Beach life pt. 2

After such a busy few days on the river tour, we really needed some rest and recovery. We hopped on a plane and flew to an island in the south west called Phu Quoc. If you're going to Vietnam anytime soon and want a beautiful sandy beach to lounge on, go here!!
The main beach near the town and all of the accommodation is all resorted-out, but with the help of a couple of moto-taxi drivers we found a small restaurant much farther south that was on a deserted strip of land. We drove by construction for many fancy resorts up and down the coast, so get here sooner rather than later. It was so glorious to spend the day relaxing with Alski.

Our days on the beach somehow turned into a quest for coconuts. I think it took four meals before we actually found a place that had them. They appeared on the menu, but were politely informed they didn't actually have them. I could see them in the trees! Apparently coconuts are not as popular in Vietnam as they were in Thailand and Cambodia. Instead, we manage to settle for drinking some beers with our feet in the sand while watching a couple amazing sunsets. We even found this sweet Vietnamese guy selling steamed buns (bao) that were absolutely delicious. A great pre-dinner snack.

We made two mistakes on the island: following the advice of a single website (which sent us to a beach that was not good for lounging or any of the beach activities we desired. Secondly, we ate too much delicious food BEFORE we went to the night market. At the night market they had all sorts of seafood that they would grill up for you. Fish, snakes, frogs, shrimp, weird shrimp, oysters, clams and things in shells that I'd never seen before. I'm sure it was all sorts of lovely.

Phu Quoc is also know for its oysters. Apparently you can try to burn or scratch a real oyster and it won't be damaged. This is the best way to test if an pearl is actually a pearl. At a visit to a pearl farm, we were shown how the different colors in the shells will predict the color that the pearl will be. It takes them about three years to grow one pearl, and they do it by putting a little round 'starter' in the oyster and then letting the oyster be. Apparently a pearl can start from any sort of contaminant in the oyster. It doesn't have to be a grain of sand.

When we returned to Ho Chi Minh City, we had a few hours to kill. We wound up spending a couple of those hours talking to some university students. They all go to one of the parks in the touristy district and practice English  by talking to tourists. How freaking brave is that!? They knew a ton about the USA including where the state a lot of our presidents were from. One was telling me that he watches Obama and Clinton's speeches to practice his pronunciation. Another was saying how much he was impressed by the Bush family having two presidents (I managed not to cringe to hard). In exchange they told us some helpful things about Vietnam like tips for how to bargain or to cross the busy roads. After a couple hours we wished them luck and wandered off in the direction of our backpacks to get ready for our trip up north. 

What is it you're thinking of doing? Go for it whilst the oppor-tuna-ty is still there!!

Haha....

If you can think of a better fish pun, let minnow

And you thought I was finished....

We, the jury, find the defendant gillty of terrible fish puns!