I arrived to ha tien just after nine that next morning. I was trying to figure out how to get to the boat to get to phu quoc island. I know I had just come from an island but it was suppose to be very nice and I decided to try and get there. A moto driver offered to bring me for 8 dollars but I thought that it was expensive and went looking in my book to see if there was another way. It said to get the boat for rach gia and I just happened to see a bus in the middle of the bus station with rach gia written on it. I went up to the ticket counter and asked about going there and the pointed to the bus that had the sign on it. I asked when it was going to go and it was to leave in like 10 mins. Prefect timing, it was meant to be. So I bought my ticket and got on the bus. It was totally a local bus. No air con just the windows that slide open. I really enjoyed the journey. The only western on the bus watching the locals get on and off with all these huge bags of what ever stuff they were bringing with them.
When I finally got to rach gia I got jumped on by some motorcycle drivers, asking did I want to go to phu quoc island I said I did and they said I had to hurry because the next boat was leaving at half 1 which was in 15 mins. I said I was in no hurry I'll be fine. They asked for a ridiculous amount of money to bring me there and I said no its OK. I'm in no hurray. But they were trying to hurry me as the boat was due to leave soon. I was willing to stay in rach gia if I needed to. They finally gave me a quote for half the price so I decided to take it, especially since it started to rain and rain quite heavy. When I went to buy the ticket it was awful expensive but I bought it, and I was hoping my exchange rate was off. But no it was expensive. And by the time I finally got to the boat I was soaked through.
The boat journey was uneventful but the rain hadn't stopped by the time the boat had reached the island. If anything I had gotten worse. I got a mini bus with another German couple and we ended up at a hotel not to far from the main town.
I was starving by the time I had arrived as I hadn't had time to eat from one journey to the next as it was always leaving just as I arrived. That evening was a quiet one. I had met phat a Vietnamese girl that was working at the hotel I was staying at. She seemed a lovely girl and was telling me she was from the mekong delta and was looking forward to heading home in a couple of days. And I told her that I was heading towards the mekong after the island and asked her for ant tips on were to go. She actually invited me along with her and said she would show me around and I could meet her sister. I said that would be really nice, not thinking that it would actually happen.
The next morning, I went out for breakfast. The restaurant I stopped at the owner was there but there was no cook. He said that the cook had to go get her yearly medical but shouldn't be that long if I wanted to wait. I was in no hurry and had no idea of what I was going to do, so I said I would wait and I would have a caphe sua for aoife while I was waiting. After awhile a German came in to have breakfast too. And also decided to wait. Since we were the only two people there, we ended up talking well we waited. He had been on the island a few days already and had rented a bike a few times to drive around the island. He was telling me where the nice beaches were. He had seen all of the island except the north west but he was going to do that today. When we finally got to order and got our breakfast, I had found out that the German guys name was sven and he invited me along to join him on his bike trip. I decided to go cause it would be nice to hang out with someone for the day and I got to see some of the island as I still hadn't tried driving a motorcycle myself yet.
The day turned out to be really nice and the island is so quiet and peaceful outside the main town. We got lost at the beginning and actually circles the town first before we actually got on the right road heading towards the north. It took us a little while to reach the first beach, where we stopped and decided to swim. There was just us and 2 other couples but after awhile they left and it was just sven and me left. I was kinda cool to be on a beach more or less alone, as sven was a good swimmer so he was out quite far swimming most of the time. I spent most of my time looking for sea shells, and trying to find a matching pair. Didn't have any luck though.
After wards we took off again and stopped at a little restaurant for lunch. It was just seafood on the menu so I ended up having just fried noodles.
Afterwards we made our way back towards the main town, but we were low on fuel so we had to stop in a little village on the way at the petrol station, which was a couple of litre bottles up on a shelf and the lady there had to pour it into the engine with a funnel.
afterwards sven asked was I in a hurray to get back because he tried to find this waterfall the other day but had no luck. And was wondering if I fancied trying to find it with him. I was in no hurray so sven turned down a road he thought that would led to it. We even asked a couple of people were we heading the right way showing them the shitty little map we had. But no one was sure and couldn't help us. So we continued along the road and I was looking at the map. When it looked like we were heading too far and the road was changing direction, I said to sven that I think we need to turn right somewhere. He said you really think so and I said yes. We just past a turn so sven said you think we should try this one. I just shrugged my shoulders saying why not. We turned down it and the road got quite bad and had a lot of puddles. Sven wasn't sure whether we should continue. I said your the one who is driving so its up to you. He decided to be a bit adventurous and went down the road. It got a bit better a little further on but it seemed to come to a dead end. But there was dome kind of restaurant there, so we went towards it. As we got closer we saw a river and I was laughing saying well at least we found water. Thinking we could walk along it. As we parked
the bike a guy came out towards us. I didn't know if he was going to tell us to go, but he actually was helping us park trying to tell us to lock our helmets away. He didn't have much English, but he asked me for my camera, and walked off with it. So of course I followed, saying to sven I guess we found something anyway.
He led us to a suspended bridge and positioned us on the bridge and took a photo. He then walked over the bridge and down a path with us following behind him, not really sure where we were going. We stopped another couple of times with the guy telling us where to stand and he took more photos. At one stage we came to a little crossroads. He stopped and using hand and head signals, he pointed to the path we were on and nodded he head and gave us the thumbs up signal. He then pointed to the paths leading off it shaking his head and saying bad. He repeated what he just did making sure we understood and then continued off again. That just made me curious to find out why we couldn't go down those paths. We followed after our guide and we finally came to our destination. We actually found a waterfall. It was so funny. What was actually the chances of us finding it. But it was pretty cool. Our guide took the last couple of photos and pointed up the waterfall saying that we could climb up. We gave him a tip and he left us.
We climbed up where we found quite a few locals hanging out and having baths in the pools. There were suds in the water and and we found out quite fast that they were made from the locals washing their hair. Sven and I had a dip in the water. We couldn't swim it wasn't big or deep enough and it was cold and refreshing.
After we left there we just headed back to our hotel, were I thanked sven for letting me tag along. It was a really nice day.
I met phat in the hotel, she was heading off to a friends place for a party. Her friends baby was just turning a month old and they celebrate by having a big dinner with friends and family. I had nothing else planned so I went along. It was really nice. They was loads of people there although, we were abit late so some people had finished eating already but there was also other people who came after us. The food was good, great spring rolls. I also found out that Vietnamese people drink whiskey at their dinner, in a shot glass. What they do is that they have one shot glass and pass it around the table. They fill it up but they only drink half of the shot glass and pass it onto the next person. And continue to do that around the table. But they also share with someone on the other side of the table if they like that person or what to say that they are friends. So since I was new, everyone wanted to share a shot glass with me. Needless to say I had a lot of whiskey that night. It was fun though.
I went to bed quite early to sleep in off that night.
The next day I wasn't up much so I just hung around and spent some time on the beach and hanging in a hammock. I thanked phat for bringing me to the party last night and said I had to much whiskey. Which she just laughed at.
She told me that she was heading home to her sisters place on the mekong the next day if I wanted to come with her. I was planning on going there soon anyway and it sounded really cool to spend time with a Vietnamese family. It was a homestay without the tour operator. So I said I would and got myself a ticket for the same time that phat was going the next day. She said she had to buy shrimps for her sister because phu quoc island was known for good seafood. I decided to give her some money towards it as it would be a gift to her sister and I wanted to help because I would be staying there for a few days. So I said goodnight and arranged to met at the hotel the next morning to get the bus to the dock for our boat back to the main land. I was on my way to the mekong delta.
