Phu Quoc

Mmm... lying on a beach... Yep, within a day of being on Phu Quoc, we had decided that the rest of our honeymoon should be less travel, more holiday (if you know what we mean) and it's lovely.

First, though, we had a bit of a journey to do. We awoke in Chau Doc at 5.30am, to walk to another hotel where we were presented with a VERY disappointing breakfast, before being bundled into a 'local bus' - a cramped minivan with far more people than seats, along with far more luggage than than there was space remaining for. It seemed that the bus was also a post van. BUT our guide the previous day had taken a shine to us and, because it was our honeymoon, insisted that we get to sit in the front seat, beside the driver (she had also given us a little red pouch with some money in it as a good luck present over breakfast). This was good because we had enough room to allow circulation in our legs, but bad news as it meant that we could see how the man to our left was driving. He was, it's safe to say, in a bit of a hurry. And, boy, did he like using his horn - he really seemed to have some sort of obsession with it, beep- beep - beep -beeping it at least every ten seconds. And if there was no-one in the road in front, that made no difference, he would get beeping anyway. In fact, he only really stopped beeping when he needed both hands to light yet another cigarette.

After 3 hours that got us to Rach Gia, where we walked the streets in search of the port. This was difficult at first as the local moto men were waiting outside our bus like a pack of wolves and they really didn't like no for an answer. However, after a little sit down and a drink to gather ourselves, we began walking again and were unexpectedly aided on our trip to the port by a couple of locals on motorbikes offering to show us the way. At first, we were cynical, thinking the wanted cash for this service but, no, they were just helping out. The boat - the fabulously named Superdong - was great and Andrew slept far more soundly here than he had in the previous night's hotel.

Then we arrived on Phu Quoc, where we were met by two moto drivers from our resort. Each took a large rucksack between their legs, a honeymooner clinging on behind them and set off on the journey... AN HOUR AND A HALF over unfinished dirt roads. Wow. We arrived, vibrating and coated in orange dust at Mai Phuong. We had booked this accommodation mainly because everywhere else on the main beach appeared booked up and our travel guide on the Mekong could book this for us. We were also attracted by the fact that it is on its own at the far north of the island, and would be an antidote to the hustle and bustle of the past few days - how true this turned out to be! It's completely separate from everything... and as a result we could only spend a few days there without going mad (we know, hard life, etc.), as you're forced to eat at their restaurant three times a day and do nothing but sit on a beach. This is not a complaint - Mai Phuong is lovely, with good food, great bungalows and friendly staff, but it was nice to move to the main beach after three nights.


So we got a taxi from Mai Phuong to Long Beach (shared with a German couple who wanted to go to one part of town but whom the driver wanted to take elsewhere, leading to rather a confrontation), where we went to Thanh Hai where we had a reservation... and found he had no record of us. He said we'd get a room later so we dumped our bags and went down to the beach and, after walking just a few minutes, met Zoe and Mike, a Scottish-South African couple whom we'd met briefly in bus and boat at Rach Gia. They showed us the place they were staying and it was loads better- Lien Hiep Thanh, right on the main beach rather than up by the main road (as Thanh Hai was), with loungers and deckchairs on the beach and nice bungalows and rooms. We went for a room as it's WAY cheap- $18 a night- and we figured we'd spend most time on the beach anyway. They sadly kept a couple of monkeys caged up on the resort and the food was fairly rubbish but there are plenty of other places to eat which are better- Mai House and Tropicana being top choices. Mai House and Beach Club are probably the best places to stay but they were booked up. Don't worry, though, if you find that, before you get to the island, everything seems to be full- all that means is that the places with email booking are full- just turn up and there's plenty of choice.

And so we've spent most of the time lazing, the main exceptions being watching Andy Murray lose (sigh...) and a walk up the beach to the posh Saigon Phu Quoc hotel (to use their aircon Internet facilities and visit their Vietnam Airlines counter to book a flight away) and a boat trip. There are three boat trip companies on the island, offering snorkelling and fishing- John's Tours, Tony's Tours and Tom's Tours- we went for John and it was fine- a lovely day on the boat, good food, seeing some pretty desert islands. The snorkelling was mediocre though, not least because loads of the coral is dead. Basically, it seems to be over-fished (in some cases with dynamite) as well as over-snorkelled, with loads of tourists coming each day, stomping on coral and scaring off the fish. Still, we also tried fishing off the boat and Suzie was one of very few people to catch something. And you should have seen it- it was THIS big...

Oh, and then we got home and realised that maybe we should have been a teeny tiny bit more careful of the sun on our backs when swimming. Ahem. Quite burnt indeed. This then turned a tad worse when Andrew turned feverish and suffered 'toilet issues' in the night. No fun at all. Bit of mild heatstroke: lesson learned.

So, Vietnam- what do we think so far? Well, on our limited impressions, just not as nice as Cambodia. Where Cambodians were open, friendly and welcoming, the Vietnamese seem cold, abrupt and disinterested. It's also really off-putting that you can be settling down to eat in a nice restaurant an suddenly "RRRRAAACCCHHUGGHHH- pthooo" as someone, be they waiter or customer clears their throat, hawks up a massive loogie and spits. They really go for it, apparently trying to bring up both lungs entirely without reservation. It happens everywhere and, yes, it might not be rude in this culture, but it's still really minging. It's notable that not only men seem to do this. Seriously, resorts would clean up of they put up a sign saying 'Guaranteed no spitting by staff on premises'.

The other problem is a lack of suncream- this is a relatively touristy island but it's really difficult to find any and where it exists, it's in tiny tubes at great expense. Our plan of carrying as little a possible from NZ backfired- bring your own!

On a more charming note, though, we were loved the outifts favoured by the ladies of this island. Despite the hot temperatures, they like to cover their whole bodies (unlike in the West, pale, un-tanned skin is seen as desirable) so wear pyjama-like outifits with co-ordinated tops and bottoms and, best of all, flesh-coloured socks with individual big-toe section (even on the beach) to allow them to wear flip-flops.