Around Phu Quoc report

Phu Quoc was a place that I had never really heard about before I booked my ticket to go there. I have been to Vietnam twice before, in 2004 I was in Ho Chi Minh city, and did not enjoy it at all (one of the few times in all my travels that I had someone trying to scam me), and I was in Hanoi and Ha Long Bay in 2011 and had a pretty good time. I was therefore curious to see how Phu Quoc would compare.

• In this series:
• Introduction to my trip to Phu Quoc
• Review – VietJet A320 Hong Kong – Phu Quoc
• Review – Shells Resort and Spa, Phu Quoc
• Around Phu Quoc report
• Review – Vietjet A320 Phu Quoc – Hong Kong.

Having a slow morning with the large breakfast buffet completed I had a look around the resort before I finally started my exploring around noon. The weather from last night had cleared up nicely, and I decided to try to walk along the beach to the city centre (Dương Đông).

Just a few minutes walk from the resort I started to see where the local population lived, there were several old, concrete houses built next to the beach, and people chilling inside on mattresses on the floor or small chairs outside – it reminded me a lot about when I was traveling in Thailand 15 years ago.

There were lots of small, completely circular, fishing boats along the beach.

There were also a couple of small temples along the beach.

After a while it was not possible to walk along the beach any more, so I had to head a couple of hundred meters inland to the main road heading south on the island – some roads were still dirt roads, and the old airports runway has been turned into the main road on the island 😀

Dương Đông city seems to be divided into two parts, there is a river running through the center of the city, splitting in into a northern and a southern part. The northern part seemed to be the more traditional part of the city, there were street markets and street vendors everywhere, narrow streets, lots of people, and almost not a single tourist in sight.

I then headed across the bridge and over to the south part of the town.

From here I headed out on the pier to get a better waterfront view of the city, and I also had a look around the Dinh Cau shrine, which is the only combined temple and lighthouse I can remember seeing.

It was now time for lunch, and I found a restaurant on the waterfront at the south end of the city, prices are more than reasonable, all menu items were in the 40-80 HKD range (1 HKD is approx 3000 Dong at the time of visiting).

Drinks were also very cheap, beers and fresh juices and shakes from 6 HKD up to about 15.

At the south side of the city the Long Beach starts, and here most of the resorts are currently located. There are many beach front bungalows available, and great sea views – and almost deserted beaches, so an awesome place to go for people who just wants to relax and do as little as possible for as long as possible.

I was now close to overheating, so I took a taxi back to my resort. There were loads of proper taxis around, all using meters, and a ride to my resort cost me 70.000 Dong. I finally had a little bit of time to enjoy my bungalow, before I headed out for the complimentary cocktails at the bar, and then I took a taxi back into the city to explore it a bit at night as well. The southern part of town had a more colonial-feel about it, there are more western buildings, and some very fancy looking hotels.

I spent an hours or so walking around the southern part of the city, and then headed for dinner at King Western where I had a chicken fillet and spaghetti combo, and a couple of beers. Total bill was less than 200.000 Dong.

It was already getting late at night, and I now headed to the nightmarket to look around a bit, and got there just 30 minutes before closing time – just enough to buy a couple of souvenirs for my kids (pearl were really cheap here.)

I made it back to my hotel around midnight, and had a good nights sleep, before I woke up for breakfast before heading back to the airport to return to Hong Kong.

I had a great time in Phu Quoc, and will definitely come back for a longer stay some other time. There are more places to explore around the island, the Windpearl Resort area in the northern part looks awesome, and Premier Village Resort on the south tip of the island also looks interesting.

There were not a lot of tourists when I was there, on the resort I was staying it was mostly asian-looking costumers, and most seemed to be speaking mandarin. On the south side of the city I saw maybe 100 or so white people, most of whom seemed to be speaking Russian or English – mostly families with young children.