From Rach Gia we took a 3-hour speedboat to Phu Quoc island, Vietnam's largest island. We had gotten our tickets the day before so we were pushed to the back of the boat into a small, cramped cabin. At first it was like being in an airplane, but 2.5 hours later over choppy waters and it certainly didn't feel as smooth as one. Once we got to the island though, I immediately forgot about the boat ride. The island was beautiful! To kick off our stay, just as Callie was standing on the plank (of wood) to get off, the boat started to pull away! Luckily there were a crowd of mototaxi men ready there to catch her before she fell in the waterwwith her pack still on! After that episode, we caught a 30 minute shuttle to Duong Dong town and walked 15 minutes from the bus stop to our hotel. We stopped for lunch on the way and that's when I got my first glimpse of the palm trees and the beach. I literally was in paradise! All the stress fell away once I realized the travel we had been doing the past three days were over. We'd finally arrived somewhere to relax!

To be honest, I don't really remember how we filled our days on the island. It was mainly sleeping in, reading on the beach, walking along the shore, going for swims or going into town for supper. We stayed at a beach-side resort that was a ten second walk from the beach and the weather stayed a perfect 30 degrees the entire time. Phu Quoc is also the only place in Vietnam where the sun sets on the ocean. There was a night market in town so we also went there to explore and had fresh Red Snapper for Christmas Eve dinner. That night some of the resorts had beach parties with dance-remix Christmas songs and were lighting paper, candle, hot-air balloons over the ocean.

On our 2nd last day we decided to go snorkeling. We took a boat out to the An Thoi islands and spent the morning snorkeling and relaxing on the boat with the few other tourists there. The water wasn't very clear and there was garbage from the shrimp boats (I got freaked out by a plastic bag that I thought was a jellyfish) but I still enjoyed my first time snorkeling. Although it was like the time I went surfing in the ocean and accidentally swallowed salt water... yechh.

The morning of our last day on the island, Christmas Day, we packed our things and got a taxi to the airport all relaxed and slightly tanner. We were flying back to Saigon on $55 tickets! A two day boat ride down the Mekong would be equivalent to an hour flight back. It was sad to say goodbye to the beach, but it was only the first part of our Vietnam adventure..

Here are Callie's photos of Phu Quoc.