Island in the sun....

We had decided it was time for a holiday. That may sound crazy but we have been travelling for more than 8 weeks now and we needed to put our feet up & relax so we decide to head to Phu Quoc Island, south West of Vietnam. As usual the journey there was not straight forward. I could devote a whole blog to our transit travel experiences but as Mr L says rather wisely we always get there in the end. He's right but I think my saying of ‘expect the unexpected’ is good advice to anyone travelling in Vietnam . 

We told the helpful manager at the hotel in Chau Doc of our plans and he advised that we could get a local bus at about 7-15am to Ha Tien & then the ferry to Phu Quoc. Great. Except when we appeared at reception at 7am he forgot that was where we were going and put us on a mini bus to the main bus terminus to Ho Chi Min City. I couldn't understand why when I told the lady at the bus station I wanted a ticket to Ha Tien she kept telling me to wait. Then she handed me her phone and I spoke to a man who said he could get us there but we were to wait. When he arrived we ended up paying more than we had been told it would cost on the local bus but we had no choice. We were bundled onto a mini bus made for 14 but with 18 on it & we picked up 2 more passengers 2 hours later from guess where – our hotel!! Mr L had strong words with the manager as we pulled up & I think he can expect a less than rave review on booking.com.

The 2 hr journey was pretty awful. Crammed in, with our knees up under our chins as all the luggage was under our feet, it was hot and a few of the locals were smoking. However we were in good spirits & somehow I managed to zone out, with the help of ear plugs (travellers essentials) and read my book. When we arrived at the bus station the usual pandemonium of lots of people pointing, shouting instructions & then we were on the back of scooters again, whisked across town to a ticket office to pick up the tickets for the ferry, back on the scooters which took us to the ferry port (why aren't the ticket office and ferry port next to each other you might ask – so did I!)  where we were told we had to wait 2 ½ hrs! It wasn't quite 12noon but it was definitely beer time! 

The ferry arrived & we got onboard and promptly fell asleep. Which was Impressive given that there was music being pumped out at ear bleeding volume. An hour later and we disembarked to the usual chaos as taxi drivers, bike riders, mini bus drivers all pushed to offer Lifts at the best price. We decided on a group approach and, along with a few Germans & Czechs we had met we grabbed a mini bus, cut a deal and we were off across the island. With a few locals picked up along the way of course.

We arrived at our accommodation just before 4pm; Little Garden Bungalows- a very small group of brick built bungalows clustered around a pool surrounded by lush & well tended gardens and a small bar. Our bungalow – at the end of the block and with the terrace still in the bright sun was lovely: big double bed, huge shower room with (rather randomly) an indoor garden  & most importantly no Geckos!!! We changed and got straight in the pool. Fabulous. Five days of nothing planned, apart from reassess the contents of our bags and discard anything unnecessary, getting clothes laundered &  kicking back. Maybe.