Phu Quoc Island

This place is amazing. I think we came at the right time. It's slowly being developed, but still has a rugged traditional Vietnamese feel. Our hotel, called the paris beach resort, is a french colonial type boutique hotel, with a romantic restaurant/cafe right on the ocean. It also has several friendly little dogs that greet us every time we walk by. This is the island many of the Vietnamese come to for holidays. We came over on a ferry where we met a guy named Ben (from Britain, currently living in Shanghai) and hit it off. Ben met some friends back at his hotel and all five of us met for dinner. Thai (who's Vietnamese and lives here), Theo (from Germany who's couch surfing at Thai's place), Ben, Eddie and I. Thai suggested the night market since it has fresh seafood. It was an amazing dinner. Thai did all the ordering and showed us how to eat everything. Then Thai had to go to work and the four of us had some drinks with the locals at a pub stall outside the night market. The local Vietnamese owners treated us so well. They made us a bunch off food and keep saying "we friends, all free". We stayed until 1:30am visiting with the locals. They even brought us into their home to use the washroom. Last night we went to say "hello", but it was closed. The second day on the island we rented scooters with Theo & Ben & toured the island. Went to a pepper farm, beaches, a forest walk, fuelled up at two interesting gas stations, met a bunch of kids at a local school who helped direct us the proper way, entered our first un friendly village & went with our guts and left. It could have been a language break down, but it was the only non smiling village any of us have been too. The forest walk was beautiful the trees were like vines some were like ropes wrapped like a braid. I swung from them & pulled all the ones I saw along the path then later learned that in Thailand this is a normal spot for the snakes to hide! yikes. We also saw some cat eyes & ears in a dark cave which were assuming was wild. We got back to our hotel in the dark. It was a long day. Yesterday the four of us went on a boat tour. We went to a pearl farm, fish farm, boating on the ocean, snorkelling, to a beautiful beach (Soa beach) and had a nice fresh fish lunch on the boat. We met another couple Tom & Laura from London and they joined us for dinner along with Thai, Theo and Ben. We ate at the night market again and Thai picked the dish. We had a full fish and made vegetable basil/mint fish rice wraps. It was delicious and healthy. After that we said our goodbyes and headed back to our hotel to apply after sun lotion onto our badly burned backs. Eddies is a little worse, even though he put a shirt on well before he felt any heat, he wasn't even pink yet. Only an hour and a half of sun in total. I wore a dress snorkelling which saved a bit of my skin. It's amazing how fast you get burned here even with protection. Well off to relax out if the sun. We have two more days here so we'll add the rest of our pictures later.

Ha Tien & Around

Ha Tien in the southwestern most corner of Vietnam is a beautiful little town right next to the border of Cambodia. Colourful buildings and markets on the edge of a river, and just a stones throw from the ocean. We took the bus from Can Tho, switched buses in Rach Gia, onto a public bus, very crowded and falling apart at the seams, and arrived in Ha Tien about 2.5 hours later. A great experience on it's own. After checking in, we headed to a place highly recommended on the lonely planet etc. called the Oasis. Owned by an English chap, Andy, and his Vietnamese wife. They are fantastic people on top of providing a wealth of good information. It was a pleasure to speak to someone in unbroken English for a spell and they also provide real English breakfasts! It truly is a small Oasis from Vietnamese norms, not that we are complaining. Andy also introduced us to Mr. Trinh, a fantastic Vietnamese man whom provides transportation, maps, information etc. all pertaining to travel in and out of Cambodia and to and from Phu Quoc island. ( where we are heading tomorrow). Mr. Trinh has made things very easy for us indeed. We rented a scooter from him and spent the day exploring. Visited a pagoda in a cave, rested in hammocks in a cafe on the beach and visited with locals. The visiting is hilarious due to the language barrier but we make due with our small Vietnamese book and translator on the iPhone. This one old couple came up and we tried to talk with them, they spoke absolutely no English, they thought we had funny noses and were touching Alanna's nose and pulling her eyelashes. Funny! Everyone is concerned over us burning our white skin too, since here in Vietnam it is much more fashionable to have light skin, so tanning is a foreign concept to them. What else? Mmmmh. We saw lots of fresh peppercorns being dried on the side of the roads, smelled incredible. The cleanest beaches so far have been still fairly dirty by our standards, but Phu Quoc island is supposed to be very nice. The ocean water is ridiculously warm here, absolutely nothing refreshing about it. Heavily enjoyed by the locals though. Tried to get good pictures in the cave but it was hard to do those justice. Alanna was a sissy and didn't come in, ha. She went in the first small cave. Snapping a few shots of Vietnamese houses both lower and higher end so as to give a little bit of an idea as to what they are like. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to neighbourhoods here as far as rich or poor, there are big fancy places amongst the shacks and straw huts. We'll keep you posted!