A week or so ago I left Sihanoukville, Cambodia for the Vietnam island of Phu Quoc. What I thought would be a fairly straight forward, half day journey, turned out to be much more. The morning of May 27, the day my Cambodian visa expired, I was to take a hired mini-van straight to the border of Vietnam near the town of Ha Tien. After crossing the border, I would be taking a moto to the town’s ferry terminal where I would then catch a boat across to Phu Quoc. Sounded easy enough and I was looking forward to the trip. I was picked up around 8am and there were only a handful of other passengers on the mini-van. We drove for a couple of hours and soon arrived in Kampot, Cambodia. All the other passengers on the mini-van got off here and it looked as if I would be the only one making the trek all the way to the border. Upon realizing this, the driver of the van started making all kinds of excuses about having problems with the van and that he wouldn’t be able to make it to the border. I knew this was B.S. and he was just making excuses so that he wouldn’t have to take only one person the rest of the way to the border. He told me he would hire a moto to take me the rest of the way. I was livid. We were only about half way there at this point, and I had paid a considerable amount to be taken all the way to the border in that van and wasn’t about to spend the next several hours on the back of a motorbike, with a huge backpack, and in the rain, the rest of the way to the border. I tried to explain this to the driver and refused his offer. After some back and forth discussion, I compromised with him and agreed that I would take a tuk-tuk the rest of the way – at his expense of course. At least I could sit in the covered carriage and be reasonably comfortable and dry. My journey continued. The closer we got to the border, the worse the conditions of the road were. Soon we were driving on narrow dirt roads, filled with potholes and I began to wonder if I was even being taken to the border at all. We came to a small intersection with another small dirt road where an awaiting moto (motorbike) was sitting. My tuk-tuk driver explained to me that he could go no further due to the conditions of the road, and that his friend would then take me the remaining 10km to the border. At this point I really had no choice but to get on the motorbike as the road really were bad. The 10km turned out to be more like 30km, but soon I was at the Cambodia/Vietnam border. I was then transferred to yet another moto driver as the moto drivers do not cross borders. I knew that this border crossing does not issue visas, but I had arranged my visa while in Sihanoukville so I didn’t expect any problems. There were none, other than the 1 hour wait for an officer to come back from lunch or whatever and actually check and stamp my visa. This border crossing is tiny! Nothing more than a dirt road with a gate, a couple of small buildings, and some heavily armed officers.
Finally I was in Vietnam! I told my new moto driver that I needed to get to the ferry terminal in Ha Tien so I could catch an afternoon boat over to Phu Quoc. To my dismay, I was informed that there were no afternoon boats (contrary to what I was told when planning this trip), and that the only boats leaving in the afternoon left from the town of Hon Chong, another 45km away. Not really wanting to have to spend the night in Ha Tien, I opted to take the moto all the way to Hon Chong. It was still raining, and it would be a long ride, but at least I would be on Phu Quoc by early evening as there was a boat scheduled to leave Hon Chong at 2:30. We should just make it, so I pressed on. The driver provided a pullover type rain jackets for himself and I, so at least I was reasonably dry. I arrived at the ferry terminal in Hon Chong with about half hour to spare, only to find out that there were no more boats for the day and the next one wasn’t until 10:30 the following morning. Its slow season now and apparently the boat schedules had cut back. I was stuck. I was going to be spending the night in Hon Chong. I had my driver take me to a guesthouse. It was cheap, but somewhat dirty. Frustrated and too tired to care, I checked in and took a nap. Woke up a few hours later, went for a walk around town to find some dinner (unsuccessfully), but I did come across a beautiful pagoda built into a mountain at the edge of the sea. I took some photos and returned to my guesthouse. They fixed me a plate of really bad fried rice. I ate it and retired to my room for the evening where I watched TV. I had 5 channels, 4 of which were showing the same thing. I watched the news, pretending like I understood Vietnamese, and drifted off to sleep.
Well rested, I awoke early the following morning, anxious to get to the ferry terminal and secure my seat on the boat just in case it was to sell out. The guesthouse owner was kind enough to take me to the ferry terminal. I arrived an hour early and bought my ticket. Three Indonesian seamen, excited to see a westerner, invited me to sit with them while I waited. I had some coffee and we engaged in some funny conversation. This was nice and my mood had definitely improved from the day before. Soon it was time to go and I walked the short distance to the dock, where I was surprised to see that the boat we would be taking was a hydrofoil. This boat moved! The inside cabin was very similar to being on an airplane – seats, sounds, and all. 1 hour later (29 hours after I initially left Cambodia), I was at my destination. What an ordeal, but things like this are to be expected when traveling in this part of the world
As I mentioned, it’s now slow season in this part of S.E. Asia. I hired a taxi to take me to Long Beach where I wanted to stay. He was very insistent on taking me to a particular set of bungalows on the beach, telling me that it was the best deal for a bungalow that would be right on the beach. Knowing that there was probably a commission involved for him, I agreed to see the place he suggested but wanted to check out a couple of others as well. “No problem”, he said. I checked out the others, which were completely deserted, and ended up going with his recommendation. I was quite happy I did. This place, called Nhat Lan, seemed to be the only place that had anyone staying at it and I met a handful of other really cool travelers. The island is really nice, with beautiful beaches, and at least I would have some good company while I stayed here.
Spent the first two days just relaxing on the beach and catching up on some reading. Went on a snorkeling trip another day to some neighboring islands and another beautiful beach, Bai Sao, with pristine waters and sand the consistency of talcum powder. A huge seafood lunch was prepared consisting of crab, octopus, fish, sea urchin, snails, squid, some sort of soup, and fresh fruit. Very nice! One night we celebrated the birthday of another traveler, Pierka from Finland, and pretty much everyone staying at the bungalows came out to celebrate. Another day was spent getting lost on motorbikes while touring the island with a couple of people from Australia, Emma and Ryan from Tazmania. That was an exhausting but fun adventure, but it was very late and dark by the time we found our way back. The next day was spent chillin’ on the beach again and more reading. Last night a huge storm blew through and it is still raining today. Perfect for catching up on this computer stuff.
Phu Quoc is a beautiful island and I’ve met some really great people while here. I’ll probably spend another day here, then head back to the mainland and tour the Mekong Delta a bit before making my way to Ho Chi Minh City. More adventures to come…
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