Pho Quoc

We had a slight issue with alarms on our set off to PQ! Mine was an hour early as phone is on UK timne and Johns was on silent!! ah well we treated ourselves to a taxi to the port which was nice, then set sail on Superdong III, deciding at approx 9.30 to lighten Johns bag of course, Paula and I had a beer! it went down quite well !! boat was pretty fast and we docked a couple of hours later, weather was pretty warm and we bartered our mini bus to our accomodation price reasonably, as is the way here they start at a stupid amount then you get it to reasonable!! They know what westerners are like! Our accommodation was all booked so we just headed there dumped bags and went to investigate the beach, we walked to the rocks a good 35 mins there on a very warm day, realising on the way back it was getting warmer and warmer, so we changed and had the rest of the afternoon on the beach. For dinner we stuck to the also extremely cheap!!

After one night in our huts I did not sleep so well, but up early, breakfast and we decided a relaxing day on the beach!! Well deserved. That eve we headed to town looking at restaurants on route and to see the night market in full swing. We checked out hire of bikes too fror our next adventure.

Next day we headed into town to hire some bicycles, there were alot of tandems and 4 what they refer to as mountain bikes hmmm!! We set off and thought the journey wouldnt be too bad, but aware many roads are not made up and still are dirt tracks, red dusty dirt tracks too! It turned out to be such a hot day we stopped after good trek on a private beach, it was amazing and the water was so warm too, we noticed some clouds getting quite grey and saw a few spot of rain but nothing major so we headed on after a while but having to stop occasionlly due to the heat, shade was so hard to find, we had noticed a few more rain drops. After persisting for a while dirt tracks the heat got the better of us and we thought best to turn back and stop for lunch on the way. As we were heading back we noticed some puddles and they were huge, the dust was now an interesting soggy paste/puddles in areas, we cycled some way and stopped at a house/cafe we spotted on the beach, our legs were covered in splatters !! We had a quick wash down on the sea and had an amazing view for lunch, before embarking on the next part of the day. After popping into the Aussie pearl farm and thinking they had not alot to offer we headed on getting a fair distance too, before there was a pop and I felt air on my leg, getting off the bike to see a flat tyre and thinking 9-10 miles to walk in this heat!! thankfully after 2 mins walking a local lad of about 10 approched, he was unsure why we were walking, I showed him my tyre and he beckoned for us to follow, he took us to a residence with what we made out to be a tyre repaire shop and mini cafe. The lady cleaverly pulled the inner tube out without taking the tyre off and fixed it with a patch but no glue, hey place a metal plate on this then a mini oil burner on top in a device to seal it. Then once fixed we were off on our way again, some 3 mile on just reaching tarmac, John stops and states we are out of puncture regions not, no sooner has he said this we set off and my tyre goes poof again!!! 6 miles to go scorching sun, you know the scene walking!! We took it in turns to ride bikes to try and get some air and it was a long trek but we made it. On arrival and explanation the guy states its a new tyre and we must pay for it, luckily I produce a pic of the lady fixing my wheel, branding him as a liar as there are over 4 repairs visible!! He lets us head off to a well deserved iced drink and swim followed by a fantastic sunset!

We decided to have a rest day as we had been so energetic the night before, just walking into town in the afternoon to book our trip on to Cambodia and look through a few shops. Very nice chilled day which was very warm and quite a few dips in the sea were required.