#  >  > Travellers Tales in Thailand and Asia >  >  > Vietnam, Nepal and Burma  Travel Forum >  >  Wayne Kerrs Phu Quoc Expeditions - Vietnam

## Wayne Kerr

Phu Quoc Island in southern Vietnam is my favourite island getaway. Two hours flying time from Bangkok, luxury resorts for about US$30 a night, perfect beaches, some of the best diving in the world, cheap seafood and grog, and the friendliest locals youll find in southeast Asia. 

The travel route from Bangkok is first to Saigon then a domestic flight to Phu Quoc. Tickets for Bangkok-Saigon return are usually about 10,000 baht, then Saigon-Phu Quoc return is about $30. In terms of bang for your buck Phu Quoc must be one of the best holiday destinations in Asia, but this time it was mostly business for old Wayne Kerr. 

I had a little bit of fun along the way and Ill slowly get my pics in here over the next few weeks to help ease the tensions of being back at work in Bangkok  hope you enjoy  :Smile:  .

*Phu Quoc Island*

For those of you wondering where the feck Phu Quoc is, it is just near the border of Vietnam and Cambodia. I knocked the maps below off from Google Earth. The flight from Saigon to Phu Quoc stops off at Rach Gia district airport in Kien Giang Province, so my plan was to stop off on the way and check out Rach Gia and Ha Tien districts before heading onto Phu Quoc. The island is about the same size of Singapore and for you Google Earth junkies just go to 10 degrees north and 104 degrees east and follow your nose.


^ Location of Phu Quoc Island in relation to Saigon and Cambodia


^ This time I stopped off at Rach Gia airport to check out the Rach Gia (pronounced Rex Zar) and Ha Tien districts. This area is quite close to Kampot in Cambodia and many people can speak Khmer.


^ I had some business to do in the island group to the south of the island so this was where I was headed  if you are a diver you can find some of the best coral reefs in the world here.

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## Wayne Kerr

*Overnight in Saigon  Dog eat Dog*

My first stop was Saigon to catch up with old friends. They are dog meat aficionados and quickly rushed me off to their favourite dog meat restaurant upon my arrival. Dog meat is well liked by most Vietnamese and even young teenage girls are known to get into it these days. 

Dog meat restaurants are everywhere in Saigon and dishes typically set you back about US$1-1.50. The taste is pretty bloody strong and I was hoping theyd order 1 or 2 non dog dishes to go with it, but no it was all dog meet and Vodka Hanoi. 


^ This was the first dish served  sliced dog leg  :Smile:  


^ Then the dog meat sausage came  :Surprised:  


^ This was some sort of minced dog meat with all sorts of special herbs and spices  KFC Saigon style  :Very Happy:  


^ Then the dog meat soup came  this was mostly dog tail and brains  :Very Happy:  


^ The was some Kanom Gin (dont know what it is called in English) to eat with the soup  :Smile:  


^ Fortunately we had some Vodka Hanoi to wash it down  this vodka seems to have become quite popular over the past year and is a little more expensive than my favourite Nep Moi the whole dinner set us back 170,000 Vietnamese Dong with a whole bottle of grog (say $US11)  :Very Happy: . 

Showed Wayne Jnr the pics this morning and he was worried that the local soi dogs would smell their friend in my stomach and start following me around - I wish I still had an imagination like that.

*Tan Son Nhat Hotel - Saigon*

I ended up staying at the Tan Son Nhat Hotel. It used to be the office of the President of the pre 1975 government and I learned that most Vietnamese government guys stay there as they can get good rates through their communist party connections. Anyway it has great ADSL connection, lovely grounds, and only say 5 minutes from the airport for about US$21 a night (tansonnhathotel@hcm.vnn.vn).


^ Tan Son Nhat Hotel - Saigon

I had to fly out of Saigon at about 6.00am so it was an early night. Had a bit of an interesting encounter at the airport with some unruly Vietnamese passengers not so happy about a gate change for the Phu Quoc flight. They were pushing the police around and I only got a minute or so of footage before I got a tap on the shoulder by a big Vietnamese bloke in a dark suit telling me to put the camera away. It turned into more of an all in scuffle after this with the police whacking a few of the guys that where really out of control. I think theyd been drinking all night and traveling back to start preparing for the lunar new year celebrations.

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## Wayne Kerr

Some more footage of the unruly passengers at Saigon airport ...

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## Wayne Kerr

*Saigon - Rach Gia*

The flight from Saigon to Phu Quoc stops off at Rach Gia district airport. I stopped off here for a few days to check out the border country with Cambodia. Here’s a few pics of Rach Gia airport.


^ The plane used by Vietnam Airlines for the Saigon-Phu Quoc run


^ Rach Gia airport


^ Baggage collection area – reckon there must be some decent ping pong games between flights  :Smile: 


^ Outside the arrivals area at Rach Gia Airport 


^ Parking area at Rach Gia Airport

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## daveboy

Did the dog taste like anything you've tasted before?

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## MeMock

Good start to what I am hoping to be an excellant thread.

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## hillbilly

Great photos. Don't know if I want to try dog meat though. :Smile:

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## Butterfly

more please

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## Wayne Kerr

> Did the dog taste like anything you've tasted before?


Daveboy, dog has a very unique and strong flavour. One really has to dip it in that purple coloured sauce (fermented shrimp) and wrap it in the vegetables to kill the flavour a bit. It also helps if you eat it with a bit of rice cake and a sip of the vodka  :Smile:  .

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## klongmaster

think i'd just be sipping the vodka...fok eating dog...

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## Marmite the Dog

I didn't bother trying dog when I went to Hanoi. Looking forward to the rest of this thread.

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## stroller

Great stuff.
Details about those "bang values" on the island, please...

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## Wayne Kerr

Life is full of surprises. There I was fresh back in Thailand from Vietnam, had started this thread, and was looking forward to a peaceful weekend friggin around on the net. Next thing I know my wifes grandma kicks the bucket and we were off to Petchabun Province for the funeral. She was 97 years old and this is the third time she died in the past year - the two other times she woke up a few hours after being pronounced dead by the local doctor. 

I always thought she was from Lopburi as this is where she had lived for a long time, but after her two recent near death experiences she instructed her daughters to take her back to die in her home province of Petchabun. Seemed to do the trick but as you can imagine the hot gossip at the funeral revolved around whether she was playing dead or not. There was lots of knocking on the casket and checking her wrists for a pulse etc. 

The jury is still out, my wife reckons she could feel some life in her, but by the look of her in the casket she was well had it in my eyes. Although when I think about it she did look pretty much the same as other times Id seen her sleeping. The Thais love taking photos of deadies, my wife even took some, but in respect for the dead and all that I wont post them here. 

The funeral was pretty much the same as other central Thailand funerals Ive been too. Monks come the night before the cremation and say some prayers and chant a bit and everyone gets roaring drunk and plays poker next to the casket into the wee hours of the morning. Then the monks come in the early afternoon, more chanting and prayers, and the casket is taken around the cremation pyre three times, and some coins are thrown out for the kids to chase. Some local officials pay their respects, we normal people go up and put some flowers on the body and pay our last respects, then its into the burner and thats it. Im sure theres a hell of a lot more too it, but thats the take from a cultural imbecile like me.


^ This was the head Monk - in this photo he was joking with the crowd by asking Mrs. Kerr and co if theyd kept a regular check on her pulse to make sure she was really dead. 


^ This a scene I snapped whilst grabbing a few spare chairs for the monks that turned up late. My wifes family isnt well off by any stretch of the imagination but they wanted to send off the oldest member of their family in style. Their goal was to get 99 monks and 106 turned up  they were chuffed. The chanting from a group like this in the small temple was awesome. Ive heard that some funerals get several hundred monks  cant imagine what the chanting would be like then.


^ A nice scene at the end of the day

Heres a video showing the casket being taken up to cremation pyre and the chaos when they throw the coins out for the kids to chase. Anyway sorry to side track things here and I hope the next post will be more on Phu Quoc.

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## dirtydog

Is that guy playing a trumpet?

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## Wayne Kerr

Yes I think hes trying to  :Very Happy:  .

Anyway, back to the road 

*Ha Tien District, Kien Giang Province, Southern Vietnam*

After getting off the plane at Rach Gia airport we were rushed off to a hotel opposite the central market. Youll find that Vietnamese always like to stay close to the central market whenever they travel abroad, and I highly recommend following their lead when visiting out of the way places in Vietnam. Youll easily find everything you need within walking distance  and I mean everything, even in the smallest of towns.

The rate was VND 200,000 Dong (about 450 baht) a night, air-con, big bed, western dunny, and coffee and bread for breakfast. I had some business to do in Ha Tien district that day and was pretty sure things would get boozy in the afternoon so was just happy to have somewhere to hang my hat.

Ive developed a habit of collecting hotel business cards. I usually stick'em in the photo section of my wallet just in case I pass out in a joint where I'm not know (Im not bad at doing this in Sihanoukville, Cambodia) - it also helps avoid those embarrassing moments when youve been putting on the eligible bachelor show all evening and end up flashing all and sundry the photos of your wedding and kids in your wallet come time to pay the bill.

Anyway, the place I stayed is called the "Hong Nam Hotel which I thought was going to be a real shit house (pardon the pun), but it ended up being really good. Heres the card in case youre ever going through town:


^ Contacts for the Hong Nam Hotel in Rach Gia, Vietnam

*Nui Binh San Temple  Burial Place of Mac Cuu*

After dumping the bags we were off to Ha Tien which must be 3 hrs west of Rach Gia. My colleagues wanted me to see Nui Lang Mountain and the Nui Binh San Temple, which is where the tombs of a bloke called Mac Cuu and most of his family are. I think Mac Cuu is responsible for securing that part of the coast from the Cambodians in the early 18th century and holds a special place in the hearts of most Vietnamese. The temple is small and hot, but the enthusiasm about the place from the Vietnamese impressed the feck out of me, I even think at one stage they held a short commie party meeting up on the hill but I didnt ask any questions about what they were up to. 


^ Entrance to the Nui Bin San Temple in Ha Tien, Vietnam  this place is dedicated to a bloke called Mac Cuu and as you can see from the writing on the archway he was originally from China


^ The original archway leading into the temple


^ Map showing where Mac Cuu and all his descendents are buried in the hill behind the joint


^ Inside the Nui Binh San Temple


^ A mate paying his respects


^ I guess the Internet is flooded with images of Chinese temples at this time of the year, but heres another one.

Anyway, thats all Ive got from Nui Binh San Temple. My friends asked me not to take any pictures of Mac Cuus tomb, or any other tombs for that matter, and if you know any Vietnamese youll understand why I took this request seriously.

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## Wayne Kerr

*Ha Tien Cave*

Next stop was the nearby Ha Tien Cave which is inside a limestone hill overlooking the Vietnamese and Cambodian islands offshore. There are hundreds of islands out there, most uninhabited, and many have great diving around them. I cant wait for my retirement checking them all out on a small fishing boat  I reckon Id be on my way now if the right to retirement was measured by the number of bloody temples and Buddhist caves one had visited and not age. Anyway, I really enjoy these cave temple places and I wasnt disappointed by this.


^ Entrance to the Ha Tien Cave  apparently the local lasses sit under the dick looking thing hanging off the mountain if they want to get pregnant. There was a bit of pointing at the rock, then me, then the girls sitting under the rock, but shit you get used to this stuff after a while.


^ No tuk-tuk drivers or postcard sellers out the front of this joint  :Very Happy:  


^ Some locals doing their thing


^ There is an image of a beautiful lady on this wall - I could see it after having had it pointed out to me but in a small picture like this you may only be able to see the outline of her but not the detail


^ This is the room where the monks knock about


^ The main statue up on the third floor


^ Interesting view from up there

Heres a video of some Vietnamese fellows paying their respects. Thought I had got a good clip with the bell ringing and all until some kid's toy gun started going off in the background  there are of course many cultural similarities between Vietnam and Thailand  :Very Happy:  .

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## Wayne Kerr

*Vietnam-Cambodia Border*

One of the main reasons for visiting Ha Tien was to check out the new border facility there. Both Vietnam and Cambodia are hoping that this will turn into a key support facility for plans to develop tourism in the area. Cambodia is working on developing an International airport in Sihanoukville  this looks like it will go ahead. The Vietnamese have a master plan for the development of Kien Giang Province, including Ha Tien, Rach Gia, and Phu Quoc Island.

Sihanoukville - Ha Tien aint far and they're hoping to develop a coastal tourism route along the coast over the next 5 years. They also have some trade issues with loads of gasoline, which is half the price in Vietnam compared to Cambodia being pushed from east to west across the border each day. However, one of the main problems is a dispute between local officials over where the exact border is  shit it is only like 10 metres but there are two blokes involved from competing families in the area (1 Viet, 1 Khmer) and it is a real dog's breakfast. 


^ The only photo the Vietnamese army would permit me to take of the new border facility  :Smile:  


^ The first thing you notice once walking through the facility and the old Vietnamese border gates is a mark on the road showing where the Cambodians think the border is according to their Global Positioning System (GPS)  when you walk a further 10 metres west you come across the location where the Vietnamese want the official border to be (according to their GPS). This is really slowing things down as large sections of a small creek inland of these marks either fall under Vietnamese or Cambodian jurisdiction depending on where they decide upon the border. The creek is used for transporting goods and both countries want more control over what goes on there. I was not allowed to take a photo of the creek. 


^ Where the Vietnamese reckon the border is (this is on the Cambodian side of their border mark)


^ Walking back into Vietnam from Cambodia under the old border gates 


^ A view of the old border gates looking into Cambodia

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## mend

Would this island paradise be a good place to visit, if you have never been to Vietnam, or speak any vietnamese? Also, do you need to take your own "sand" to this beach.....???

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## mend

DD's pet's could feed an entire village...!!! Curried Maggie in brown sauce...!!! Just a sic joke, darling teerak Maggie..!!!

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## klongmaster

hey mend...you back in the land of the living again...

call me when you're in Bkk...numbers the same...

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## Wayne Kerr

> Would this island paradise be a good place to visit, if you have never been to Vietnam, or speak any vietnamese? Also, do you need to take your own "sand" to this beach.....???


Yes to the first question, no to the second. 

Anyway, back to the road 

*Lunch on Ha Tien Beach*

After the dog meat dinner the night before, I was in need of a good seafood lunch and a few beers to wake me up. Unfortunately they only had Heineken but it was cold and alcoholic  sitting on a beach in southern Vietnam any bloody cold beer tastes good. Heres a few pics of my first lunch.


^ Ha Tien Beach  since there are hundreds of islands offshore the coast along here is shallow and muddy. The tip of the headland at the end of the beach marks the coastal border between Vietnam and Cambodia. We were one of three small groups there.


^ First up we had some delicious swimming crabs and cold beer  :Very Happy:  


^ Then some steamed grouper and battered squid rings  :Very Happy:  


^ View from our table towards the beach


^ The beer wench. A funny thing Ive noticed is that the Vietnamese and Chinese men love to make waitresses scull beer with them. This poor Cambodian-Vietnamese lass just about passed out by the time we left  :Very Happy:  .


^ The road snakes along the coast for tens of kilometres here. This pic is looking back towards the headland marking the Cambodia-Vietnam border  the Vietnamese are investing loads of money into this sea side drive  :Smile:  .

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## Wayne Kerr

*Phu Tu Limestone Karsts*

Next stop on the way back to Rach Gia was to see the Phu Tu limestone karsts. There was always two, one they called the father, the other the son, but in May 2006 the father broke in half and fell into the sea. First things first of course, and it seems you cant get to anywhere decent in Vietnam without going through a temple and a cave.


^ Entrance to the Phu Tu temple


^ Loads of statues at the Phu Tu temple


^ A scene from inside the cave located out the back of the Phu Tu temple


^ The other side of the temple cave 1


^ The other side of the temple cave 2


^ This is what the pointy rocks used to look like before the one on the left fell into the sea last year. 

The local government have held loads of meetings over recent months to try and work out how to pick the now broken bit up from the sea floor and stick it back on. I reckon they should leave it as is and promote it as a dive destination.


^ Dried critters caught in the temple and nearby sea  geckos, seahorses, sea stars etc. Vietnamese Vitamin V  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  .


^ Toys for the kiddies  the big ones could shoot the plastic shot through a tarpaulin. Wanted to get one for Wayne Jnr but had no room in the suitcase and didnt know how itd look in the hand luggage.

After this we bought a load of beer for the drive back to Rach Gia and we were all passed out by the time we got there  :Smile: .

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## Wayne Kerr

This all led to a pretty quiet night in downtown Rach Gia - if only it wasn't for all the bloody motorcycles disturbing the peace.

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## Wayne Kerr

*The day before flying out to Phu Quoc Island*

The next day was all meetings but it was all worth it knowing that the next day wed be getting off the mainland and onto Phu Quoc Island. We had a very pissy dinner followed by a visit to the local massage parlour  the rate in the joint we visited was VND 50,000/hour (about US$3-4). Not many pics of this day but the video reminds me a lot of us drinking too many bottles of Vietnamese Vodka Nep Moi and getting stuck into a great hot pot of shrimp and squid  :Very Happy: . 


^ Scene out the window of the meeting room I was holed up in all day


^ Start of dinner watching the sun set looking towards the Gulf of Thailand  :Very Happy:  


^ Mud crab and sashimi grouper for starters  :Very Happy:  

This video pretty much sums up the rest of the night before hitting the massage joint  :Very Happy: .

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## MeMock

This thread keeps getting better and better.

Also that bloke in the above video almost lost all the hairs on his hands when he reached across the burning fish to 'chon geow'

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## William

Brilliant thread - once again I'm being spoilt reading the tales of another kind enough to share  :Smile:

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## Anonymous Coward

I delayed reading this thread until I had time to do it justice and I'm glad I did. Wonderful work. The way you've integrated the fine photos and videos make it one of the best travel pieces ever.

Well done.

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## Wayne Kerr

Glad to see you enjoy the pics and video clips – they aren’t the best quality since I take them all on my mobile phone. I really wished I had a better camera for some of the places I visited next.

Anyway, back to the road …

*Phu Quoc Island*

After the big night before I was a little shaky at 6.00am for the flight to the island. First thing I remember about that morning was arriving at Phu Quoc Island airport. Anyway we were rushed off to check into the Kim Hoa Resort as we had a lunch meeting, which no doubt was going to mean more grog. The Vietnamese men love to drink during working hours, well I guess anytime for that matter and I’ve seen one or two heated arguments later in the afternoon when the drinks start to kick in a bit.


^ Arriving at Phu Quoc Island Airport – you forget how the bright the sun can be when you spend most of your time in Asian cities  :Cool:  


^ Entrance to the Kim Hoa Resort on Phu Quoc Island – I had no idea at this time how friggin magnificent this joint was gunna be  :Very Happy:  


^ After checking in I was taken down to my beach front bungalow – this was the first view I got looking southwest off the front deck  :Very Happy:  


^ Then I looked northwest – bloody no-one there except the hired help picking up any trash that may wash ashore – I thought it was okay for US$30 a night


^ The pool wasn’t bad – check out all the tourists lazing around the place  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  


^ Some small bungalows – these are set off the beach a bit and I think US$15-20 a night


^ Some other rooms in the resort for about $15 a night – everything is say 20-30 metres from the sand

After this we had about an hour to kill and we were rushed up a dirt track behind the beach to check out a souvenir centre. Apparently the island has a strict policy on the selling of tourist shit, and it can only be sold in centres such as this away from the beach. In fact this is about the only place you can get anything to take back home – far cry from the Andaman or Chang Islands these days and it was a real pleasure not being bugged every 2 minutes to buy something. The place sold local handicrafts, and the owner had incorporated a museum and dog farm into the place – no not for eating -  for producing the famous Phu Quoc hunting dog.


^ Magnificent country up at the old handicraft centre  :Very Happy:  


^ Most of this hill side land is uninhabited – apparently it is quite easy for foreigners to buy land there too  :Very Happy:  


^ Handicraft store – all very nice and cheap but old Wayne Kerr kept his wallet in his pocket 


^ The Phu Quoc Island hunting dogs. They are native to the island and the owner breeds them and sells most to mainland buyers – they have a big ridge running down their backs


^ Dolphin skeleton – certain communes on the island used to eat these


^ This is a dugong skeleton – these are still eaten on some of the small islands off the south of Phu Quoc


^ These marine turtles are for sale everywhere on the island – I’d buy one but it would be a huge fine should you be caught bringing it back into Thailand

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## Wayne Kerr

The first afternoon I was tied up in a meeting for a few hours  this was quite good as the hosts wanted me to have a few too many glasses of vodka with them and we ended up making good friends rather than much progress on the work we were doing  having spent some time with Vietnamese I realise that often one must come before the other. My friend regaled them with stories of me eating dog in Saigon and after that things really lightened up - it was Vietnamese vodka shots all round for a good hour at the end of the meeting  :Very Happy: .

I have to go back to the island again soon so after the meeting I took some time to check out another hotel. I may take Mrs. Kerr and Wayne Jnr so was looking for somewhere good for Mrs. Kerrs running and tennis. This was the joint I checked out. The rooms go for $US22 a night, brand new joint looking over the sea with aircon and a good breakfast menu  although I think well be heading back to the beachfront bungalows at Kim Hoa.


^ New hotel on Phu Quoc Island


^ Nice pool once again


^ Different take on the pool


^ Good tennis court with a massage joint down the back

After sussing this joint out we headed back to Kim Hoa Resort for some beer on the beach before hitting a local karoake joint. There are only two things that Vietnamese men love more than their local vodka and beer - massage joints and karaoke. We planned to leave the massage to the next night  :Very Happy: .


^ View of the roof of my bungalow looking down onto the beach  :Very Happy:  


^ Bloody near impossible to find a spot on the beach to drink in the late afternoon  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  


^ Even more people up that way  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):  


^ My bungalow was the one on the left

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## MeMock

Well I know where our next beach holiday is and it aint hua hin  :Smile: 

Is there a lot of places to eat at or only at the hotels?

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## Wayne Kerr

Lots of places to eat, noodle stalls, little seafood joints on the beach, street side bread roll sellers etc. I will admit I pretty much only remember eating breakfast as lunches and dinners were mostly liquids. The breakfast at the Kim Hoa is great, can order as much as you want until full and it aint none of that buffet crap - Vietnamese bread, cheeses, noodles and stuff.

Transport is okay too - the hotels run buses into the market and other places every half hour or so. I don't know if these rates on the rent-a-bikes are reasonable or not - never rented one.


^ Rates for renting a bike on Phu Quoc

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## Wayne Kerr

*Karaoke on Phu Quoc Island*

Karoake joints in Vietnam go off. I really think places like Soi Yodsak are lame in comparison. Plus the girls you find working in them are far more attractive than similar style karaoke places in Thailand. I work with quite a few Vietnamese and most agree that there are more attractive girls per capita in Thailand, but they are ALL of the strong opinion that good looking Vietnamese sheilas are far more attractive than the good looking Thai ones  I tend to agree with them, especially when it comes to after hours entertainment places. Jesus "one night in Phu Quoc ...  :Very Happy: ".

Anyway first night on the island we planned a bit of singing. For those of you who have never frequented such a place, you are typically set up with 1-2 hotties that sing and are expected to get drunk with you, i.e., they drink from your glass and participate in any group bottoms up if you are singing at the time. You can also direct them to "bottoms up" with anyone at anytime and they'll do it. Most of them could drink your average Yank under the table, but as you can imagine they are usually quite small and end up getting a bit promiscuous later in the night  :Very Happy: .

One of my Vietnamese colleagues and I agreed to share the cost of the night for 5 of us, which included beer and about 10 girls/hostesses. Anyway we drank about 4 crates of beer, just about all the guys disappeared with their birds for a bit, and we ended up paying a total of 700,000 baht (_sorry Dong_) (say US$45) for the night. I tipped the two girls looking after me US$5 just before we left and one of them dragged me into one of the private rooms and started getting her gear off  I was had it by this stage so did a runner  :Wink: .

I know some of my friends back home reading this will think this all sounds a bit suss, but it is a pretty normal night out for southeast Asian blokes and it is pretty hard to work with them without getting involved. Lame excuse I know - shit why dont I just say it is ALWAYS a shitload more feckin fun than dropping $50 on beer alone while trying to shag some fat, pimply arsed mole at the Woolloomooloo Hotel. Anyway, heres a bit of video I salvaged that night - one of the hostesses got hold of my camera whilst I was singing and deleted all the good photos. She probably did me a favour as Mrs. Kerr is pretty good at sniffing this stuff out these days.


Lame video clip of one of the girls showing me how good she could dance with the beer delivery man:

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## William

700,000 baht (say US$45)

 :Sad:  I really hope that Dong (or whatever its called) as I'm not in the best of shapes as it is  :Sad: 

WK - I'm really enjoying this thread and it is making really fee like going.  As a budget, how much would you say the round trip cost - couple of thousand US$?

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## Wayne Kerr

Oops, sorry the beer is kicking in. Yep 700,000 Vietnamese Dong, not baht. I spent $US330 for my room (5 nights), beer, a few alcoholic dinners for 6+ people, plus about 3 massages. Airfare to Phu Quoc from Bangkok is about $300. So say $600. $1000 you'd wear the skin off it  :Very Happy: . I'm pretty sure it is cheaper to holiday on Phu Quoc than a beach in Thailand.

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## Wayne Kerr

One of my friends said he just posted his videos from the Karaoke session on You Tube - might be a bit hard to search since he used some Vietnamese words as titles and stuff  :Very Happy: .

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## William

^cannot green you anymore - but I think I'll go alone  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

Oh Dear, now a word of warning here, with pictures you can download them and get the data of the make, model number and serial number of the camera, probably can do the same with the vids  :Smile:

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## Wayne Kerr

Ya reckon  :Surprised:  ?

Anyway back to the road …

I was pretty lucky to wake up in the morning after that Karaoke night. Somehow getting on the turps by the beach is better for ones hangover than doing the same in bloody Bangkok. Anyway we were headed for the small island group to the south of Phu Quoc and as soon as I jumped on the boat my hangover was gone. 


^ View after waking up on the front of my bungalow after the karaoke session  :Wink:  


^ Southern island destination that day  :Very Happy:  


^ Wayne Kerr’s ride to the south  :mat:  


^ Coastline near the port on the main island – taken not long after we set off  :Very Happy:  


^ A view of some of the smaller islands not long after we left Phu Quoc Island proper  :Cool:  


^ This is just a bit of a teaser – the beach in the background was where I was headed and this is the boat that came out to greet us.

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## Wayne Kerr

Here's a quick clip taken when cruising to the southern islands  :Very Happy: .

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## Wayne Kerr

*Visit to an Island Commune South of Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam*

The commune I was visiting depends almost entirely on fishing. So there was no shortage of boats when we arrived in town.


^ A fishermans shack out on the water  Id love stay in one of these for a while with a small boat to explore the coast  :Smile: .


^ Another fishermans shack  :Smile: 


^ Strange looking boat  :mat: 


^ More boats  :Smile:  


^ Many of the boat people rarely come ashore and do most of their trading out on the water 


^ This is the main entrance to the commune. They like to keep fires burning in the market areas to ward off the mozzies  plenty of nasty mosquito borne illness in the area. First sign you see is advertising mobile phone cards  :Smile: . 


^ We were off to the local commune headquarters  not a bad looking shack  :Surprised: .


^ After the meeting we went across the street to the restaurant for brunch


^ The commune hospital was next door  nearly had to check myself in to dry out a few hours later


^ The Vietnamese are great hosts and here is the lunch they had waiting for us  succulent crabs, steamed grouper, and squid. I had my eye out for the beer but unfortunately they didnt have any  instead they had the fridge nearly full of the local rice wine in 1 litre jugs. I started getting worried about what was going to happen next  :Smile: .


^ Things started out quite innocently. The red jug contained the good old 45 degree rice wine  there must have been about 20 blokes, with me being the only westerner  of course everyone had to drink large shots of the wine with me. Not collectively  one by one. By the time wed finished the crabs Id had about 20 shots to everyone elses 1. In Vietnam a whole group will traditionally only drink from two communal glasses. This was just the start  :Smile: .


^ Then even the Vietnamese started getting pissed  one of my friends reckons by half way through the lunch Id had about 40 glasses  :Very Happy: .


^ After all the wine the fish bladder and eyes started to look good


^ The restaurant owner who is also one of the commune leaders brought his daughters out to meet me a little later  they were back from University in Saigon for Tet (New Year celebrations). The one on the right is getting ready to graduate as a pharmacist, the one on the left has just started studying environmental science. Speak bloody good English compared to Thai Uni students.


^ We ended up stumbling back to the beach  some of the fishermen wanted to give us a guided tour of some of their favourite places around the island. A quick swim and some fishing were also planned. I was flat out just walking back to the beach. At one stage I remember needing a leak and was led into a dark boat engine workshop and told to piss down a really small hole in the ground. I stood there for several minutes drunkenly looking for the hole but could find it - a fisherman ended up leading me on a long walk through this maze of shanties to the commune pisser. It was the first time I can remember being so drunk that I contemplated pissing my pants.


^ Fishermen shacks


^ We were all so pissed that nearly tipped the small canoe over a few times on the way back to the boat


^ The fishermen on most of the boats where working pretty hard cleaning their nets by this stage  they got a good a laugh out of seeing a drunken westerner trying to haul his fat arse back onto the boat


^ A view of the beach when we were heading off to explore some remote parts of the islands

----------


## Fabian

This really is a great thread.  :Smile:

----------


## MeMock

Wayne, what sort of business are you in? (apart from the drinking business)

----------


## sabang

Well you've sold me- I really have to visit this Island.
Great TR.

----------


## barbaro

This is a great thread.  

Wayne, I live in Saigon.

I've never tried dog meat.

Could you post or PM just the general location of where to eat dog in Saigon?

I could ask someone else, but hardly anybody has tried it, therefore they don't know where places are (and where the good ones are).


Cheers to this great thread.  Nice pics, great info!

----------


## Wayne Kerr

> Wayne, what sort of business are you in? (apart from the drinking business)


I’m a fish monger – not very exciting but I get to eat lots of seafood and drink lots of beer  :Very Happy: .




> Could you post or PM just the general location of where to eat dog in Saigon?


Sure will Milky, will try to get a Vietnamese buddy to sketch a map and I'll post it up here  :Very Happy: .

Been a bit slow getting the rest of the Phu Quoc pics in here. Got a surprise visit last week from my younger brother so I've been flat out keeping him out of too much trouble - jeez it would be great to be young, single and have a massive disposable income again. 



Apart from great memories of getting roaring drunk in way too many bars, a very late night in an infamous bondage bar, and a long day hunting for him around Pattaya after he got lost, all I've got to show for his visit is a freezer full of Australian lamb that he smuggled in and Robert Barretts latest book. I'd be happy to send the book onto any Les Norton fans out there.


^ Aussie lamb chops in Wayne Kerr's freezer



^ Robert Barretts latest book - I guess maybe only the Australians on here would be familiar with his stuff

----------


## Wayne Kerr

Anyway, back to the road 

After the long liquid lunch on the island we were off for a spot of fishing and a swim. It was early afternoon and the only thing biting was squid, so we decided to head off to a secluded bay for a quick swim to sober up. Heres a few photos and a clip of a bit of video I took of one of the reefs.


^ Looking back at the commune


^ Not far offshore we bumped into some fishermen catching squid  we were going to join in but thought they probably needed the bloody things more than us and took off for a swim instead  :Smile: 


^ Some of the small fishing boats off Phu Quoc Island  :mat: 


^ Apparently this bloke pretty much lives on his boat. He had his 2 kids on there helping him  they were both younger than 10.


^ Bigger boat with heaps of blokes catching the suckers


^ The secluded coral reef area we found for a swim  :Very Happy: 


^ The water was so clear you could see the different types of corals from the boat  these reefs are very, very rarely dived on  :Very Happy: 


^ Another pic of the secluded coral reef area we found off Phu Quoc Island  :Very Happy: 


^ The beach looked absolutely awesome but we didnt have enough time to go ashore and explore - next time hey!

I put the camera away at this time and started screwing around with my mates video camera and a dodgy waterproof housing we had for it  heres a clip of some video of the reef there  :Smile: .

----------


## Anonymous Coward

Once again, great thread. One question:

First time I visited Vietnam was back in the 80's. We went down to Vung Tau to have a look at the beach. The thing that struck me was all the places along the main highway that rented bathing suits.

Is that still going on or has the economy reached the point where people can afford their own?

----------


## Wayne Kerr

^ lol

I think those days are well gone - I've managed to get there every few months for the past few years. Each time I go there I am amazed at how richer everyone seems to be getting. But as for the bathing suits - we just wore our underpants we were so pissed  :Cool: .

----------


## dirtydog

> But as for the bathing suits - we just wore our underpants, we are Aussies .


Class, real class  :Smile:

----------


## Wayne Kerr

:Smile: 

After the swim we headed back to the commune to drop some guys off and pick a few up who wanted to come back to Phu Quoc Island proper for a few drinks – it would be very, very easy to settle into island life in southern Vietnam. I could probably just about afford it too. Here’s a few pics of the trip back to port  :Smile: .


^ Long deserted beaches everywhere – here’s one which tickled my fancy  :Smile: 


^ Another deserted Phu Quoc Island beach  :Smile: 


^ A nice big boat anchored off the commune beach 


^ I guess they get used to the smell of squid drying on the nets after a while


^ Picking up a young lass that was coming back to have dinner with us  :Very Happy: 


^ Another fisherman’s hut out on the water


^ Leaving the commune – hopefully I’ll be back there soon  :Smile: 


^ Arriving back at port 


^ We were quickly rushed off to one of the locals homes for more drinking and sticky rice – it was just a few days before the Chinese New Year and apparently they like to fill any guests up with lots of sticky rice and vodka at this time – actually when I come to think of it things are pretty much the same as this all the time in Vietnam  :Very Happy: .


^ Then it was drinks by the pool before kicking onto the massage that the local fellows we were with recommend


^ This is the card for the best massage place on Phu Quoc. At 50,000 dong per massage (say 120 baht for 1hr), and given the fact that all the girls were super attractive and quite fun to joke around with, I deemed it necessary to have 3 separate massages – I was not disappointed  :Very Happy: .

----------


## Wayne Kerr

The last day of the trip turned into a beauty. I reckon that any trip in southeast Asia is incomplete if you don’t have some sort of memorable encounter with a pig and find a dick of some strange critter in a market somewhere. Anyway I wasn’t to be disappointed this trip, but the bloody pig this time brought on a nasty case of post inebriated anxiety about the prospect of one day having to return to my homeland and put up looking at all the big barge arse sheilas there. As for the animal dick I stumbled upon … well that just scared the clappers out of me. 


^ The scene I came across when stumbling up all bleary eyed for breakfast on my last day – at first I thought my hosts had taken the good old Vietnamese hospitality too far and we were going to do “Moo Hun” Vietnam style, but I soon realised it was a religious offering  :Smile: .


^ View from the back-end of the pig – apparently the sucker weighed in at 105kg. This got me thinking about some news I received recently about one of my ex-girlfriends in Australia that recently hit the 100kg mark – shit I remember her as a hot, leggy blonde that used to go surfing with us and went like the clappers on the work bench. Anyway these strange thoughts ended up being all too much for a hungover Wayne Kerr and I decided it was best to skip breakfast and get our morning meeting over and done with so I could have a beer as soon as possible  :Smile: . 


^ Local commune office on the east coast of Phu Quoc Island – I spent a few hours here before ducking off to a local fishing village to find a beer and a bite to eat 


^ Small fishing village on the east coast of Phu Quoc Island we went to for breakfast - cop the serenity  :Smile: 


^ This lady had crabs  :Smile: 


^ We found these lovely looking marine snails which we thought would go down best with beer at 9.30am in the morning  :Very Happy: 


^ Start of breakfast – the idea was to eat all the guts out of the snails and put the empty shells in the bowl in the middle  :Smile: 


^ Half a dozen beers later  :Very Happy: 


^ The lady selling the shells also had some live seahorses – Vietnamese “Vitamin V”  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic): 


^ We also lucked upon this dugong dick – all I could think of when I saw this sucker was that I was very lucky indeed that I hadn’t been born a female dugong. Note the barbed head with the large testes sewn on down below. The only wanted about US$2 for this  :Surprised: .

----------


## Wayne Kerr

After breakfast I had a few spare hours before my flight so I decided to see some sights. The headland temple in town was the highlight. I also checked out the “1000 Star Hotel” for the Kerr family trip there in July. The 1000 Star is bloody cheap at about US$10 a night, but the rooms are set off the beach a bit and I’m pretty sure we’ll be hitting the Kim Hoa beach front bungalows again next time around.


^ The headland temple on Phu Quoc Island  :Smile: 


^ View from up on the headland looking north  :Smile: 


^ View of the fishing port – unfortunately my mobile phone camera really let me down taking the pictures from up there


^ Tried to stand right out on the cliff to get a good pic of the beach and boats but this bloody tree got in my way


^ Some great rock pools around the headland – I’ll be going back there with Wayne Jnr in July  :Smile: 


^ The shrine in the temple  :Smile: 


^ View from rooms at the 1000 Star Hotel on Phu Quoc Island – this seemed very quiet and relaxed and at US$10 a night it would be a bargain


^ Rooms at the 1000 Star are very basic but you’d probably spend most of your time on the beach anyway


^ View of the beach from inside the open air restaurant at the 1000 Star

----------


## Wayne Kerr

We really got caught up in the Lunar New Year (Tet) celebrations over lunch. The beer really hadnt worn off after breakfast, and since my flight to Bangkok wasnt until 9.30pm there was really no point in holding back beer wise. Following our 1pm flight from Phu Quoc I had about 6 hours drinking time in Saigon, and since the airport was so hectic with the overseas Vietnamese coming home for New Year we pissed off to my mates home and drank all manner of things. Anyway not many photos from here on in, but there is one of Ms. Phu Quoc competition that you may like.


^ Departures at Phu Quoc Airport  they are always run off their feet


^ The main tourist type product at the airport is the good old Phu Quoc fish sauce. This stuff is actually quite tasty and nothing like the shit made in Thailand. I hate Thai fish sauce with a passion but the Phu Quoc stuff is tasty and has a very high protein content  this is excellent if your kids are into the stuff. Anyway the only problem is that you cant take it on the plane and have to order it in the airport then pick the bottles up in Saigon. It is so bloody complicated that no one actually does it. The airport is also a great place to buy a stuffed marine turtles just in case you need another endangered species to put up on the trophy shelf  Id buy one except the fine for bring one into Thailand is about 500,000 baht. 


^ With all the pictures of beaches and stuff I didn't take too many of the Vietnamese girls. I think I mentioned earlier that it is generally thought that the good looking Viet girls are far better looking than the good looking Thai girls. This is a rule which I previously thought only applied to Hanoi, but there were loads of super hotties on Phu Quoc Island too. Anyway while we were having a few beers at Phu Quoc Airport I snapped this shot out of the local tourism magazine to remind of how attractive many of the girls are there.

----------


## William

*Vietnam Airlines skids off HCM runway
*
Hanoi (dpa) - A Vietnam Airlines plane skidded off the runway when its brakes failed during an emergency landing in Ho Chi Minh City, but all 70 passengers and crew were unhurt, an official said Friday. 

The ATR-210 plane en route to southern Phu Quoc Island had to return to Tan Son Nhut Airport in the city 15 minutes after takeoff Thursday because the hydraulic-system pressure had dropped below normal, according to a release from the airline. 

The plane, carrying 65 passengers and 5 crew members, landed properly but could not stop in time and skidded 25 metres off the runway due to the malfunction of the brakes, which were powered by the hydraulic system. 

"One of the valves of the hydraulic system had broken, leaving the plane unable to retract its landing gears so it had to return," Tran Van Mai, the state carrier's Ho Chi Minh City maintenance director, said Friday by telephone. 

"It might have been a mistake by the manufacturer," Mai said, adding that the plane is only five-years-old. 

Vietnam Airlines has had a string of technical problems this year, including three emergency landings in February during the heavy lunar new year travel season. 

The state carrier also had a turbulent year in 2006, with a series of scandals, including allegations that it paid millions of dollars for the wrong kind of engines for its jets and that some of its staff have been involved in drug and cigarette smuggling operations.

----------


## Marmite the Dog

> "It might have been a mistake by the manufacturer," Mai said, adding that the plane is only five-years-old.


Or maybe the fact that it has never seen a qualified mechanic in any of those 5 years...

----------


## ChiangMai noon

Truly outstanding thread.
should be compulsory reading.

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## 7urbo

terrific thread WK!!  thinking of heading back to asia not too far in the future with the wifey who is vietnamese

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## Wayne Kerr

*Anyway, back to the road ...*

Well  what a couple of weeks. Just back in from another trip to Phu Quoc. All things going well I should be back on the island early next month so I guess if Im gunna get some more stuff in here I really should work out how to add an s to the end of Expedition in the thread title. 

This trip I stayed in 2 hotels. The first was high end, but the US$40 a night wasnt that bad. The second place set me back US$8 a night, and I enjoyed it much more than all the highfalutin crap at the flashy joint. Ill try to get some info about both places in here over the next few weeks.

Anyway, here are a few pics of my first afternoon there this trip  a couple of kilos of marine snails, quite a few too many icy beers, and a friggin great sunset were just what I needed to get into the swing of things  :Very Happy: .


^ The Saigon Phu Quoc Resort  this was where I was holed up for the first week


^ Here's the pool at the Saigon Phu Quoc Resort - the beer at the pool side bars was always icy cold  :Very Happy: 


^ These were the first things on my agenda. They're strombus snails at about 50 baht a kg and some of the tastiest critters I've ever eaten  :Very Happy: .


^ More strombus snails  a Phu Quoc Island specialty


^ This was my favourite restaurant on the island, but I found a better one just yesterday. Anyway this was the site for the first snail feast. Its in Ham Ninh commune on the east coast of the island  was great to be treated to a sunset like this whilst enjoying way too many cold beers  :Very Happy: . 


^ More sunset shots  Ham Ninh commune is about 15 minutes by motorcycle from the island centre. Four of us stuffed ourselves with snails, blue swimmer crab, and beer for bout 350,000 dong (say 700 baht).

Overall a very enjoyable start to the trip  :Very Happy:

----------


## Marmite the Dog

> I really should work out how to add an “s” to the end of “Expedition” in the thread title.


'Tis done.

----------


## Wayne Kerr

> 'Tis done.


Cheers old chap.

*Anyway, back to the road ...*

The next day was stuck inside an office, but I was fortunate enough to be treated to a seafood BBQ at the Saigon-Phu Quoc Resorts Sunset Bar in the afternoon. Of course this turned into a 6 hour drinking session with the Vietnamese guys I was with and some very, very friendly young Vietnamese and Cambodian waitresses  :Very Happy: . 

The island is only a stones throw from the coastal provinces of southern Cambodia, so most people seem to speak Vietnamese and atleast some Khmer. There always seems to be one person who can speak Thai a bit too. Anyway, heres a few pics and vids. 


^ Bar Sunset on Phu Quoc Island  :Very Happy: 


^ Was tempted to take a one of the kayaks for a paddle but a cold watching the sunset seemed much more appropriate  :Very Happy: 


^ Now this is life  cop the serenity  :Very Happy: 

Heres a few vids of things down on the beach before it got too dark ...

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## Wayne Kerr

The BBQ put on at the bar each night is first class … they charge the equivalent of about 500 baht for all the beer and seafood you can drink. 


^ A young bloke cooking up a storm  :Very Happy: 


^ I reckon there’d be more than 500 bahts worth of seafood on the grill but I reckon I must have finished double that … and all this before they even brought the crabs out  :Very Happy: .


^ There seems to be an endless supply of ultra cheap blue swimmer crabs on the island  :Very Happy:

----------


## Wayne Kerr

Anyway things got a little messy towards the end of the night. One of the young waitresses offered to take me for a ride around town on her motorbike. She ducked off to doll herself up a bit and on her return I realised things could get interesting.

Here's a vid I pulled off whilst sitting on the back of her bike ... I'm really going to have to improve my video technique to prevent shadows ending up in wrong spots again  :Very Happy: .

----------


## dirtydog

I think she sussed what you were trying to video  :Smile:

----------


## Wayne Kerr

Got some better ones later, although I recall your warning earlier on in this thread  :Wink: 
*
Anyway, back to the road *

I guess one cant go about having fun with young sexpots all night and not expect to have to do some work the next day to replenish the bank account  so the next morning it was up at 6am to piss off to the small island commune I visited at the start of this thread. 

With the onset of the southwest monsoon the entire community has shifted to the northeast side of the small island, and I think somehow they treat this place as a temporary abode as it is a friggin filthy shithole. It also where all the fishermen's knocking shops are. Fortunately my favourite restaurant was in easy walking distance. I guess pictures are more interesting than words so here goes:


^ Fishing port right on the southern tip of the island  just a stones throw to the hundreds of small islands to the south of the main island


^ A nice boat anchored up off the commune I was visiting 



^ The coastline looks friggin awesome but on closer inspection you'll be disappointed  :Sad: 


^ It quickly came apparent that the locals treated this place about as good as the Pattaya City Government treats Jomtien Beach  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic): 


^ Wasnt much better up the other direction  :Sad: 


^ Things got worse as we walked up into the commune  :Sad: 


^ A shot back down to the coast once you get past the small market and move into the knocking shop area.


^ Ive spent a fair bit of time in small southeast Asian fishing communities over the years so its pretty easy to spot the local knocking shops  the girl on the left was playing with condom full of water and showed me how shed fellate it  when I pulled the camera out she hid it with her right hand under her legs. According to my Vietnamese mates the going rate is about US$3 for the fishermen.


^ Fortunately my favourite restaurant was only about 200 metres from the shore (about in the centre of the island). Those who have read this from the start you may recognise these blokes. This time they had cold beer for me, but still it was expected that I down at least 20 glasses of the local rice wine with them  :Very Happy: .


^ When we stumbled back down onto the beach I looked up and thought this could be a lovely place if they cleaned up all the shit  :Confused: .


^ When we were cruising off this fish trader wanted us to buy this endangered species of sea turtle of him ... only wanted equivalent of $15  :Sad:

----------


## Wayne Kerr

^ All I can remember (well all my camera can remember) after getting on the boat was finding my way onto the back of another motorbike  :Wink:

----------


## dirtydog

Looks a bit better than the motorbike taxi drivers down the end of my road  :Smile:

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## Marmite the Dog

Did she sell you her starfish?

----------


## Wayne Kerr

> Did she sell you her starfish?


Starfish ... she was more like a mermaid on speed  :Smile: 
*
Anyway, back to the road ...* 

After about a week at the Saigon-Phu Quoc Resort and too many pissy nights, my plan was to spend another week exploring some of the Island's coast by boat during the day. First step was to find a cheap hotel to hang my hat. The Kim Phung Hotel in the town centre looked good enough and was a bargain at US$8 a night. I ended up checking out of the place after a week and the total bill was less than 1 night at the resort.


^ The Kim Phung Hotel in downtown Phu Quoc


^ The rooms are up the back behind the hotel ... note to myself to be more careful of the steps when stumbling back home pissed next time  :Smile: .


^ Lovely little courtyard ... most guests sit around out here at night drinking and eating  :Smile: . 


^ Right in the middle of town in close proximity to plenty of cheap restaurants and beer shops ... a box of 24 cold cans of beer goes for about the same as 3 at the resort  :Smile: .


^ Room was small but clean and had air-con. Was about 40 degrees C most days and due to power restrictions on the island most places, including small hotels like this were without power from about 5.00pm-8.00pm ... this resulted in most people sitting around outside drinking cold beer until the aircon started working again.


^ Shots of dunnies seem quite common on here - so here's the bathroom at the Kim Phung  :Smile: .

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## buad hai

Lovely photos. Thanks again.

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## Wayne Kerr

The hotel move really took it out of me so I decided more seafood and beer was in order to replenish my energy levels. Found this great little restaurant … you buy your own seafood in the nearby market and they cook it up for you for next to nothing. Seems they make their money out of beer sales mainly.


^ Was so bloody hot an humid there at the time that I couldn’t have cared less if I fell in … only about a metre deep anyway


^ I felt like some mud crab … this one proved a little difficult to tie up


^ More snails … really wish they were more readily available in Bangkok


^ Snails on the table


^ Some of the swimming crab we had ... they cooked these alive on the table next to us  :Smile: .

----------


## dirtydog

He looks a bit of an angry bugger, then again I don't blame him  :Smile:

----------


## sabang

Now thats a crab!  :Very Happy:  Those swimmers are too fiddly.

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## Wayne Kerr

> He looks a bit of an angry bugger, then again I don't blame him


Nearly got me he did ... tried to grab him with one hand, a camera in the other, ended up having to give him one of my flip flops to play with for a while to calm him down. Think I got some of that on video. Sabang, I find serious crab eaters either love one or the other ... personally I prefer the blue swimmers. I eat so many of them that a muddie is good for a change every now and then.

*Anyway, back to the road ...*

Next day was off to sea ... was keen to explore a few places along the east coast. Here’s a few pics:


^ A shot of M.V. Wayne Kerr's wheelhouse 


^ A great view looking south down the east coast of Phu Quoc Island


^ Took this pic of the GPS to remind where we went in case things got too pissy later on the day


^ The Vietnamese are pretty much the same as the Thais when it comes to food, i.e. they are always thinking of it. These boats looked a good a source of food as any so we found ourselves steaming towards them before we actually got any work done.


^ The crew were surprised to see a big dopey looking farang taking their pictures


^ They were mending the nets so I grabbed a net needle and helped out for a while. They seemed quite pleased with this and offered us a bag of squid in return … it’s one of the only times the skills I learnt during my misspent youth have paid off.


^ They were really pissing themselves at the farang fella fixing the nets with them


^ Next step was to get the suckers cleaned up a bit


^ Still cleaning the squid … these suckers have got heaps of that black stuff in em


^ Then they were onto the stove with some fish and other stuff we had


^ This was the end result … not bad but I wish we’d spent a little longer getting all the black shit out of the squid


^ Before we’d finish eating the lads cracked a “bag” of rice wine … they had about 10 small bags like this to get through in the afternoon


^ Then they called the local border army patrol bloke on the radio and invited him over to join us … man this guy could drink


^ A long swim was in order to help sober up later that afternoon – if you look closely you can see our snorkels

----------


## sabang

Mate, whatever it is you do for a living, I reckon I'd be your Gopher for free.  :Smile:

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## Wayne Kerr

> I reckon I'd be your Gopher for free.


It aint all beer and skittles you know ... sometimes I have to drink wine  :Wink: . Just see below.



  ^ This day led to another bloody dinner of some hot pot of all manner of strange critters and more beer




  ^ The wine that night came out of a big plastic drum into empty JW Black bottle – it was apparently made of some unusual forest fruit, very strong, and I was very happy once it was finished so I could get back to my beer

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## Wayne Kerr

Next few days I was up around the north of the island. Some more pics.


^ This pic is dead in between Phu Quoc Island and the Cambodian coast. The southern tip of land you can see on the left of the pic is the most northerly tip of Phu Quoc Island … the land on the right is Cambodia’s Kampot province.


^ Apparently there is a big mountain on the Cambodia side … but these lovely looking clouds covered it up for the whole time I was there


^ The coastline up around there is mostly untouched apart from a few small shacks


^ The commune of one of the guys with me was up there and we were invited in for lunch … locally caught sea prawns, some of which were still kicking. They caught them by walking along the beach with a cast net


^ To save fresh water they cooked the prawns up in coconut water … they were the delicious. I thought it was going to be an alcohol free lunch until this showed up.


^ 20 litres of rice wine … it was at this stage I was starting to get worried about what was going to happen next as I was one of the only farang ever to visit the commune and some of the local elders had arrived to come and drink with me.


^ Anyway I did my best to line my stomach with prawns and fruit as quick as I could


^ The bloke second from right had worked as a fishermen up in Thailand and could speak a fair bit of Thai … fortunately he helped translate when the 20 odd glasses of wine I had started getting on top of me


^ The border army bloke from the day before even came to see us – he was really sick from the previous days drinking


^ Fortunately by the time we left we’d only got 2/3 of the way through the wine

----------


## Wayne Kerr

I was introduced to one of the fellows at lunch as “the local dugong fishermen”. People in this part of the world love to eat dugong and use certain parts of the critter as aphrodisiacs but catching the suckers is outlawed these days. He invited me over to his place to see some dugong parts and to show me his dugong nets and stuff. I guess one doesn’t get to do this every day of the week so off we went … here are some pics of what I saw.


^ The dugong fisherman’s home … lovely big balcony looking over the coast


^ Wouldn’t mind spending a few days lazing about here


^ He quickly produced some dugong parts – these are dugong tusks


^ This is some dried dugong skin – 10 grams of dried skin is meant to be better than popping 5 full strength viagra pills 


^ This is one of his dugong fishing nets. He reckons he hasn’t been dugong fishing for more than 5 years, but I was a bit suss on this. I’ve spent a fair bit of time around fishing gear and looking at the shape the floats and twine is in I reckon it must be less than 2 years. Felt like asking him why he had a new net if he didn’t catch dugong anymore … but hey I’d been kindly invited to his place so just bit my tongue. 


^ This is his small jetty that they used for pulling the dugongs up out of their boats onto


^ This is where they used to clean their nets and slaughter the dugong


^ I was told these are for the spirits of the dugong they killed … now apparently some really bad shit can go down if you don’t look after dugong spirits properly


^ Nice beach out the front of his place


^ Here’s the dugong fisherman and his kids … one of the local guys I was with explained that the community believed that his daughter had been born an albino as their family had pissed off some dugong spirits

----------


## Wayne Kerr

Anyway, after that hectic day I was in need of some good food and cold beer. Went for a 2 minute stroll from my hotel and found this seaside restaurant … was a great place to unwind.


^ One of the many seaside restaurants in Phu Quoc town


^ Seem to have sunsets like this there everyday


^ Another sunset shot

----------


## Wayne Kerr

I enjoyed all the restaurants I visited on the island so much that one of the guys I met there promised me lunch at his restaurant. He explained that this joint is only used by locals, and as such only have the best seafood, waitresses, and beer at half the price of places targeted at Vietnamese tourists. I was hanging out for this and on the last day sure enough we had an ultra long lunch. Next time they promised to show me some more of the out of the way places on the island. Anyway here are some pics of my now favourite restaurant on the island.


^ This is the restaurant proper … but it is better to eat in one of the beach side huts


^ A close up of the main part of the restaurant


^ The beach side hut where we had our lunch


^ They are pretty busy with locals on the weekend so there are quite a few huts


^ The beach is bloody magnificent – the staff catch a lot of the seafood fresh as the customers request it


^ These mantis shrimp where awesome – not as tasty as crab or prawns but good for a change


^ The flies were out in force so they set a couple of chopsticks on fire to ward them off


^ Later in the afternoon we felt like some prawns so the owner sent his staff off to catch some – this is part of their catch


^ After a cholesterol packed and alcohol fueled lunch, the topic of discussion moved onto massage and as such the old blokes popped out the seahorse liquor. I never really believed this could help you get it up, but after about 10 glasses of this stuff I walked out of the place with a roaring stiffy. 


^ The track out of the place – I will be certainly be back on my return trip next month

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## mend

Klong, I have to apologise that i didn't call you, and I didn't get to Jomtiem to see DD either. I will call you as soon as I arrive in BKK next trip, probably won't be till Jan. All the best to you & yours, mend

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## mend

Khun kerr, great thread...!!! I made my first trip to Vietnam this past March and had a great time. You have sold me on this place, it's got everything I need, Fresh seafood, cold beer, and Sexy Local Sand"...!!! I will need to go over this again to find the best hotel, and best "Sand" on the island. Being a photographer, I also loved all the colour of the fishing boats etc. Maybe I will try to get DD to join me on this trip, it looks like his kinda place>>>>ROAD TRIP!!!!

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## jizzybloke

This is kin amazing!

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## Jock Itch

Another fantastic trip to top up a great thread Wayne !!

Some amazingly remote spots so close to such huge populations !!

.............. I'll keep my eye out for a spare liver for ya !!  :Surprised: 

DM

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## Wayne Kerr

> Being a photographer, I also loved all the colour of the fishing boats etc.


Yes, would be a photographers wonderland there  :Wink: . All the pics in this thread were taken with my mobile phone and I wish I had a decent camera with zoom.




> .............. I'll keep my eye out for a spare liver for ya !!


Thanks JI ... look forward to seeing you in September. Happy to show you guys around the island if you wanna extend your stay  :Wink: .

Had some time to frig around on Google Earth today and the image below shows how close the island is to places like Koh Chang, Phnom Penh, and Bangkok even.

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## Wayne Kerr

To mark my 1000th post on this forum I've bumped my favourite thread ... hope you enjoy.

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## patsycat

I'm glad you bumped it - i really enjoyed reading it, thanks!

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## Marmite the Dog

> To mark my 1000th post on this forum I've bumped my favourite thread ... hope you enjoy.


Now you can add your own personal message under your username. I bet you're really excited about that.

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## Wayne Kerr

> Now you can add your own personal message under your username. I bet you're really excited about that.


Well in my drunken state last night, I was kinda hoping DD would send a gaggle of nubile young virgins over. Instead I got a nasty red for my drunken "bump".

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## peterpan

> Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog
> 
> Now you can add your own personal message under your username. I bet you're really excited about that.
> 
> 
> Well in my drunken state last night, I was kinda hoping DD would send a gaggle of nubile young virgins over. Instead I got a nasty red for my drunken "bump".


Getting a red from Pommy Noodle is like having a poodle with a pink bow in its hair bark at you from behind a gate. 
I doesn't mean a lot, and more importantly you got a green from me, now that is valuable.

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## bongthom

^^fine thread wayne. congrats in order

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## boatboy

Thanks for bumping and a great thread Wayne, another place on my list of spots to go to.

Looking at flights now

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## The Master Cool

A great thread thank you.

Definitely a place I will consider going to now. Thanks.

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## filch

I missed this the first time around, so I'm grateful for the bump. It's an excellent thread!

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## Wayne Kerr

A few posts gone missing from this thread from the past day including mine ... bit disappointing given the time put into writing it

Must be the slap on the back mates again

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## cambtek

No wonder the cambodians are so pissed off that the viets stole it from them.
have a look at the map and see how the border winds around phu quoc.
they call it vietnams koh samui,not sure of that but it does look nice.
I love vietnam especially the beautiful women and their well practiced customs.

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## Butterfly

This thread needs to be a sticky, took me 20min to find it with TD infamous search function

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## Henrie

Great thread. I'm planning a trip there. It looks like no visa is needed too.

No visa required for tourists to Phu Quoc on short stay. Vietnam visa embassy, Vietnam visa on arrival

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## JournalistsAreLiars

10 years later this island is another $hithole...

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## cyrille

Bit harsh to blame that all on smeg.

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## Luigi

^^ Any pics?


Of the shithole. Not of Smeg.

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## david44

Hope to go there next year any recent visitor info welcome, have been to nam before but never the island

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## katie23

^ BLD had a thread about it, but it's 5 years ago. St8ll worth a look. 

https://teakdoor.com/vietnam-nepal-an...the-beach.html

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## david44

Thanks KT, hope to go there after TET crowds which I think this year is c 2-9 Feb same as Chinese new year?
I'll try and get some pix this time

Its only $30 from Saigon some days on Jet Star or v long overland 
I went to Dalat 8 hr bus $5 Plane Vietjet $7 and about same each end for cab/shuttle

Flying inside nam a real bargain, small airports good cheap beer and food friendly staff etc, it's sure to rocket or fill with teh Chinese once they discover how cheap it all is , we ate lobster/crab until dusk and great beer vodka and other libations in the hills around Khe San /Ho Chi Minh trail

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## katie23

Tet is the lunar new year celebration, which is more widely known as Chinese New Year. Vietnam also uses the lunar calendar - new moon of the new year. 

When I went to Saigon 3 years ago, not much Chinese tourists. Maybe it's because there's anti China sentiments in Vn. Not to mention the history of fighting with them for a thousand years (Accdg to my guide at the Cu Chi tunnels). Good luck in planning your trip, post the pics afterwards!  :Smile:

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