Our original intention after Saigon was to head North towards Hanoi, stopping off at various points but we'd heard about a place called Phu Quoc island which was supposed to be a lovely island off the south coast where you can catch some sun, relax and snorkel. The thought of that was too tempting so we decided to head there for a couple of nights. Sadly, things didn't quite go to plan. 
 
For a start, it took over a day to get there as we had a six hour bus journey to the port of Rach Gia where we'd hoped to get the boat over to Phu Quoc that day but because we arrived later than expected we had no chance of making it down before the boat left. That meant we stayed overnight in a very nice, but very expensive hotel. The next day we'd heard there were two boat companies that went over to the island so thought that if we got to the pier an hour before they left then we'd probably be fine to buy tickets there and then. Unfortunately when we enquired we were told that the only tickets available were for the boat at 1pm, five hours away!! All we would be able to do was sit in the waiting room until then as well - having checked out of our hotel already. Luckily an enterprising young local offered to sell us his tickets for 500,000 dong (£15) each, an increase of 200,000 (£6) per ticket... we grudgingly accepted it as we couldn't face the wait and we'd also miss out on a whole day in Phu Quoc – meaning we'd only actually have one day there!

So after a three hour boat journey we finally arrived and thought that was the end of our troubles and we could start relaxing by the beach. We were wrong! We'd not booked a hotel as we thought it'd be cheaper to just turn up and find somewhere. This seemed to work quite well in Thailand but definitely wasn't the case here! We got dropped off in the centre of the main town, Duong Dông, by a minibus and thought we'd head to a place I'd seen on the internet. We asked a taxi driver where it was and had expected him to give us a lift but instead he said it wasn't far and directed us down a road suggesting it was only a few hundred metres. Great we thought, saves a taxi fare. As soon as we started walking though a guy on a motorbike started following us telling us he knew a much better place to stay and that where we were heading was far away and not good. Now we'd got used to people saying things like this in India so we ignored him. He would NOT leave us alone and we could not find this hotel for love nor money! Some people would point us one way and then someone else would point us somewhere else! After about half an hour of walking and getting incredibly sweaty with our bags on we gave up. The guy on the motorbike was still with us at this point, insisting we should get on and he'd take us to a hotel – for the millionth time. This was really getting on both our nerves as it meant we couldn't think straight and get our bearings. Even though we could have made our life easier by going with him we didn't want to give him that satisfaction so we walked all the way back into town and had lunch whilst we came up with a plan!

After lunch Hannah headed out and went to three budget looking hotels in the area. We finally settled on one which was a bit more expensive than we'd usually pay but that seemed to be the way of things here in Phu Quoc. I was just glad to get into a shower and have some air conditioning. By this time of course it was getting on for 3pm and we'd left Saigon at 6am the day before! We really hadn't expected the journey to take so long. Faced with the prospect of having only one day here we decided that we should probably extend that by another day. Seemed a bit of a wasted effort otherwise! 
 
Once we had cooled down we went for a walk along the beach and ended up stopping at a little restaurant for a drink. Whilst there we ended up booking a snorkelling trip for two days time. We had intended to do something like this so it was just coincidence someone came up to us there and then. Our luck seemed to be changing!
 
For dinner that evening we headed down to the night market which was about 5 minutes from our hotel. Most of the stalls there were serving the freshest seafood you'll probably see anywhere. There was restaurant after restaurant with massive tanks of different fish, crab, prawns, sharks, lobsters, snails and even stingrays! Most of it really did deserve to be put back into the sea but we did stop off for some pretty rubbish fried rice and noodles. 
 
The next day we got up a little late as I'd got up in the middle of the night to watch Bristol City defeat Bristol Rovers on the internet so was a little behind schedule from the start. In the afternoon though we sat on the beach and read our books. As the sun was starting to go down we walked along the beach and found a lovely little place to watch the sunset over a beer. 
 
The final day in Phu Quoc was spent out on a snorkelling trip. First off though we got to go to a pearl farm, one of the things Phu Quoc is famous for. Not particularly interesting apart from the fact you got to see them get a pearl out of an oyster. Next we headed to our boat and got taken out onto the water. Before snorkelling though we got to try our hand at fishing, this was just dangling a line of wire into the sea with a baited hook on the end. I had no luck whatsoever but Hannah managed to get something on hers twice. Whatever it was it must have been large because both times it managed to snap the line as she was heaving it up! After that we went snorkelling a couple of times which was okay but really not a patch on other trips we'd done in the Gili Isles. 
 
We ate a big lunch of noodles, rice, chicken, squid and vegetables but also had the option of trying roasted sea urchin – the big spiky things that live on the bottom of the sea bed. We were sat with a bunch of other people who all looked a bit disgusted at the thought. I however was not going to miss out on an opportunity to try something new so took a small one and tucked in. The idea was that you drizzled over a bit of sweet chilli sauce then scoop out the fleshy middle part which had chopped peanuts and herbs inside. I can report it was not vomit inducing but did not actually taste of much other than the spicy sauce. The texture was very strange though, kind of like a puréed something or other! Hannah and I were the only ones brave enough to try one :).
 
After another snorkel we were taken to a lovely beach on the other side of the island called Sao beach, supposedly one of the best on the island. It was very nice with fine white sand and turquoise waters. Would have been nicer without all the speedboats and boats in the way though! After just enough time for a cocktail and a quick walk along the beach we were taken back to our hotel via a quick stop off at a VERY smelly fish sauce factory. Another one of Phu Quoc's famous exports. This basically consisted of barrel after barrel of fermenting fish which sat there for a number of months until it was ready to be syphoned off and bottled. It stank as you can imagine!

Overall Phu Quoc wasn't as nice as we'd hoped but you've got to try these things :). It didn't help that many bars and restaurants along the beach were closed for the low season so I expect it's much more lively at other times of the year.