he bought us some Vietnamese ice coffee from a local restaurant. All I can say is that the rest of the night was like a dream! It was so much fun, tons of new experiences for me, and very romantic, which was perfect because Keith and I were celebrating our 2 hear anniversary!
We couldn’t believe that we had this whole boat to ourselves! It was pretty big, and the only other ones on the boat was Aye, the captain, and his wife and young son. The family didn’t speak English so we just smiled and said thanks a lot to them in Vietnamese. But we did talk most of the time with Aye who did know English very well. We learned about his family, his goal to teach his one year old son English as he grows up, of the many travelers he meets when he gives tours, the life on Phu Quoc Island and in Vietnam, and the future goals of the island with improving tourism. Keith and I taught Aye an English kids song later that night (“heads, shoulders, knees and toes”) and we exchanged e-mails to stay in touch.
The first activity we did was snorkeling. Keith and I sat on the top of the boat until we made it to a tiny island/bay. We got off and I put on a safety vest….which looked hilarious in the pictures! I look like a duck! We swam around together for about an hour. The area was filled with coral, tons of fish, some Vietnamese fish, and lots of plant life. I’ve never snorkeled in an area with as much marine life as this one. My dad would have loved it! When we finished snorkeling, we fished in the same area. Keith loves to fish but was excited to learn that we would fish with a hand line, instead of using a fishing rod. It was actually pretty easy. You just have to drop the line down into the water until it landed on the bottom, then once you feel a nibble, you quickly pull up on the line so that the fish gets stuck, then pull up the line all the way until you have the fish. I caught 5 fish and Keith caught 4. Both Keith and Aye were very proud of me because one fish that I caught (you can see in the picture) was a rare Vietnamese fish to catch, and was even more delicious when we cooked it later. The captain and his wife cooked all our fish, as well as some others that they had caught and they served us a big feast at sunrise. It was very romantic and we had everything from cooked fish, rice, delicious morning glory veggies, a tasty soup, watermelon, tea, and beer.
After dinner, we were taught how to squid fish. Apparently, since the moon was out tonight, it was a difficult night to catch squid fish because they aren’t attracted to the light. So many fishers would not usually come out to squid fish on this particular night. However, Keith ended up catching one, so he must have gotten pretty lucky! We fished in the same way with a hand line, except that you have to continue bobbing the line up and down until it feels extremely heavy, in which you then have to pull up as fast as you can to catch the squid fish. When Keith caught his and was trying to take the hook off, it struggled and squirted black and clear ink everything! The captain took it and put it in a little baby pool. After we spent some time squid fishing and chatting with Aye, Keith asked if we could try some raw squid/ sushi style! Well, trying raw squid was a first time for all of us, including Aye. The dipped the fish into soy sauce mixed with wasabi, while I only dipped it into soy sauce. It was pretty good, but very chewy. Some of the squid’s skin was glowing and sparkling, which showed that it was still somewhat alive! Can’t believe I tried it! Aye said that he was surprised we could eat it because almost every single westerner he has met would get an upset stomach and wouldn’t want to eat it raw. Guess we’re the real adventurers!
The rest of the night included us watching the sunset together, then taking the boat back into the dock. When we got off the boat, literally about 30 Vietnamese people of all ages…kids to elders… were all watching us and acting as though we were celebrities getting into our SUV ride with tinted windows. Maybe they thought Keith was a famous sports player because he was wearing one of his jerseys. Who knows, but I waved to all of them and they all smiled with big eyes and waved back excitedly.
We assured Aye and Hye that we wanted to come back and visit both of them and take a Mekong Delta boat tour (which Aye explained to us that he also booked).
We went to bed when we got back to our hotel, and hoped that all the ants were back outside. But we did see a gigantic colorful lizard right outside our room. Check out the picture! These things could be found everywhere in Vietnam and Cambodia.
At around 5am, we woke up (luckily on our own with no set alarm) and watched the sunrise together near the beach…the water was actually very high on the beach so we sat on a ledge next to it. We talked about our trip, future trips, our dreams, the two years now that we’ve been together, life, etc. It was a wonderful way to start another year together, as well as a new day. We enjoyed watching the amazing colors in the sky over the beach and beautiful clear water and I took a bunch of pictures to capture the moment. When the sun finally came up, we heard the rooster give his wakeup call and then it flew in a tree?? Is he supposed to do that?? The workers at the hotel started getting up and some men began building straw canopies. We watched them for a while, as well as fisherman far out in the distance on small canoes. Then we decided to order some breakfast before we spent the whole morning laying on the beach. This was a very authentic home-made Vietnamese meal, so it was probably the most delicious meal we had in Vietnam. Keith and I ordered a seafood noodle dish, and had the Vietnamese ice coffee. It was amazing! The seafood had octopus, shrimp, some crab and scallop and the seasoning was also what made it. And it came to only about $3 for the food...which was very typical for all meals we ate in Vietnam. The signature Vietnamese seasoning consists of the well-known Vietnamese pepper, mixed with salt, and then adding lemongrass and fish sauce. Since Phu Quoc is where the pepper is originated from (the US and other countries get their pepper from here too, or so we were told), we bought a small container of fresh pepper mixed with salt. We have been using it on some dishes since we’ve been home and can’t believe how distinct the flavor is.
After thanking the staff member for the delicious meal and telling her how happy we have been staying at her hotel, we made our way down the beach and paid one more visit to our good friend Hye. She was surprised and excited to see us. We chatted for a bit, then took a long nap out in the bright early sun on a beach chair.
At 10:30am we took a SUV cab back to the airport and then headed to our last destination: Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). We had the day to spend touring the city, then our final next day (Saturday already!) we had a Cu Chi Tunnels tour, before heading back to Cambodia, then flying back to Jeju Island/ Korea.
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