Travel Thursdays: Phu Quoc island, Vietnam

If you missed my first Vietnam post, click here… if not, read on! 🙂

So from Ho Chi Minh City we jumped on a 1 hour local flight to Phu Quoc island.  But before we move on – we flew with VietJet Air which is cheap (cost us around R650 pp for each internal flight), but by the end of our trip we had taken 3 VietJet flights and all 3 were delayed, some by a good couple of hours.  So not a great experience.  I’d say rather pay a little more and fly with Jetstar.  We had one flight with them and it was like a breath of fresh air.

OK back to that sexy little island called Phu Quoc.  Phu Quoc is a Vietnamese island off the coast of Cambodia.  It’s known for beautiful white-sand, palm-lined beaches on its southwest coast and more than half of the island is part of the Phu Quoc National Park.

It’s still very much remote and untouched, so there’s not a hell of a lot to do there other than chilling on the beach, but this was all we needed (well that and good food of course).

It’s advisable to stay in the Duong Dong area as that’s where most of the resorts are located.  We stayed at the Famiana Resort & Spa  (which we booked through Bookings.com) and it was absolutely beautiful.

I mean just look at the sunset which welcomed us on our first day:

The resort is split into two sections:  the beach zone & the green villa zone.   The green villa zone is a bit cheaper & across the road, but should definitely not be classed as less awesome.

We got a pretty good deal at around R1360 per night (so only R680 pp) in the green villa zone and we were certainly not disappointed.  Just look at this place:

The beach zone is still completely open to all guests, so a quick 5min walk across the road gets you here:

And then you can use the beach zone pool area and restaurant as well:

The only thing to note is that it’s definitely all about location.  Our resort was gorgeous and the beach area was spotless as you can see, but we decided to take a walk up the coast one evening and even though this photo looks amazing, I did have to crop quite a lot of litter out of the shot… (which made me a bit sad)

So yeah, research research research… And rather pay that little bit extra.

On the drinks side – blue margaritas are a must.  We found a tiny little bar across the road from the resort that served up some of the best we had in Vietnam:

And then on the food front you simply have to try two places:  Nemo Restaurant  & Dinh Cau Night Market.

Nemo is a very humble little spot about a 2min walk from Famiana.  The reviews on Tripadvisor were completely spot on as this was hands down the best meal we had in Vietnam.  The spicy beef noodle dish I had was absolute perfection and Leigh’s prawns were also perfectly cooked.  (just don’t do the tempura prawn starter – it’s definitely not a good reflection of their abilities)

Then the Dinh Cau Night Market is where everyone goes to get their hands on some fresh, market-style seafood.  Now you may hear some mixed feedback about this market.  There’s are a lot of scary stories about them drugging the fish to make it last longer, etc.  But a quick Google lesson taught us how to pick out the good stuff.   Like making sure that the fish’s eyes are glossy and not sunken in, ensure that the lobster/crab/fish are moving around actively in the tanks and not just sitting on the bottom, and look for pink gills and a non-fishy smell.  So we felt pretty confident.

But once you see all your options it does get a bit overwhelming…

After much deliberation, we decided that this man definitely looked like he knew what we was doing:

So we ordered some crab meat “sosaties” which were delicious, some spicy prawns which were tasty too, but we also decided to splurge on a biiiiig lobster which cost 1.2 million Vietnamese dong! (or about R750)

So yeah, don’t get put off by scary stories.  This market is a must.  Just look away when they slap that lobster on the grill, it’s a bit of a hairy experience.  Rather order a beer and go find a spot to sit.  They’ll bring it to your table covered in a garlic butter & lemon sauce and you’ll forget all about the fact that it was moving around just minutes before.

Next week:  Hoi An – Vietnam’s “foodie” city and the best spot to get some clothing made.

xxx