This year we decided to take our main holiday in November and enjoy two weeks in the sun. Our date approached so after an overnight at London Gatwick airport we started our journey. I was actually excited to experience the 787 Dreamliner for the first time.
We had booked extra leg room, seats near the back and the 12 hour flight passed quite comfortably, private TV screen, nice food and free wine! When we arrived at Phu Quoc it was just a 10 minute transfer to our hotel, The Sol Beach House hotel on Long Beach. It was a beautiful hotel, with a fantastic pool area located on a beautiful sandy beach.
This was just the beginning of the main holiday season, coming out of the rainy season, and our weather was beautiful. Now to relax. We had a sea view room and the sunsets in the evening were amazing. Our hotel was located in a quiet area, just a few local shack shops a 10 minute walk away but these would be more for the locals to use. The second night we took the complimentary hotel bus down to the Night Market.
This area was buzzing, and fish the main food in the local restaurants. Every restaurant had its own tanks outside, with every type of fish you can think off, and even toad if you fancied it. We had a meal of fish and noodles and tried to master the art of using chopsticks. A few days later we took an overnight trip to Ho Chi Minh city, just a short 40 minutes flight away. Our first tour was to the Cu Chi war tunnels, the fastest way to reach there was by speed boat, 90 minutes each way but with a chance to see around us on the way. It was amazing to see the tunnels the Vietnam soldiers built, with areas to live in , dine in, and to meet up during the Vietnam war. We also seen the traps they made hidden under the ground which with one wrong step from the enemy would mean death. We also got to go down into one of the tunnels, which was an experience in itself, not a lot of space around you and quite dark.
We took the Speed boat back to Ho Chi Minh, and after a local Vietamese lunch we took a tour of the city taking in Notre Dame Cathedral and the General Post office. The main way to travel in Ho Chi Minh is by moped, but when crossing the road you need to make sure to put your hand up in a stop sign or they are liable to run you down, it is amazing what they can fit on a moped , not strange to see a family of four on one. They even had a taxi moped company that transfer you to your destination on the back of one. Back to the hotel for dinner and we relaxed in the Sky Bar taking the in the lights of Ho Chi Minh at night. Next morning it was an early start to drive down to Mekong Delta.
We took a wooden boat over to Unicorn Island, a haven for rare plants, birds and wild life. We wandered around the village paths, tasting honey tea produced from their own bee hives, and stopped at a coconut candy factory to see how they made the sweets (all by hand). Then we had a spin in a traditional sampan boat downstream, rowed by locals who only could speak two words in English – ‘Tip please’. Our flight back to Phu Quoc was delayed by a couple of hours so we made a stop at a shopping mall, where everybody headed straight up to the food court for a KFC!
Again the flight home was just 40 minutes. After a few more days relaxing we took ‘The Highlights of Phu Quoc with cable car’ tour. This started off with a visit to a Pepper Farm which was a new sight, they grow the large plants on site and then harvest the pepper when ripe. Next a visit to a fishing village, again popular for sea food, with many restaurants floating out over the sea. After lunch at Sao Beach, we took a visit to Phu Quoc prison, which was used as a concentration camp during the Vietnam war, they had lift size models to show the torture that went on at that time, it was quite horrific. Then we stopped up at a magnificent Pagoda – Temple – the grandeur was overwhelming.
Last stop was a visit to Sunworld to have a trip on the worlds longest cable car, we could view the small fishing villages below us and could see all around the island for miles. The next few days we just enjoyed to sunshine at our hotel before the long journey back home. I would advise people to visit this lovely island now, at present there is a lot of building work, and I would guess in a few years time it would be unrecognisable.
