Today we chartered a private boat for the day to explore more of the North/Northwest Coast of Phu Quoc island. The roads are limited up this way, so travelling by boat is the best way to see this part of the island.
We gobbled down some breakfast at our Gold Coast Resort and finished packing up all our bags since we need to leave for the airport straight after our boat fun.
Ahoy!
9:00am on the dot a long tail boat pulled up into the bay in front of our hotel. We waded out and hoped aboard with a daybag full of sunscreen, water and other odds & ends. Our first destination was “Turtle Island” about 1-hour ride around the NW corner of the island. It’s supposed to be a good snorkeling spot and we were keen to have our first family snorkeling experience of the trip! The boat petered along at a slow, easy pace and we enjoyed getting to see the island from a different vantage point. Paige is deep into her book (“School of Good & Evil” 1st book) so she was head down most of the time. We passed other fishing boats, and then a massive Vinpearl complex (resort, spa, amusement park, etc.). Bummer to see development of such epically large proportions on this part of the island. It inevitably means more is to come (and less likelihood we'll return to the island, as a result).
Snorkeling
We arrived to Turtle Island and geared up. The snorkeling gear & life jackets from the hotel were fine, but definitely not ideal. None of the masks were small enough to fit on the girls’ faces. Fortunately we had brought our own two kids goggles so the girls could atleast peek down and see the fish & coral. We all wore life jackets, thinking it would help us bob along more freely, but it wasn’t until we were in the water that we realized how crap the life jackets were. Three of the four we grabbed barely had any flotation device left in them, so they quickly became water logged and totally unhelpful in the water. I guess this is what you get when you don’t go via a dive shop with legit gear. Now we know to check all the gear before we head out in the first place. Rookie mistake :)
Gear challenges aside, we had an awesome time snorkeling! The girls really enjoyed themselves! We walked ashore Turtle Island about half way through our snorkeling and Paige turned to me with a big smile and said “I’m really enjoying myself!” Sadie had a much more fun time during the second half of our snorkeling because she swapped life jackets with Doug and was actually able to float along instead of being weighted down by a defunct water jacket :) We saw tons of coral (some colorful) and loads of fish. Sadly, no turtles! Still not sure why the teeny tiny island is called Turtle Bay!
When we were on Turtle Island, we were bummed by how much trash was littered all over the small island. Paige was the one who commented on it, totally perplexed how a beautiful little island could be treated so poorly. Clearly some of the debris washed ashore, but others was put there by people. We'd see that across Phu Quoc island, as well. Largely nice stretches of beaches, but then other patches of beach just overrun by trash. Bummer to see.
Floating Seafood Restaurants
After about an hour of snorkeling we hopped back aboard and headed to a spot past our hotel called Starfish Beach, known not only for its starfish, but also for its floating seafood restaurants.
We timed it perfectly for lunch, arriving to the area by 12:30pm. I had expected there to be only one or two "floating restaurants", but there were several long "piers" lined with restaurants atop wooden stilts. Our boat driver pulled up aside one in particular, so we followed his lead and that's where we ate. I suspect the all taste more or less the same, so we weren't terribly fussed about which one we ended up at.
Our boat driver spoke no English, but with many hand gesticulations and simple English, we invited him to join us for lunch. We ordered a 1/2 kilo of fried shrimp, 1/2 kilo of grilled shrimp, a Thai hot pot and some grilled scallops. The shrimp was great and we all devoured those. The grilled scallops, on the other hand, were gnarly and definitely *not* scallops! We have no idea what they were, but after one taste none of us went back for more. Pretty gross! It was clunky, but with the help of Google Translate, we had a few nice "conversations" with our boat driver. He got a big kick of how into eating the girls were, and how adeptly they were cooking the hot pot stuff.
Seafood Everywhere You Look (and Step)
All in, it was a really cool experience. These restaurants sit a few feet above the water. The wooden walk-way is lined on either side with huge nets full of different seafood. We saw them pull our shrimp out of the water, which was pretty awesome. What I found entirely NOT awesome was the nets of sharks on both sides of the walkway. It's worth pointing out that the wooden "pier' walkway was maximum 3 feet wide, with not kind of railings on either side. So if you took a wrong step you could literally find yourself in a pool of sharks (is what I was thinking the whole time)! I told Doug that this was a prime example of something that would NEVER fly in the USA. From a safety and hazard standpoint, you'd never have people so exposed to a potential danger like that. Doug wasn't fussed (nor were the girls), but I was shell shocked by the whole thing. Thankfully we all stayed dry and none of us fell in! :)
Sharks aside, the other nets were full of shrimp, crabs, various fish, even starfish! Sad to see those for sale. We'll add starfish to the mental list of "animals people in other parts of the world eat that we're not going near!" :)
Post-Lunch Exploring
We walked along the wooden piers up to the beach. The beach itself was disappointing. We all expected it to be a pristine beach full of starfish. in reality it was a short stretch of beach, water black with algae and dirty with trash. We only saw two starfish in the yucky waters. I honestly don't get it. Maybe recent weather had triggered the beach to look that way, because I don't see how (floating restaurants aside) this Starfish Beach can be such a top attraction on the island if it always looks this way. It was disappointing, but by the same token, it meant we headed back a bit early and got more final time at our resort.
Gold Coast Wind-Down
We had the better part of an hour to enjoy at the resort before we had to shove off to the airport to catch our flight to Bangkok. Just enough time for us all to lounge and/or swim, shower up and finalize our packing.
We booked a car to the airport in advance with the hotel's assistance. This is the 3rd or 4th driver in recent weeks that we've had to ask to stop looking at his phone while driving. It's so bad! The drivers have literally picked up their phone and started texting people, or searching through their contacts to find the right person they want to message. It's terrifying and so dangerous. It happened twice on Phu Quoc and atleast once each in Vietnam & Thailand. To make matters worse, they tend to drive so close to the car in front of them, that it leaves even less margin of error. I suspect the whole public service announcement on the dangers of texting while driving has not reached this part of the world. I hope it does soon; an insanely dangerous habit.
Once at the airport, our "three countries in 24 hours" journey began. More about that here.
p.s. Coffee shenanigans all over Southeast Asia! Doug & I both take our coffee with milk, no sugar. That's a VERY different way than most of the SEA countries, who enjoy their condensed milk and sweet things very much (understatement of the year). Us trying to communicate an order of "coffee with fresh milk, no condensed milk, no sugar" is a comedy of errors. We're met with a combination of blank/surprised stares, confusion and silence. Our pass rate is 50%, at best. All part of the experience! :)
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