To Phu Quoc Island

Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
After leaving the rice noodle factory, we got back in our van and drove about 100 km to Rach Gia on the coast. Although the road is paved, it is bumpy and has lots of traffic, so it’s very slow going. It takes about 3 hours to go 100 km.
Almost all the way, the road followed a branch of the Mekong. There were houses and shops along the road for the whole trip, with the river behind the houses on one side, and rice fields behind the houses on the other side. It seems that there are few roads and that everyone lives along the river and the roads in long strings. It’s not like driving from village to village in Ontario. Here it’s an unending string of little buildings, with the ones on the river side partly built on stilts over the river.
As we travelled, our guide told us a little more about Vietnam. She said that government jobs are coveted not because of a big salary but because of the opportunity for payoffs. It’s difficult to get a government job except through a family relation. Corruption seems rampant here. Although Vietnam is now the second largest exporter of rice in the world, after India, and places like HCMC seem to be booming, most people are still desperately poor. It makes one wonder how much aid money goes into the wrong pockets. Many countries including Canada, and especially Japan, provide aid money to Vietnam. It seems that Vietnam has significant resources so that aid money may translate into opportunities for further trade but it also seems likely that some of the wrong people are getting rich along the way.
We finally reached Rach Gia along the coast. Since we had a little extra time we went to visit a shrine to Trong Truc, a Vietnamese farmer who organized local resistance against the French colonialists (is that a word?) in the 1860s. He was eventually caught and executed by the French in 1868 but he’s revered as a patriot here.
Our guide picked up our tickets for the 2 ½ hour boat ride to Phu Quoc and the van dropped us off at the pier. After seeing us safely on the boat, which had a glitch in that the office had never put the date on our tickets, we parted with our guide and driver and set sail on the SuperDong III (We couldn’t make this stuff up). It’s one of several big fast hydrofoil boats (same as the SuperDong V in the picture) that can carry about 100-150 people and at least one rooster that we heard crowing from under a tarp. The boat has a nice interior with padded seats but we spent a lot of time on the back deck looking out at the fishing boats and little islands that we passed.
When we got to the pier on the eastern side of Phu Quoc, a driver and van was waiting to take us to our hotel, the Thien Hai Son, on the west side of the island about 1 km south of the town of Duong Dong (again, all true). As we drove, we passed a beautiful new, as yet un-opened, international airport terminal. There is a small airport already for domestic flights but clearly they are ramping up to increase international tourism here in a big way.
It was pouring rain as we got to our hotel but that didn’t last long. The hotel is very nice, right on Long Beach which is also quite scenic. We got settled in and then went to the hotel restaurant. After a quick look at the menu, we left because the prices are high and the menu is more western than Vietnamese. We asked some European tourists where to go to eat and they suggested the Oc Tam restaurant just on the edge of Duong Dong town. We walked up there and had a great meal for 190,000 dong or VND ($9.75) including 3 Saigon Red beers (my local favourite) at 10,000 dong each (50 cents), 2 orders of the best, freshest deep-fried breaded calamari we’ve ever had, and an order of deep-fried shrimp spring rolls. The place looked pretty rustic so when in doubt go for the deep-fried. Actually it was a nice atmosphere with little wooden tables and a view over the adjacent rusted metal roof out to the ocean. And Anita ordered her first ever beer for herself (and drank it). She's learning to like it. Another retirement goal achieved.
We got into conversation with 2 German men and a Vietnamese man at the next table. Eventually the Vietnamese man ordered us all a glass of a local liqueur, made by mixing wine and vodka into some other concoction in a big jar. It pays to be dubious about these things but this one was okay, if a little sweet. We also talked to a Swedish couple next to us on the other side. These conversations are part of the fun of traveling.
There are a lot of Russian tourists here as there were in Mui Ne. Some of the menus are in Vietnamese, English and Russian and we’ve seen signs in Russian along the beach.
That was a big Wednesday so we finally walked back to our hotel and got some sleep.