Vietnam
When you arrive at the market you realise the traffic lights seem pretty pointless as no one seems to stop for them. It’s like playing Frogger when crossing the road here, with all the mopeds constantly sounding their horns and dodging people.
The night market is crazy (but in a good way), it’s such an eye opener. With the locals selling all types of fish which you pick from tanks, (we chose Phu Quoc for scuba diving but didn't expect to see more of the bigger fish in tanks in the markets than we did diving!) The local delicacy is fried chicken’s feet which is equivalent to our pork scratchings but I wasn’t brave enough to try those.
We sat with a beer watching the world go by at the market with its tacky souvenirs, its abundance of fresh fish, a few fake goods (don't expect the likes of Thailand fake goods to be on offer here it's still very behind the times and new to all this (which is what I loved about it) You can also try great street food here too.
A couple of restaurants were our favourites near the Richis Hotel. One was called May, which made amazing shrimp fried pancake rolls. The noodles and rice dishes were lovely, and they also offered crocodile and snake which I wasn't brave enough to try. Many restaurants do start closing after 9 and we like to eat about that time so we did manage to find a few that stayed open later. Colors near the Tropicana hotel was one of those and offered great food and service.
Our favourite bar called Andy's was nearby and the tequila sunrise were excellent. Buy two get one free from 5-9 on everything so I had to have the three of course! It has a pool table and darts and a selection of games should you want to play them. Also, the Rabbit Hole Irish bar also offered buy one get one free to ladies on certain nights. They also had a pool table, darts and games and if you like sports, they had the screens to watch that too and were always open late.
The Skye bar at the top of Phu Quoc Pearl Hotel was a lovely bar with great views and well worth a visit.
The weather wasn't too great the first few days, so diving was very rough on our first trip out. The second day was so much better and calmer with lots of marine life. We were disappointed we couldn't go south as it was too rough. We have done better diving elsewhere but it was similar to the diving we did near Phi Phi island - a great experience as always.
To sum it up Vietnam is similar to Thailand but Phu Quoc is probably how Thailand was 20 years ago and still maintains local charm, very laid back and friendly. There is none of the sleaze you can come across in Thailand so very family-friendly. The people are very friendly and still learning as mass tourism in this part is still taking off. However, there is a lot of development which I think will change this island so I would suggest going soon to capture its authentic side now.
Don't expect the people to be rushing abound like crazy as the Thai’s do. Drinks can often take a while and also meals can come all out of sequence from mains to the starters, one person at a time. I hear they only have one hob in each kitchen but it’s worth the wait as the food was amazing and we didn't have one bad meal. There are some weird dishes which we didn't go with, but generally the more basic and authentic the restaurants the better the food, which is mainly the ones with the little chairs where you eat outside.
Prices at the time £ = 29,000 Vietnamese Dong (VND) Cocktails average price 120,000 VND = £4 Beers anything from 15,000 to 25,000 =yes that's right between 50 pence to £1 depending on the beer Wine 90,000 VND = £3 We were getting a meal for two which included two starters, two mains and a couple of beers or wine for an average price of 450,000 = £15 between us. Great value and it’s better to explore the local restaurants and bars.
Would I recommend it to my clients? Definitely, and I would go back myself to the same hotel.