FootLoose in Asia This journal is primarily for family and friends to follow our progress on our SouthEast Asia adventure through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and possibly Malaysia and Myanmar (Burma). Hopefully there will also be some useful information to others planning a trip to thease areas.

Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam 27 January – 1 February, 2007 After checking out of the hotel in HCMC, the taxi driver that was to take us to the airport for our flight to Phu Quoc spoke no English, so we hoped we had communicated “airport” properly. We assumed we had because he flapped his arms a couple of times. We did arrive at the airport, but at the international terminal instead of domestic. Not to worry, the domestic terminal was “just over there”! It was close, but between us and the domestic terminal was a swarm of people waiting for the arriving passengers from international flights. It was not an easy trip from A to B, but we made it after using our luggage cart to run interference. Yet again, the flight was uneventful. The only notable item was that the plane was an old propeller plane, albeit a fairly large one. On arrival at the one baggage claim in Phu Quoc, we were surrounded by representatives from the various hotels trying to get us to go to their hotels. This was useful, because as normal we had not booked advance reservations. We did have a list of a half dozen hotels we had checked out on the internet while in HCMC, so we had an idea of what to expect at most of them. We picked one that offered a beachfront bungalow for a reasonable price (even lower than the internet price) and boarded the minibus with a promise they would take us to another hotel if we didn’t like it. The hotel was fairly new, clean, and the bungalow room was only steps from the hotel beach, so we said OK and checked in. After a brief organization we headed to the beach for some relaxation in the waning afternoon sun. On our arrival we were somewhat surprised with the competition for hotel guests during what is supposed to be the high season, and we were also pleasantly surprised there were not many people on the beach. It turns out that Phu Quoc has what are described as the best beaches in Vietnam. Our hotel was on the western side of the island on a beach called Long Beach, which is aptly named as it runs for half the western coast of the island, from the middle to the southern tip. This also seems to be where the majority of the hotels and “resorts” are located. While Phu Quoc may have some of the best beaches, it is still relatively small and slow paced. There are no high rise hotels and crowded beaches. The hotels consist primarily of one story bungalows and some two to four story hotels. There is a striking lack of hawkers unlike other Southeast Asian beach resorts we have visited. There is also a lack of external facilities such as restaurants, bars, etc. other than the hotel facilities. We were returning from dinner at the hotel restaurant the first evening when we heard a shout from the beach to “come here”. It turned out to be a group of local boys who ran a cano (small speedboat) service and wanted us to take a trip with them while we were on the island. They were having a BBQ on the beach and had a supply of beer and fresh fish they had caught that day. We joined them for a quick beer and a sample of BBQ stingray, before we called it an evening. While we never did take the boat trip, this group also dispatched beach lounge chair cushions, and we were well taken care of the next few days. As previously noted Phu Quoc is very underdeveloped and is a hidden treasure if you are a lover of doing nothing but lazing on the beach and going for an occasional swim. There really isn’t much else to do here. There are a couple of local restaurants nearby, but not much else. If you are one of the partying crowd and looking for nightlife, you will be disappointed here. Many hotels aren’t even equipped with TVs, and if those that do have them are anything like ours, you will soon get bored of reality cop and coroner shows on the couple of English speaking stations. There are no English speaking news or sports shows that we could find. That said, we were happy to laze on the beach until the last full day of our stay. On that day we decided to rent a Jeep, complete with driver, for a drive around the island to see the sights. The day started a bit rough with the drivers limited English along with the fact he thought we had booked for a half day instead of a full day. Not completely sure how long we would have, we decided to stick with the southern half of the island as most of the highlights are in that area. Without boring you with too many details, we visited a pearl farm, the fishing town and port of An Thoi, the Coconut Prison (used first by the French, then American, then Vietnamese), Bai Sou (beautiful beach), a pepper farm, and finally a Phu Quoc Ridgeback Hunting Dog puppy farm. By the time we finished these after five hours on mostly dirt roads, we were glad we didn’t go for the full day as we were completely covered in red dust from the roads, and J had a headache from the fabric roof on the Jeep banging the top of his head from the wind. To top off the day the gas tank ran dry just a couple of kilometers from the hotel, but fortunately we were in town and coasted to a stop in front of one of the many locations that sell gasoline in plastic liter bottles. When we arrived back at the hotel, the first thing we did was change into swim suits and hit the water to get the dust off. That accomplished we dozed on the shade of the thatched beach umbrella for a couple of hours before heading out to one of the few nearby restaurants that we hadn’t tried for our last Phu Quoc dinner. After dinner we decided to walk a couple of kilometers into Duong Dong for dessert at an ice cream shop that had free internet access. After an ice cream and checking emails, we walked back. During this walk we encountered five local guys going the opposite direction. The first four passed, but the last one put out his hand to shake hands with J and asked where he was from. As usual, J cautiously said England, and the guy then said he was from Vietnam (surprise, surprise). The guy then moved closer to J, and before J could react, his new found friend planted a kiss on his cheek. It was only J’s quick reaction that prevented it from being placed elsewhere. We then headed back to the hotel where J promptly washed his face and hands. While Phu Quoc was a great place to chill out and for D to rest up to help her arm heal and get over her bout of cold/flu, we were not disappointed when it was time to move on. While we are not party animals, five days of nothing but the beach is plenty for us. We considered doing a dive or fishing trip one day, but between D’s arm/shoulder and the fact the Vietnamese have pretty much blown up or eaten everything on the reefs, we decided against it. Another thing missing from Phu Quoc is a bird population which is decimated because the locals search out and eat all eggs they can find. Next stop – Return to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)