Unfortunately, we didn't update the rest of this blog while we were away, and life has taken over since we've been back, and its now April!! But from memory, what a brilliant last week!

We loved Phu Quoc and spent most of the week chilling on the beach. The weather wasn't amazing, but it didn't really matter. The guy from the guest house let us borrow his scooter and we took it out a couple of times to explore the island. The first time we took it out, we headed North. We started along the coast, stopping at a couple of the beaches. We couldn't believe how deserted they were! We've literally never seen anything like it. Not a sole in sight, completely unspoilt. When we reached one, paul made a last minute decision to ride onto the beach! Mistake!! We both fell off and the bike didn't do so well either!! We carried on and headed into the jungle. We were convinced we could hear things, but every time we stopped to look, there was nothing there. It was proper jungle though!

We stopped at a pepper farm, which was really interesting! We had our own little private tour and bought pepper for everyone!! We then took shelter as the heavens opened! It looked like it was clearing, so we got back on the bike, but before long, we were soaked! The roads were awful too, in fact they were non-existent! Mainly sand and mud tracks when you left the touristy bit!

We carried on and made a circle by coming back south. We decided to head for a waterfall that was on the map. It was pretty hard to find as we couldn't really tell if we were on a road or not! Going over huge bumps down little tracks, eventually we found it. There wasn't much water as it wasn't the rainy season, but it was still good to look around.

The second day we had the bike, we headed south. We visited a pearl farm and Sarah bought her first real pearl necklace! We carried on to the bottom of the island, and visited a market. We're not sure they'd ever seen tourists, and certainly didn't speak much English! We didn't stay too long, before heading for Coconut Tree Prison. Sarah was completely fooled when we got here, thinking that the plastic men with guns were real!!! Bit stupid, but scary too!! It was interesting walking around, looking at the horrible conditions that people were kept in.

After the prison, we headed for Sao Beach! Wow, it was just amazing!!! Probably second only to the Maldives!! So so pretty! The sand was gorgeous, and you could walk out into the sea for miles. It was like a bath, and so clear!! We stopped for lunch, and Paul had a Vietnamese version of a roast dinner (more like a casserole). Then we spent the rest of the afternoon just enjoying the beach. It was so gorgeous. There were a couple of resorts, but it was mainly unspoilt, which was really hard to believe given its beauty! We saw a huge starfish and having watched a few people picking it up, we braved it too! This is definitely a beach we'd like to visit again. The sun was out too, which added to the afternoon. We had a really lovely time, and begrudgingly got back on the bike and headed home. We went back a different way and they seemed to be building a dual carriageway from the airport. This was sad to see as we knew then that Sao beach would soon be spoilt!

Other than our two days out, we mainly laid on the beach during the day, which was lovely and relaxing. At night, we visited restaurants and went back to the night market a couple of times. We found a bar that stayed open late with live singers so went there a few times. We also did a night squid fishing trip, which was interesting!! We caught nothing and Paul had the pleasure of trying squid soup! Sarah said she was a veggie as we knew there would be a lot of seafood, and everyone looked jealous when they brought out her noodles! It was good fun though, and a good experience.

The guy from the guest house was also an interesting guy, and one night we found ourselves at his karaoke party drinking his home brew and eating god knows what!!! Certainly an experience!

On our last night, there was a beach party, and we felt it rude not to go!! We got pretty drunk and had a great time, staying up way too late!! The next morning, it didn't seem like such a good idea as we had to get up stupidly early to get our plane! Sarah was literally lying on the airport floor, dying!!

Still, we made it, and the journey home went smoothly. We flew to Ho Chi Minh, then to Dubai, then to Manchester. We actually got a fair bit of sleep and didn't feel too bad!

It was strange leaving, it wasn't like a normal holiday where you feel you're sad to be leaving and going back to normal life. Because we'd been away for so long and had to deal with normal life, being away felt normal. We were leaving one life for a different life.

We did have the discussion of whether we could stay away longer, and we both agreed that we could, as it just felt like life, rather than a holiday.

We had had a fantastic experience and seen some amazing things. It was a great trip. We think our favourite country was Laos and would love to explore it more. Phu Quoc was also pretty amazing.

If we do anything like this again, we agreed that we need to fit less in and spend more time in each place. It's great to see as much as we have done, but its not particularly relaxing! The week on the beach at the end was definitely a good idea!

Bring on the next trip!!!!