Scuba Diving Turtle Island, Vietnam

For scuba diving we had a 90 minute boat ride to the north of the island and then two dives near Turtle Island. There had a been a storm a few days before, so visibility was not great, but Matt and I love being in the (warm) water either way and saw lots of great coral and small fish. Not the best diving we've ever done, but definitely worth it.

We're in love with our Panasonic Lumix waterproof camera because I love not worrying about getting it wet! Our dives were shallow enough that we were able to drag it along, and while the pictures aren't great, it's still pretty fun to have those memories. The battery died about halfway through because I hadnt charged it properly, so no shots from the second dive or the excellent lunch we had on the way back, but enjoy!

We've got one last post from Vietnam and then Tokyo to wrap up the trip. I'm hoping to be caught up to life here in the great NW by Christmas!

Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

Phu Quoc is Vietnams largest island, off the southwest tip of the country and actually closer to Cambodia than mainland Vietnam. Vietnam has a number of fantastic beach locales, but we chose Phu Quoc because of it's great beaches, good national park, lack of resorts, but abundance of small hotels and restaurants (having heard horror stories of near-starvation like this one) :)  It turned out to be everything we expected.

the local side of town

evening at the lighthouse

Catching the sunset right in front of our bungalow

our place

 

After our flights, we settled into our bungalow, no more than 40 feet back from the ocean and parked ourselved into some lounge chairs. We checked some reviews and found a scuba diving operation that sounded quite reputable, so decided to go out with them the next day. I'll post about that separately.

The next two days we did a motorbike loop around the south of the island, and a loop around the north of the island. Both loops had lots of pretty driving through the jungles, and beaches everywhere, so we could stop for a swim, a mango smoothie, and some sunning whenever it struck our fancy. Most beaches we had nearly to ourselves. We gorged ourselves on seafood (and stayed away from meat throughout the trip, it's quality and sanitation being highly questionable). We had most of our meals at tables right in the sand on the beach, and found some local rum for $1.50 a bottle (that was actually quite good), to splash in with our cokes.

Out front of our place

I made Matt buy me a floaty ring. He liked it too.

Phu Quoc Prison. A major prison site during the French occupation and the American (Vietnam) Watr

Pepper plants. Who knew thats what they looked like?

I like beaches...

another random abandoned tower

like my pink helmet?

Best food of the trip and some of the best seafood I've ever had. The whole meal topped out at $7

Where we procured the above mentioned calamari

Thats Cambodia back there behind Matt and between my toes. Hi Cambodia.

We visited the night market in town a few times, and were extremely impressed. There were a number of 'restaurants' where you could just walk up, see what was lookin' fresh that evening, and point. We showed up early one evening and the fisherman were unloading it pretty much right off the boat.

Big. Snail.

We did a lot of scooting, but made sure to allow plenty of time for lounging as well. This was the only place that didn't include breakfast, so we took the opportunity for a morning beach walk every day and to sample new mango pancake varieties. Unlike many of the other destinations we've visited, dinner in Vietnam was at a normal (American) 5-7pm and it being just the two if us old folks, we retired to bed early most nights. It was light out ~6-6 so we liked waking early to take advantage of the daylight. It poured a couple evenings, but never during the day, so we found it hard to complain. Life on the island was good, and before we knew it, it was the afternoon of our second Friday in Vietnam.

Cuba libre makings (minus the rum)

check out that sun