|
  | |  |
Day 33 - HCMC to Phu Quoc island
Entry 34 of 243 | show all | print this entry |
|
We had a nice lie-in today, got up at 8am, collected our laundry (which didn't come back stained for once and was even folded !), packed up our bags and went out for some brekkie.
We went back to a bar/cafe we ate at the other day, and had a decent bowl of noodle soup which seems to be the done thing for breakfast over here.
We then got our latest photos copied onto CD (which we're trying to do every week or so to avoid any more photo disasters), caught up on some email, paid our hotel bill and caught a taxi to the airport.
The traffic in HCMC is bloody horendous, so both of us were getting a bit twitchy in the taxi that we were going to be too late for our flight, but we made the check-in time with 10 mins to spare, and caught our flight to Phu Quoc with no other dramas.
The plane was a 50 seater twin propeller job, and we had some nice patches of turbulence en route to the island which was all a bit like a theme park ride, but we touched down in one piece.
However, I must say that we were somewhat concerned when the plane overshot the island and seemed to be getting lower & lower, and closer & closer to the ocean, but it finally curved around and approached the airport from the opposite direction !
Phu Quoc looked lovely from the air, nice thin strips of beach and clear evidence that 80% of the island is still forested and undeveloped.
We were collected by the hotel bus when we walked out the airport, and were delighted to see that the obese German lesbians from the flight were staying at the same resort as us. Result ! At least they'd make us feel better in our swimming gear by the pool ;)
The resort itself is quite nice for US $25/night. We have a little cottage 5 metres from the beach, close to the pool & a couple of hotel restaurants.
We went for a quick walk up the beach, which had lovely soft sand, palm trees and even better there was hardly anyone else around.
We grabbed some lunch by the pool, which was pretty mediocre and noticeably more expensive than normal, then stripped down to our beach gear and were soon out on the sun loungers to enjoy the last couple of hours of sun before it got dark.
We've been checking the forecast every day since we booked our flights here a couple of weeks ago, and despite the warnings of typhoons & tropical storms we had sunshine when we arrived, even if it did get a bit patchy later...
After roasting in the sun (not Kieron Dyer stylee), we retired to our room and grabbed some Zs. I woke up just in time to catch the sunset, which was beautiful.
Katie was out like a light, so I went off to amuse myself, and after that (KIDDING) I went to find the "billiards table" advertised in the brochure.
The staff's English here is terrible, nearly as bad as my Vietnamese, so after a challenging game of charades and then telling me everything from the time of the tours to what was for breakfast and bringing me a bottle of water, I finally learnt that there was a games room near the tennis courts.
The tennis courts look great, so Katie will be mostly be entertaining me on there tomorrow (!), and the games room was good also. They have 2 pool tables, table football, a small gym and some random computer game on a tv with real table tennis bats wired up, like a pre-historic Nintendo Wii or something.
There was one poor member of staff sat by himself watching tv when I arrived, and as soon as I walked in he was up like an excited puppy, asking if he could play pool with me ! Nice job...
As most of you will know I always fancy myself on the pool table, so off went the glasses and on went the 'game face' !
I was a bit concerned when my new little friend pulled out a weird little 3 fingered glove for his bridge hand, which made him look ominously like a pro, but it also made me want to beat him even more. "All the gear, and no idea" and all that ;)
He was a good player, but a little sh!t also. If I had an important shot he'd stand RIGHT over the pocket, which always drives me mad, and he was full of gamesmanship, which always gets my blood pumping. He was too good to need to use cheap tactics like that, which I very nearly told him at one point.
Anyway, suffice to say that after he threatened to wipe the floor with me at 2-4 I came to win 5-4, ending with a 4 ball clearance and a doubled reverse black to break his heart. Legend !
Throughout the hour-long game I was a bit concerned that Katie would have woken up, gone to find me and got a bit worried when I wasn't in any of the bars or restaurants, but I needn't have worried as she was still out stone cold when I got back to the room.
We went out for some dinner (I had some DISGUSTING juice made with a local plum, which sucked all the moisture out of your mouth like eating sand ?!), then we went back to crash, watching some weird film about a boy golfer that I'd never heard of...
We drifted off to sleep listening to the waves crashing against the beach outside, both feeling the stress of our recent constant travelling leaving our bodies, and looking forward to the next 2 days of chilling.
Lots of love,
Al & Katie xx
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from Vietnam or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
34 votes 
