Thursday, Jan 31, 2008

I'm off again on my travels to let my mind chill out and let my body take a breather. The past week has been rather consuming: one of our housemates became very ill and to make a long story short--after rushing to Saigon from Can Tho (typically a5-4 hour drive, taking exactly 2.25 hours), and not sleeping, and being quite worried about Sarah, and then Kristen falling under the weather, and finding a hotel at last minute and then taking a bus all the way back to Can Tho (this time a 4 hour trip), and then still not getting a camera or a back-pack for my trip, and then leaving the next morning for my next leg of the journey--it's been a long week full of surprises.. unfortunate ones.

As you can see I certainly needed some time away from all of this turmoil. I chose for myy destination the small island (but rather large) of Phu Quoc, Vietnam. After a three hour--very bumping, very nauseating ride--I took a ferry. Two hours later and a drool soaked pillow I hauled myself onto Phu Quoc and found a bungalow about 6 minutes from the beach.

It was very relaxing. The first day I rented a motorbike and toured the souther half of the island extensively; it took all day and two full tanks of gas but was worth it for the ride back was an amazing experience. But before we get to the pictures of the ride back I visited Bai Sao, a small secluded beach near the south on the eastern coast of Phu Quoc. White sands and clear blue water reminded me of Byron Bay in Australia, but this beach was desolate. Empty frames of bungalows and hotels scattered the sands and there was only one restaurant on the beach.

Ok so, the way home started with this:

In the south it was a mix between desert, beach, red dirt (similar to the outback of Australia) and weird tropical jungle and mountaints. And closer to Duong Dong--where I'm staying--the sunset liughts the road on fire and the way home is great.

Sunset, red dirt road, and small towns (if you can call them that) spotting the way back home. Also, here, cows just walk around willy-nhilly--like, so many cows.

The food was great (like this pineapple, prepared right in front of me on the beach):

.. and not so great (I don't even know what this is):

it's eggs, but a dessert...

the people were great (like this crazy guy asking for handouts at the lighthouse):

the kids were great and cheerful:

and it was a good getaway and settled my mind. I read my book and received a Vietnamese oil massage... on the BEACH! The three days flew by (while taking the time to write this did not!)

My last night held a great sunset
and I was off the next morning on a plane back to Saigon to check up on Sarah, to buy a camera and a backpack and to figure out just what the heck I'm doing with the rest of my time in Southeast Asia.