Phu Quoc Island

From Danang I flew into Phu Quoc Island for the next 4 days...to relax...there was limited internet...so I coudln't even create a blog post..:( It's a nice little island and tourisma and development seems ot be exploding. Only 2 months ago, the main road in front on the beach front resort was paved and they just got street lights. It's a modest style resort, located right on the beach front and it s agreat place to watch the sunset. On the first day, I quickly discover that the hospitality in Hoi An and Phu Quoc are a bit different. Phu Quoc isn't quite up there with the hospitality of Hoi An, but it's still a nice place to relax on the beach(with wifi) for a few days.

On the second day, I went for a snorkeling and fishing day tour to the South of the island. I had booked the tour for the North of the Island....but there wasn't enough people...so the guy asks to go the South part of the Island and I just go with it...it's an adventure afterall...so I hop on the motorbike and he speeds me over to the bus going South. after getting on the board...we come to a bridge under construction where the driver asks up to get off the bus and walk over the bridge...just to be safe...It's clearly under construction and being reinforced., so all of us walkn over merrily and then jump back on the bus. On the way to the boat, we visit a pearl farm where they show us how they make the pearls and how they are harvested.

After arriving at the harbor, we get on the boat to snorkeling and fishing. On the boat ride out the our spot we stop at a floating fish market where you can purchase extra seafood. So the guys from the boat buy some sea urchins and oysters and cook them up for us using a big spot filled with coals with the grill cover..:) The fishing part of the trip isn't too long and no one catches much..:(

We snorkeled at three different places close to a coral reef and it gave me the chance to get used to snorkeling again. You can see a few fish and some nice coral beds but the water is a bit murky...and judgin by the amount of fish we caught...there's not too much happening.

During the trip, I meet this older Aussie couple and we chat for more of the day on the boat about their views of the world. Towards the end of the day, after a few more beers they start getting pretty vocal about the world being ruined by things like facebook(which is forbidden in Vietnam and hopefully not Cambodia), the internet and how it's going to bring down the world society and lead to WWIII which seems a little far fetched to me...but I keep listening. They thought we would all be back to basics very soon and living in mud huts...hopefully if  I wind up living in a mud hut...it will have wifi...:) I'm pretty amused by this discussion and point out the advantages to this sort of internet based society...it's all good fun and part of traveling to find out how other people see the world...Perhaps Kevin was right and this couple has seen to many Mad Max movies

On the contrary, I also meet an older couple from Texas...who had been living in Kuala Lumpur for the last year. The guy tells me how he was a regular at the Bubba Gump Shrimp House in KL becuase they knew how to cook shrimp...Part of our trip was a fresh grilled seafood lunch of squid, tuna, noodles, soup with veggies, rice and fresh fruit. The meal was perfect for me, tasted great and was cooked on the same grill pot as the oysters from earlier. The guy from Texas dominated the lunch conversation...making comments like..."In Texas....we eat potatoes, we don't have any of this rice business" :) Lol...there's always one guy from Texas...:)

On the way back, we stopped at Sao Beach where they have white sand beaches...after the swaety ride back on the beach, it was nice to be able to stop for a little while and dive into the 80 degrees water.

Sao Beach