Our final destination in Vietnam was Phu Quoc. We stayed for six nights with the aim being to relax...which was exactly what we did. Joey's parents and younger brother paid for our accomodation as a Christmas present which was so kind of them. They found us two beautiful accomodations and we picked one. We chose Brenta Phu Quoc.

The staff were so friendly and accomodating. Our room was lovely. The hotel is still fairly new and they are building more rooms and a huge pool which is due for completion very soon. It's such a shame we couldn't use the pool, it will be amazing when it is all completed. The building work started pretty early and went on all day. We were ground floor so it was a little noisy in the morning due to building and people at reception but nothing my trusted ear plugs didn't fix.

We were a three minute walk from the beach, but again due to building works near the beach we had to go around diggers and walk over rubble to get there. Once there it was relaxation time!! The beach was beautiful and the sea a good temperature for cooling off.

For sunset Rory's Bar was a great place to go. You could sit on the beach seats with a cold alcoholic beverage and watch the sun go down, creating spectacular colourful views. We went twice and managed to get front row seats each time.

On one of our first evenings we were walking to dinner and it was so dark I could barely see. There had been thunderstorms so I was trying to avoid the puddles and in doing so stepped straight into a manhole. I was waist deep in sewage. Joey pulled me out and the hotel staff rushed out to help. They must have heard me scream and probably my cursory words after. I limped back to the hotel with one flip flop and a ripped jumpsuit. I stunk! The staff cleaned me up and tended to my bleeding toe. I then went into the bedroom to shower my legs off and it was then the pain in my toe actually hit me. I must have kicked out when I fell and kicked it straight into the concrete. It hurt so much I was in tears. Joey went to try and find my other flip flop but sadly it had gone. We ended up staying in the hotel for dinner and for the next few days I had to ice my toe and bring out the bruising. I genuinely thought it was broken and I am still not convinced it was 'just bruising'. I limped along but by the end of the week I was starting to walk semi normal again...I will never take my big toe for granted again! I have also never talked about my big toe so much in all my life! I banged on about it for a good few days after. The hotel staff and Joey then covered the manhole so no one else would suffer my fate.

We rented a moped and went to Phu Quoc prison. The prison dates back to the Vietnam War and the vietnamese were held there. On display were pictures, stories, methods of torture. It had a very eerie feel being there, knowing how much pain and suffering went on. It was pretty harrowing and really made you think how cruel mankind can be. Some prisoners managed to escape. Looking at the sheer amount of barbed wire I am amazed that they managed to but fair play to them! A downside to the prison was that there was litter (mainly cigarettes) everywhere which I found incredibly disrespectful. The prison is free to enter but it may be worth charging a small fee in order to maintain it.

Another stop on our moped tour was Sao Beach. Whilst the sand was so soft, so white and so light, the actual beach itself was dirty. Again, litter everywhere, very old beach chairs that you had to pay for. We had our own beach mat so used that. We were going to have lunch at the beach restuarant until I saw it was £5 just for garlic fried rice. I suspect they charge westerners one price and locals another. We flat out refused and went back to our little bubble near our hotel.

One downside was that I clocked dogs in cages for sale on the roadside and I fear these weren't pet dogs! I asked our hotel owner and whilst he didn't tell me they were food, he did say they weren't pets. I checked the hotel puppy wasn't going to he food later on in his life but thankfully he is a survivor! Whilst I appreciate that Vietnam is of course different to Britain and they have their own ways, I do find it difficult to comprehend eating cats and dogs as we generally see them as pets. I don't eat meat anyway so I really struggled seeing that.

Phu Quoc was one of my favourite places in Vietnam although we did only scratch the surface of Vietnam. North Vietnam is on our bucket list for a later date. There is so much building work going on in Phu Quoc that I can imagine in five to ten years time it will be a very built up tourist destination.

I am not sure I would go back to South Vietnam. I wasn't particularly in awe of it, but so happy I got to tick off excursions I have always wanted to do, so I definitely fulfilled my wants.