One year ago, it's in March of last year, we're 4 girls and decided to travel to a haven island of Vietnam - Phu Quoc island.
Beautiful Bai Sao
We booked air ticket with Vietjet airlines, one of the cheap airlines in Vietnam, at the price of $40/person (round trip). It's super cheap hehe. Phu Quoc is the biggest island in Vietnam and very beautiful with white sandy beach. After landing, we got a taxi (popular taxi is Phu Quoc taxi). Luckily, we met a very good taxi driver, he is friendly and introduced us a lot about Phu Quoc. From the airport to hotel in Duong Dong town, the taxi cost $5 (when he gave him money he didn't have enough money to give back our charge so he suggested to get money later when we travel with him next time, omg I never see any taxi driver like him). We stayed at Gold Hotel which is a convenient hotel because it's very near Dinh Cau night market (crowded place in Phu Quoc). Our room is on ground floor and separate with the building of hotel because it's a bungalow room. Our room faces the ocean. However the most regrettable thing is the beach at the back of hotel is dangerous and cannot swim because of rocks. Also the price is a bit expensive at $40/night.
In the evening, we walked to a small restaurant on Ba Muoi Thang Tu street and enjoyed seafood. The seafood is very fresh and delicious, especially the price is cheap also. We love it so much. In Saigon it's difficult to find a restaurant with fresh seafood because they have to transfer from very far beach.
We're recommended to book tour with taxi for travelling to tourism places in Phu Quoc. They have two tours: one goes around the East of island and one travel around the West. Because the taxi driver was good with us, we decided to travel with him to the East. The tour fee is $30/8hrs on taxi fee list (regardless how many kilometer you go) but he offered us only $25. I think you can totally agree the price first with them, they are willing to give you a good price. Any taxi in Phu Quoc will have private tour for you. But we called the taxi driver whom we owned money last time. Unlucky he couldn't go with us because he had another tour so he called his friend for picking us up (this guy is also driver of Phu Quoc taxi).
The driver picked us at hotel and he first dropped us at Ngoc Hien pearl, the most famous and biggest pearl manufacturer in Phu Quoc. Here we can see how they implanted a pearl inside a shell and raise it. The pearl is so bright and beautiful. During the tour, he was so nice to buy us some fruits :). After that he brought us to the famous manufacturer of the Sim wine in Phu Quoc. Sim is the fruit look like blackberry but a little different. It has the science name is Rhodomyrtus tomentosa. They growthed a large garden of Sim to support for their production.
We also introduced to the factory where they produce fish sauce. And then he drove us to one of the chilly pepper gardens in Phu Quoc is really big and green.
At lunch time, he brought us to the town and have lunch there. However after lunch the driver suddenly paid for our lunch, we tried to pay back to him but he didn't get. After we all were full, he brought us to the most beautiful beach in Phu Quoc. It's called Bai Sao (Star Beach - 20km far away from Duong Dong town). At noon, the sun shine on the ocean surface making it become a wonderful picture in front of my eyes. I could not believe that I was standing there and the view in front of me was haven. That's why I called Phu Quoc is a haven island because of its beauty. The peaceful waivers and the pure water and white sand were mixed to each other. I loved it so much.
On the way back to hotel, the driver dropped us at Ham Ninh fishing village. It's an crowded fishing village and famous for tourist visiting to Phu Quoc. We can have very fresh seafood here with the cheap price. We already had crabs for our dish. The crabs were just catched from the sea and would be cooked by seller for tourist. They also sell a lot of seahorses for tourist that they can use as medical treatment. It's put in wine for a period of time before using.
At last he drove back to hotel and dropped us there. However when we paid him the fee, he got only $25 as agreed. We tried to give him $35 because it's should be included taxi fee from airport to hotel the day before and also the fruits and lunch that he paid for us. But he denied getting it. It surprised us so much.
After coming back to hotel, in the evening we walk to Dinh Cau night market, it's very near the hotel. It's the most crowded place in Phu Quoc. They sell a lot of souvenirs and street food with seafood. I noticed that the main food here is seafood and it's very cheap just like vegetables in other cities. We had seafood again in a small restaurant on the beach because we love seafood :)
The next day, we decided to travel to the West of Phu Quoc but not go by taxi. We hired motorbikes from hotel with the price of 120k/day (fuel filled by us). We started at 8am after breakfast with a maps in our hand. However this is the first time I don't like Google map and also the maps provided by Ngoc Hien pearl.
The West of Phu Quoc is wilder than the East because the roads leading us go throught the Phu Quoc national park and during our roads, I seldoms meet others.
It's really a dangerous journey but it also made me stronger. It's also an interesting journey because I can discover many new things and experienced in feelings that I never have before.
We rode motorbike toward to the west, when we're out of the town the road was only a small road with red sandy dust. However the scenery is beautiful and wild. We first stopped at long beach (Bai Truong) because we saw local people collecting fish from the fishing net. Although they had to work very hard but when we came and talked to them they were very friendly. The long beach is very wild and the water is pure and clean because no one swim here. After that we continued our journey, we rode along the road under the trees of Phu Quoc national park. We didn't see local people when riding but some foreigners also riding like us. At noon we stopped and had lunch at Mui Ganh area, it's the furthest land of Vietnam in the south.
After lunch we rode a long and different way to the East of Phu Quoc, from here the difficult journey began. It's even wilder than the previous road to Mui Ganh and the road is not easy to go. On the maps, we saw it a big street like other street in Phu Quoc, but when we rode it's totally different. That why I said I don't believe in maps above. Especially after we got Bai Thom, the road is too small and it's only a sandy road. Even there're some places, the road only has wooden bars for us to run across because the road was broken and perhaps local people made the road better to go. My motorbike was fallen down when I tried to overcome a road with wooden bar. Luckily there was a local guy (also riding on the road) who help me to overcome it. Although the road is too bad, we could not come back because our motorbike has less fuel and the road to come back is longer than when we continue. So we had to keep moving.
The road that we overcome
After a long ride, we at last got to the town. It's the unforgettable experience that I ever encountered. When we already was in the town we decided to visit again the Bai Sao beach because it's just 4pm. We rode to Bai Sao and layed on the beautiful beach. I have to say that this is the most beautiful beach I ever see. We enjoyed comfortable feelings with the pure water until the Sun went down.
The next morning, we had to fly back to Sai Gon so we called the driver again. He came after calling because he knew our flight and waited us in front of the hotel since the early morning. After we arrived airport, we already knew what he would do so we stop him from running away and put taxi fee on his car. He said that he does not get our money but we still put there and went away. We always wonder why he treated us so good like that. He used to tell us that his family living in Kien Giang and only him who live far from family on an island. He didn't come back to see family for 2 years. Poor him. He is a good taxi driver that I ever known. I always hope he can come back with family soon.
That's my experiences at Phu Quoc island and Phu Quoc people. I love that island so much.
