Отдых на Фукуок Holidays in Phu Quoc

One hour flight from Ho Chi Minh City on a twin-engine propeller plane and we are on the island of Phu Quoc. Time - October-November 2012. We have deep autumn with frosts, and here it is summer. At a small airport, we were met in an old Toyota Camry and after 15 minutes were brought to the Thien Hai Son Resort *** hotel. In accordance with the booking settled on the third floor of the main building, which houses the reception. Room overlooking the pool and the sea. There is no lift in the hotel. The room is large and spacious with high ceilings, a miniature balcony and very heavy mahogany furniture. The large double bed seemed somewhat hard over time, and we did not touch the single bed, as we were resting together. The flat-screen TV caught only two Russian channels “NTV” and “Russia”, the air conditioner worked confidently with the set temperature, there were some jars and drinks in the refrigerator, which we did not touch, since we did not suffer from thirst. The room was cleaned every day, bed linen and towels were also changed daily. Two bottles of water (0.33 l. ), two bags of good coffee with powdered milk and sugar, two bags of green tea and the same number of bags of sugar. Yoghurts and fruits (lychee) alternated with each other. In the bathroom, they did not forget to put soap, shampoos and shower gels, a razor, toothbrushes, ear sticks and caps so as not to wet the hair. Every day they put out a roll of toilet paper, which, due to its thinness and transparency, was quickly consumed. There were no interruptions in hot and cold water, as well as electricity. On the part of the hotel employees, we constantly felt care and attention, politeness and courtesy, and our tip in the amount (10-20 thousand dongs) only added sincere friendly smiles. Before the trip, we were aware of the possible presence of mosquitoes in the room, so the fumitox brought from Russia turned out to be in demand. The hotel restaurant is located 20 meters from the main building. We took only breakfast, lunch and dinner on the street in nearby restaurants. Breakfast in the hotel restaurant is organized according to the buffet system. The menu, like everywhere else, is monotonous, but allows satisfying the minimum taste needs of visitors: several hot rice dishes; some kind of their soups with noodles; chicken; local sauces; fried eggs; pancakes cooked right there with carrots, radishes and seafood; black tea brewed with Lipton bags; black coffee; condensed milk; ham; melted cheese in cellophane for sandwiches; White bread; tomatoes; cucumbers; pineapples (sweeter and juicier are placed on the bottom, and on top are white and less tasty); bananas; some Asian fruits that did not make a special impression on me. From the hotel to the sandy beach about 100 meters along a flat concrete almost horizontal path, past the bungalows, immersed in greenery and peacefully pecking hens with a cockerel and small chickens. On the beach, sun loungers with mattresses and towels are free of charge, at your request, a kayak with a paddle will be provided free of charge. Constructed mushrooms with a roof of palm branches to shelter from the sun. The alley of coconut palms reliably protects vacationers from the sun's rays, but does not exclude the possibility of getting injured by a large and heavy nut on the head (be careful). The sandy strip of beaches is located on the western most developed side of the island. Therefore, in the morning, if you look at the sea, the sun shines because of the palms in your neck, then in your left ear and left eye. After lunch, the bright and very hot sun from the side of the sea shines directly in the face and by the evening at about 18 o’clock it smoothly sets behind the sea horizon, fabulously delighting with a beautiful and amazing sunset. Crystal clear and sometimes like glass calm, warm as fresh milk, the sea with a sandy bottom and soft surf hypnotically calms the nervous system, inclines to sleep, disperses fatigue from the bustle of the city and eternal Moscow traffic jams. The hotel is located on the first line on the seashore, along which the road stretches from south to north of the island. If you turn left when leaving the hotel and walk about 1 km. you will find yourself at the mouth of a river about 30 meters wide, in which there is a settlement with a fishing port, where there are shops, restaurants (we had lunch and dinner near the hotel), Asian (across the river) and night markets, banks, there is also an airport across the river with a small runway (the Boeings are not landing yet, an international airport and a road are being built in the center of the island, very large investments are being made in the development of the tourism business). Currency (dollars and euros) is best changed in banks. Exit the hotel to the left - 1 km. to the traffic lights and 200 meters to the right. At banks from 12-12.30 to 14-15 pm lunch, the rate at the end of October 2012 was 20.800 dong / $ 1, the hotel gave only 20.000 for 1 one dollar, at the airport 20.600 for 1 dollar. The restaurants offer a wide menu of seafood and meat dishes. On average, a budget dinner for two will cost 300-500 thousand dong (less than $ 20), with fish fried on coals, previously lying on ice, small-sized shrimp (there is a different price for royal ones), squid, salad and beer (1 a bottle of beer 17-25 thousand. dongs, for comparison, in a store I bought a can of their beer for 8000 dongs, but it’s not what). You can eat even cheaper, on a plastic chair with the same table, right on the sidewalk, but alas, this is not for us. You will leave full and satisfied with an easy cost for your wallet. It is worth noting that the locals know how to cook seafood, as they are traditionally and daily present in their diet, which cannot be said about meat. When ordering meat, be careful that it does not turn out to be half-baked, and then your stomach does not get upset. For two weeks we ate exclusively only what had recently swum in the sea. And although I am capricious in food, I was very surprised by the reaction of my digestive system to assimilate without rejection everything that was prepared by the Vietnamese. Among other recommendations, I would suggest to refrain from drinking drinks with ice. I was pleased that many restaurants have a menu in Russian (there are photos of dishes everywhere). This is due to the fact that the percentage of our citizens-tourists is quite high. . Ours can be seen from afar (crosses, wedding rings on the right hand, sometimes profanity), we prefer to get acquainted, having heard Russian speech, to sit at the same table with a bottle. Surprisingly, Russians crowd here, trying to share their impressions and give the right advice. It turns out that we are united not only by trouble, but also by separation from the Motherland. We witnessed that the Yum-Yum restaurant (I’ll call it that, the third to the left from the hotel) was filled every evening after 19 pm exclusively with Russian tourists, and we, like our compatriots, will not rest in bad places. Russian-speaking guides also work here, offering several types of excursions in Fukuoka and nearby islands. We had to deal with many guides during our trip throughout Vietnam. Our language is very difficult for them, and my assessment of their knowledge of the Russian language is “satisfactory”, except for the 40-year-old boy Misha, who has an excellent command of our language (he lived in Russia for 18 years). On average, the price of one excursion for the whole day is $ 17 per person in a group of 5-8 people. You can easily take a taxi so that the driver will drive around the island during the day. This service will cost $40-50. We took excursions from Misha, went to the white sand beach (the eastern side of the island), to the coconut prison with terrible expositions, to waterfalls, to pepper gardens, to a pearl farm, to go fishing. However, most of all I liked to rent a moped for the whole day ($ 12 with gasoline) and ride around Fukuoka on my own. The rental process takes a minute. You agree on the return time and how much it will cost. No contract, no advance payment, no deposit is required. They will explain to you on the fingers how to operate the equipment, give you the keys and helmets, and go ahead, advising you to fill up with gasoline first. We climbed somewhere to the north of the island. At first there was a decent asphalt road with a one-way lane, a division and a lane to the meeting. The traffic on it is not intensive, in contrast to the settlement, where these mopeds are, like cars in Moscow. A rental suzuki drove me and my wife at times at a speed of 80 km. per hour, then the road turned into a dirt road, crossing many rivers, and then completely ended, resting on the sea. The locals in the jungle are friendly, revere their Ho Chi Minh City, sleep in hammocks in the heat and don’t understand anything even in English. They don't know how to read a map either, all my repeated attempts to show our location on the map were unsuccessful. We would like to return to Vietnam again. Perhaps, but privately. At least it will be much cheaper, and many of our tourists use it. I think that together for two weeks (if you need a visa more), along with air travel, accommodation in a hotel with breakfast, where it is summer all year round, it is quite possible to meet up to 65 thousand of our rubles.