Phu Quoc Island

After leaving Can Tho we headed south for three hours by bus, then boarded a boat for a three hour trip out to Phu Quoc Island which sits at the very southern tip of Vietnam. Phu Quoc was paradise.... an unspoiled tropical island. . . . Once there, we didn't want to leave. We stayed for four nights. We could have stayed right there for the rest of the trip.

The island is quite large, 30 miles long, maybe 20 miles across. . . . beautiful beaches and little fishing villages surround the edges, in the middle are mountains and jungle. We didn't meet any monkeys. Phu Quoc has only one real town, complete with a market and fishing fleet.

I don't have much to write about. We didn't do much, just kind of hung out. We went motorbiking around the island the first day. . . . my first time on a motorbike. It was easy. I'd like to buy one when I get home. It was a good day. Everywhere we went children chased after us screaming hello! hello! It was fun. Lisa is a soldier. She fell off her bike a few times but kept right on going. . . . After a long day of biking, clouds rolled in followed by a short but intense storm. The dirt roads turned to mud slides. Suddenly motorbiking became treacherous. Again, Lisa, while attempting to go up a hill, slid in the mud, and fell, with the bike on top of her. . . . she got burned, but, like I said earlier, she is a soldier. As it turns out, every western tourist in South East Asia has a motorbike burn on the inside of their right calf. I haven't gotten mine yet. . . . Its still early. We'll see. Its impossible to avoid using motorbikes to get around in this part of the world.

Aside from that, no great adventures or stories, just hanging around our guest house, right on the beach, exploring the island, and generally relaxing. We met an awesome girl from Holland, who also fell off of her motorbike, some cool peeps from France, and a few locals. They all made for great company.

The view from our guesthouse porch:

Merritt from Holland



Our Guesthouse beach:

Motorbike Adventure:






Typical Island house by the beach:



Fishing Village:






Meeting some friendly curious locals:


This is what a gas station looks like on Phu Quoc:

We said hi to this lady, she smiled, and pulled this squid out of a bucket, then preceeded to pose for photographs. . . . people here are some of the friendliest I've ever met.
Duong Dong, the only real town on the island:

Can Tho, Mekong Delta

This is Can Tho. . . . south of Saigon in the Mekong Delta where the Mekong River ends its long journey from China and dumps itself into the ocean. The land is flat. Fruit orchards and rice paddys along with little villages and small cities. . . . allot quieter than Ho Chi Minh City. The delta is criss-crossed by hundreds of rivers and thousands of canals. Very green. Its all about the water down here. . . . thats because there's as much water as there is land. . . . water everywhere. Everything happens on the water down here.

Lisa and I arrived here in Can Tho yesterday. After finding a place to stay and dropping our backpacks, we took a walk down by the waterfront. We weren't there long before we met a very nice lady by the name of Ha who offered to take us out on her boat and show us around the next day. We negotiated a very reasonable price and she agreed to meet us at 6 AM the following morning.

Ha turned out to be awesome. . . . more than we could ver hope for. She took us down the river for about an hour to a floating market where we had an awesome breakfast on the water. Next she showed us rice noodles being made. Afterwords she took us to her friends house where we had some coffee and snacks before taking a nice long trip through the canals and back into town. Ha couldn't have been a kinder, nicer hostess. She picked Lisa a bouquet of flowers from alongside a canal and made us jewelry out of reeds. She seemed to be enjoying herself as much as we were which made for a great time. For all of that she asked allmost nothing.

We got back to Can Tho around noon, walked around town for a while,had some coffee, and now I'm here.Tomorrow we go to Phu Quoc island.
Can Tho

Floating Market:

Making Rice Noodles:

Along the canals:

Ha giving me a gift:

A gift for Lisa: