It may be end of day for most of you in North America but the opposite is brightly presenting to us. Today is our last day on this amazing island. We have been waking up every morning by the sound of the chick-a-do-o-do from the chickens nearby and the sound of the waves gently coming in to shore that we can hear from our room.
We decided to take a tour yesterday to discover the island a little bit while we still have time. As our driver made his way through the centertown Duong Dong (biggest centre on the island) he explained to us the history and facts of the island. There are only 80,000 on this island. The majority of the people live by the sea and fishing is their trade. The people in the centertowns tend to live off the tourism industry which is very alive and will be better in the future as the government has planned to turn Phu Quoc into a major tourist destination. Right now the island is still primitive off the beaten paths as we got to see it yesterday during our tour. There is only one paved road in the center of the island that connects North and South of the island. The road is only big enough for one vehicle to travel. The motobikes or Hondas are still the choice of trasportation on the island. Most of the products besides seafoods are coming from the mainland on a daily delivery from either Rach Gia or Ha Tien by ferries. It may seem isolated but there is no shortage of cellphones and motobikes. They are the Southern Vietnamese trademarks. As we drove through the small villages along the road side it reminded me of Hai Nam island. The native people are dark and the landscape is dry but very friendly and seem honest. We totally enjoyed the white sandy beach in Bay Sao (Sao Beach).
As our last night on the island we went out to the night market just outside the gate of our hotel. This market resumes every night starting around 4pm and runs until 11pm. There are lots of live seafood vendors displaying their catches of the day. You pick and they cook right on the spot. We noticed there were lots of westerners enjoying this experience. If you love seafood you have got to try this when you're on the island. As we walked pass all the seafood vendors the souvenir shops lined the street offering the tourists the island's famous pearls and products from the seas. Real pearls, fake pearls you name it they have it and they're all for the taking. And remember, you have to bargain for the right price in any market and this market is no exception. Our cousin Cam is real good at it. We just ask her to come along to do the dirty deed for us. I wanted to snap a few pictures of the market but our camera ran out of juice. Sorry.
This morning we need to get to the breakfast buffet on time for the last time then back to the room and pack and get ready to leave at 10:30. Our flight is scheduled for 11:45am going to Can Tho. We'll take a bus from Can Tho to Saigon and that should take about 3 to 4 hours. We should be arriving in Saigon around 5 this afternoon. Until then our adventure continues..... stay tuned.
:)P
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