Last time we were in Vietnam we were sitting at an airport and kept hearing this odd sounding word as a destination. Seemed that every half an hour there was another flight there. I worked out that the destination was Phu Quoc and thought that must be nice if so many people want to go there. 

So we started our Vietnam adventure with five nights at a resort on this small island off the west coast. 

The resort has a small golden sandy beach fringed with palm trees and every morning the staff go down to pick up the bags of single use plastic rubbish that has washed up over night.  Bottles and straws and shopping bags and spoons and rain ponchos and cups and lids and everything we know is an environmental issue.  There needs to be a new word for this type of crap on the beaches it’s not flotsam or jetsam it’s just sad. Everywhere else in the complex was however spotlessly clean and maintained by hundreds of lovely staff.

It is rainy season and so everyday we would have massive downpours that cleared away and then returned an hour later.  You could just wait it out until it was fine enough to venture out. We had come prepared and so venturing out with a rain coat and quick dry sandals was easy. As the road around the resort was lined in restaurants, convenience stores and people who do your laundry for $2 it makes life in the rain easy.

The first night we had probably the best meal we’ve had in Vietnam.  Quite an upmarket Japanese Vietnamese fusion restaurant very popular with the young and fashionable new rich of Vietnam. Very instagrammable. And wasn’t cheap we spent $65! So good though that we went back on the final night where I obviously looked disheveled enough that I was presented with a hair tie before eating! That’s Vietnam for you… Odd yet understandable!?! Pretty much all the food is good in Vietnam, it’s fresh and healthy and packed with veges and fresh herbs. In one restaurant the waitress was the cook and her five year old cleared the tables. We ordered and then what turned up was completely different. “Same same” she said and it was nice and fresh and healthy so you don’t complain. Three dishes and a couple of beers for $20.

There was a buffet bbq with your own coals in the middle of the table and a pull down chimney to remove the smoke. You choose your own meats and veges and bbq them yourself. Very popular with the locals with large family groups all coming together. There were loads of side dishes that we didn’t really know what they were.  But yummy is yummy!

We had breakfast included at the hotel which sets you up for the day and was western and Vietnamese options everyday. Afternoons were for swimming in the pool and cocktails and people watching while the waves crashed into the beach. Again we encounter the Loudees! Large groups of Chinese tourists who invade for half an hour, take a zillion photos of themselves and then depart as soon as they’ve eaten. Apart from the Loudees there were very few other tourists mainly as it’s the off season and probably Covid related.  Also interesting to note Loudees can’t swim. The hotel provides life jackets instead so they can bob in the 1.4 meter deep pool. 

There are lots of things to see on the island mainly in the snorkeling, fishing and boat trips arena none of which we felt inclined to do. It’s also the home of fish sauce so we could have gone to the factory to see how they ferment the anchovies but that didn’t appeal either. So my best friend and I decided to just ‘be’ and what a Phu Quocing great place to ‘be’.