Rạch Giá to Phú Quốc Island | Day 5 Vietnam Cycle Tour
Flying offshore, Phu Quoc just before the tourist invasion
The itinerary:
A chance to rest our legs as we spend two days off the bikes. We travel by hydrofoil to the beautiful Phu Quoc tropical island, (imagine Bali or Phuket 20 years ago), beautiful beaches, clear water, rainforest & few visitors.
To Phu Quoc, by air
Before the trip we had been advised the hydrofoil was probably not going to happen. I was a bit disappointed they weren't running but flying was more comfortable than a three-hour hydrofoil ride!
Have no idea why I didn't take any photos of the flight that replaced it as usually do (photos below from our return flight). I started doing that after had a (mechanical) camera fail just before a trip, now always take a photo (and check headphones*) in the terminal where you can get batteries etc. I used to joke that they might be useful for the crash investigators, but some didn't appreciate that humour pre-flight.
This was the oldest plane I saw in Vietnam and it's still new buy world standards. The growth of Vietnamese airlines has matched their spectacular economic explosion.
Over the airport, leaving the coast.
The village and small harbour port. Our resort was on the long beach beyond the town.
The Resort **
photo by Nhan
My room, bungalow, was nice! This was a new facility; the island was trying to generate tourist trade to boost the local farming and fishing economy. ***
Love the local signs
Mortobike! - riding can be dangerous but...
Can't beat Freshnest & Cheapnest, dinner lived up to this billing.
Finding Kiwi Ice cream?
The village was an easy, flat, 20 minutes' walk from the resort. In 30ºc it was nice to find some Kiwi Ice Cream from New Zealand's South Island ****. How it got to Buddy Kem-Café in Phú Quốc I have no idea. Was a bit annoying to see they had an Aussie flag outside, but I added a Kiwi $5 note (lingering in my wallet) to their framed foreign currency montage.
I suspect it stayed there as they were thrilled to get it (even seemed to know of Ed Hillary who is on it?) and would be hard to exchange in Vietnam. It was notable that near universally accepted US$ was not preferred over local currency. When asked why was told 'US economy not so good...'.
Mike, the Aussie, with kiwi ice cream in Vietnam!
Traffic light Grand Prix?
This is the first time I had seen techo traffic lights with countdown timer. In NZ you get this for pedestrian crossings, but here they count down the time remaining before the change of phase for vehicles. I can't see these working very well in NZ, imagine those racing to get through green countdown meeting the drag strip take-off from red...
Phú Quốc village basin is the mouth of a short river. Small fishing boats typical of the area, seemingly not yet hugely changed by Vietnams economic transformation.
The Resort beach
I've now swum in the Gulf of Thailand but had to check the map to know that! I do remember the water was warm but little more about my first sea swim in Asia.
Ammendments
This post was written in 2023-25, so this section will document any updates since 2008. I had a blog back then but didn't write about travelling, and it was before I used other social media.
* I once got on a long flight to find the AAA battery in my Bose headphones flat and the usual spare in the case missing...
** I don't remember what the resort was called then, but it is now known (oddly) as Hawaii Resort Phu Quoc.
*** Recently saw Phú Quốc on Karl Watsons 2020 YouTube and it was almost unrecognisable.
**** It was branded 'Kiwi X Cream from New Zealand's South Island' and www.deepsouthnz.co.nz URL (I put on the photo from 2008) is now dead, but I think was Deep South Ice Cream from Motueka.
Robin Capper
