[Vietnam] $10 dollar scooters and free spray tans

I promised myself I’d be better with blogging this vacation. I would be diligent. I would be hard-working. I would get the photo journal of our vacation up in less than a month (Ehem…look at Bali-took me FOREVER).

Now here I sit, well over a month later, STILL posting about our trip. Sigh. I’m almost finished…I swear. I’m beginning to think my readers out there believe we’ve been on vacation for months, when in reality, we only went for eight days.

For the sake of time and lack of page title ideas, I’ve decided to combine day six and seven for you.

Ethan, Sandra, Derik and I all agreed to keep the last three days to ourselves. That meant no schedules. No tours. No pre-booked food. We had the freedom to do whatever the heck we wanted, when we wanted.

We also had to move from our sweet 2-3 star hotel that overlooked the beach, to a hotel that, in my books, shouldn’t be even rated (it was so bad). The new ‘hotel’ was quite the experience. Between the power not working most of the time, the old polo shirt used as a bath rug (that sweet surprise was in the Lagerquist’s room), the water only working once, and the gigantic spiders that haunted our lives (again a surprise for E & S), we were living every tourist’s dream (um not).

With hotels being at 99% capacity, we were stuck with this place for 2.5 days. We made the most of it by not hanging out in the rooms.

Our first mini-adventure on day 6 brought us to a nifty little temple situated on a pile of rocks that jutted into the ocean. It overlooked the white sandy beach on one side, and a make-shift harbor on the other.

Our second adventure began in the early afternoon. We ended up walking about 2 miles down the beach and found lots of boats, restaurants, hotels, and fishing spots. We also found a place to get full-body massages for $15 (yes we did take advantage of this deal). 

We went to bed well-rested from the ‘chill’ day off. Took Derik (ok and myself) a while to fall asleep due to the whole spiders-as-big-as-a-plate fiasco… and morning came before we knew it.

Day seven started with an early morning scooter rental. Vietnam gives you the hookup when it comes to rentals. You literally walk in, give the scooter owner cash, and walk out with a set of keys. No contracts, no credit cards, no phone numbers. We were in and out in five minutes.

Our second stop of the day was a delicious breakfast spot. Sandra and Derik went with the fresh mango pancakes, whereas Ethan and I went with the omelets. The coffee was knock-your-socks-off strong, must have something to do with how they brew it? Check it out:

After breakfast, we decided to take the bikes as far north as we could. Not really knowing where we were going, we grabbed a free map from the breakfast restaurant and headed out. The crudely paved road quickly turned to red dirt. We somehow got turned around, and in no time had about 20 children wanting to help us ‘find the beach.’

I had heard about these kids in travel blogs I read before we went on the trip. They help you out, and expect to be paid. I spent the entire time waving my hands and yelling, “No we don’t need help.” While E & S took the nicer approach and entertained the kids for a while with their state of confusion as to where we were. Some kids were telling us to go left, some right, some straight. We eventually backtracked to the main road, leaving the kids yelling at us in the dust. We were able to stop at a local convenience store where a man kindly told us where to go.

The day was perfect for a long bike ride. Not too hot, not too cold. We passed pepper farms, the island dump (sooooo much trash), farms, and lots of beaches. We even passed a very angry snake that was throwing itself back and forth, up and down on the road. I hate snakes.

After about an hour (or maybe two…time flies when you’re having fun) we arrived at our choice of ‘the perfect beach.’

We couldn’t help but crack up when we saw each other…free dirt spray tans? Heck yes.

We wanted to get home before dark (actually to catch the sunset), so we only spent about 3 hours in northern Phu Quoc. We parked the bikes at the temple we had been to the day before, and found some prime seats to watch the sun go down.

The sunset wasn’t nearly as good as it was a couple days prior, but we got a kick out of the local children playing in the water. Check out this sweet little boy. He started with his cloth shorts on, but then decided they’d be a better toy instead. We watched this kid for about an hour. Not sure where his parents were.

Ethan and Sandra bought bread from the local bakery…they said actually tasted pretty good!

Some of the kids enjoying jumping off the rocks.

We were ready for a little evening shopping after watching the sun go down, so we headed back to the night market. Sandra found some sweet gifts for her family, and I found an ice cream place that had cinnamon ice cream.

Our flight was booked to leave the next afternoon back to Korea…but we enjoyed one last morning/early afternoon in the sun beforehand! Stay tuned for the last and FINAL blog post from Vietnam.

Also, check out Ethan and Sandra’s blog for more pictures…and their story of the trip.