Last chance at paradise?

[chuckwoww]

The calm before the next big thing

 

April 21, 2007

 

John Borthwick enjoys the delights of an unspoilt Vietnamese treasure before the developers move in.

Unspoiled charm ... Phu Quoc island, off the south coast of Vietnam, offers the beauty of white-sand beaches and tropical jungles, without the doof-doof music and booze bars of the more popular coastal resorts.

 

Phu Quoc is the classic "before" model of a tropical island. It's the kind of place you might be lucky enough to find just before the forward scouts of "after" arrive: the planners, scammers and ravers for whom paradise is never enough. Shaped like a mini-South America, this 48-kilometre-long island dangles 11 kilometres off the coast of Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand, although it belongs to Vietnam some 70 kilometres away.

 

http://www.smh.com.au/news/vietnam/the-calm-before-the-next-big-thing/2007/04/18/1176696918161.html

[Sukhumvit]

Was speaking to a fella just t'other day who's just come back. He said it was pretty boring and once you've sat on the beach for a day or two there's really not much else to do.

 

Funnily enough I remember talking to a Chinese woman back in the UK a few years ago. This is the place where her Vietnamese husband is from. They were already then, 4-5 years ago, buying up plots of land there.

[iuytrede]

German package tourists go there, mostly even older than the tourists who go to Phuklet

 

 

[Wallenda]

Decent snorkeling and diving there, all kinds of water sports. Lovely beaches. If you enjoy those kinds of things, there's lots to do. If you're trying to get away from noise and commotion, it's perfect. If you're looking for a holiday with packed nightclubs and bars, you won't like Phu Quoc. If that's what you're after, go to Nha Trang instead.

 

Can also rent a motorbike and go exploring the island. We stayed in the area up northeast of Dong Duong town. Best 'resort' up there (they all call themselves resorts, whether they're $7 a night or $200) was Mango Bay -- very comfortable with a bit of style. Can get quite good rooms there as low as $18 or so. Its neighbor (1km away) Thang Loi was a bit of a nightmare. Really dirty. Cheap, ok, but one of us got food-poisoned. Huts looked like they never get actually Cleaned. Bo Resort had huts too but seemed a step up in quality, though they charged too much for what they offered compared to Mango.

 

The main string of resorts is south of the town, many more down that way. The area we stayed in was more secluded and had actual locals living nearby it, felt like real countryside (cows walking around everywhere, people doing work outside their houses, etc.) Dirt road to get out there.

 

One website that had a good amount of info on this islands' resorts (pix, feedback from visitors, etc.) was travelfish.org. Highly recommend taking a look there if you plan to go to PQ.

[torrenova]

First went years ago and it was like Samui was years before they screwed it up. Dirt roads if roads at all, stayed at the Tropicana I think for what was then a rip off USD25 per night but government run as they all were then.

 

Loved the place, source of much confusion for tourists as Phu Quoc is reknown for its fish sauce which is sold everywhere, including the airport but which amazingly, is not allowed on the aeroplane !

 

I would easily have invested there had it been possible and somewhat legal. No connections, communist loony government, seemed like a one way trip to the poor house unless seriously connected and investing substancial sums.