At the end of March we enjoyed a 3 day long weekend - the last long weekend for us in Vietnam! We flew to Phu Quoc Island, as we did last March, to enjoy some sand, sea, and sun!
Phu Quoc is a great getaway since it's less than 1 hour away by plane from Saigon, and the flights are reasonably priced. The beaches are nice, stuff is still cheap, and you can get in some quality relaxing time before heading back to the big city.
For some reason this year there were many jellyfish in the sea, so we didn't swim much at Long Beach this time around. The weather was sweltering which made the sand burning hot, but luckily our hotel had a pool for us to jump in and cool off in.
This year we ended up being more adventurous and explored the island on motorbikes. It only cost $8 for the day to rent one fully automatic bike. We got a bit lost at first, but the highways in Phu Quoc are brand new and pretty much empty except for some cows wandering onto the road. However, the smaller roads are not in the greatest condition - bumpy and not paved! The roads were made of red dirt, it was kind of like PEI but with palm trees and less potatoes.
We spent around one hour driving with our friends to the north part of the island where we did a "forest walk" which was a bit disappointing since we only saw a few salamanders and a bunch of trees. Fortunately the motorbike trip was not a waste since we ran into some other travellers at the forest walk who recommended that we eat lunch at a place called Peppercorn Beach Resort down the road. Only a few more kilometres and we ended up at the small boutique hotel, ready for lunch on their lovely veranda overlooking beautiful Ganh Dau Beach.
For lunch I ordered a coconut, fresh from their garden, and banh xeo (Vietnamese rice-flour pancake which had sprouts, chicken, vegetables, and fresh herbs), served with the famous Phu Quoc fish sauce which actually doesn't taste very fishy at all. We could see the cooks in the kitchen preparing our food with all the fresh ingredients. Everything was very tasty!
After our lunch, we walked down to Ganh Dau Beach to go swimming. The water was so clear, calm, warm, and shallow. There were reflections of the palm trees in the water and the whole beach was very peaceful. There were a few people from the resort hanging out, but we mostly had the place to ourselves. There were a few cute dogs wandering around, very interested in our frisbee game. I discovered later that one of them buried my shoe in the sand... luckily I found it or I would have been without one shoe for the ride home!
In the distance we could see some land formations which I later found out were Cambodian islands. It says that you can even swim to them. Pretty neat! Ganh Dau Beach was a place that we discovered by chance, and we are very lucky that we did. Our afternoon there was perfect - such a great place with great company. It was sad to say goodbye to Phu Quoc since we may not be there again for a long time, but we did not leave without lots of fun memories that will stay with us for a long while!
Phu Quoc is a great getaway since it's less than 1 hour away by plane from Saigon, and the flights are reasonably priced. The beaches are nice, stuff is still cheap, and you can get in some quality relaxing time before heading back to the big city.
For some reason this year there were many jellyfish in the sea, so we didn't swim much at Long Beach this time around. The weather was sweltering which made the sand burning hot, but luckily our hotel had a pool for us to jump in and cool off in.
This year we ended up being more adventurous and explored the island on motorbikes. It only cost $8 for the day to rent one fully automatic bike. We got a bit lost at first, but the highways in Phu Quoc are brand new and pretty much empty except for some cows wandering onto the road. However, the smaller roads are not in the greatest condition - bumpy and not paved! The roads were made of red dirt, it was kind of like PEI but with palm trees and less potatoes.
We spent around one hour driving with our friends to the north part of the island where we did a "forest walk" which was a bit disappointing since we only saw a few salamanders and a bunch of trees. Fortunately the motorbike trip was not a waste since we ran into some other travellers at the forest walk who recommended that we eat lunch at a place called Peppercorn Beach Resort down the road. Only a few more kilometres and we ended up at the small boutique hotel, ready for lunch on their lovely veranda overlooking beautiful Ganh Dau Beach.
For lunch I ordered a coconut, fresh from their garden, and banh xeo (Vietnamese rice-flour pancake which had sprouts, chicken, vegetables, and fresh herbs), served with the famous Phu Quoc fish sauce which actually doesn't taste very fishy at all. We could see the cooks in the kitchen preparing our food with all the fresh ingredients. Everything was very tasty!
After our lunch, we walked down to Ganh Dau Beach to go swimming. The water was so clear, calm, warm, and shallow. There were reflections of the palm trees in the water and the whole beach was very peaceful. There were a few people from the resort hanging out, but we mostly had the place to ourselves. There were a few cute dogs wandering around, very interested in our frisbee game. I discovered later that one of them buried my shoe in the sand... luckily I found it or I would have been without one shoe for the ride home!
In the distance we could see some land formations which I later found out were Cambodian islands. It says that you can even swim to them. Pretty neat! Ganh Dau Beach was a place that we discovered by chance, and we are very lucky that we did. Our afternoon there was perfect - such a great place with great company. It was sad to say goodbye to Phu Quoc since we may not be there again for a long time, but we did not leave without lots of fun memories that will stay with us for a long while!
Beautiful times and memories to last a lifetime.
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