Her luscious locks stream behind her while speeding down the highway on her motorbike, chatting casually on her mobile. A German Shepherd keeps pace at her side, passing rudimentary buildings lining the highway. Our bus follows closely behind, narrowly avoiding an errant exhaust pipe just as a man darts into the traffic to reclaim the missing piece of his motorbike.
Located in the Gulf of Thailand, Phu Quoc Island (pronounced foo kwok) belongs to Vietnam and is about 50 kilometres off the coast of Cambodia, a country it once belonged to. It’s home to not one, but two, Mediterranean-inspired Disney-like towns, a wildlife safari park, amusement parks and an abundance of high-end resorts.
Despite Vietnam’s affordability, this fantasy island remains an untapped destination for many Australians. Perhaps it’s having an identity crisis?
This is my third visit to this intriguing island. The first time was many years ago, when there was just a dirt track running through the centre of the island, a handful of resorts and Sao Beach, one of the most pristine coastal stretches I’d ever seen. So beautiful was Sao Beach that, years later, when a Luxury Escape package was offered at the Radisson Blu Phu Quoc, I couldn’t resist. Sadly, by then, it was overrun with tourists and my heart broke a little as pouting influencers posed among the rubbish swirling around in the waves.
On my latest visit, I returned to the Radisson Blu Phu Quoc, located in the north of the island. Perhaps one silver lining of the pandemic was that Sao Beach’s splendour had apparently returned. Nonetheless, I didn’t visit this time because I wasn’t sure I could handle the disappointment again, and since it was the rainy season, beach conditions weren’t exactly ideal.
Besides, I had a lunch date with some giraffes.
Spread over 380 hectares, Vinpearl Safari Phu Quoc is part zoo, part safari park, with an array of animals, including Asian elephants, orangutans, and zebras. Crocodile feeding time was an exciting interlude, and I was surprised by how close magnificent lions and Bengal tigers wandered past our safari bus. The Giraffe Restaurant serves all-day dining as giraffes roam nearby, regularly popping their heads in for leafy snacks and interrupting our lunch in the most enchanting way.
As Vinpearl Safari Phu Quoc was conveniently close to the hotel, I was sprawled out at the day spa by the afternoon. My balcony, overlooking the lagoon-style pool and Bai Dai beach, expanded the already spacious room, offering a front-row seat to the stormy weather, so dramatic that it convinced me to take a cosy bath in the marble bathroom.
From my balcony, I also admired Grand World, a Venetian-inspired town complete with gondolas gliding through canals lined with restaurants, shops and massage parlours, plus nightly multimedia shows. Interestingly, Phu Quoc also hosts another Mediterranean-inspired neighbourhood, Sunset Town, modelled on the Amalfi Coast, with pastel-coloured buildings and cobblestone lanes. The main drawcards are Kiss Bridge and the Kiss of the Sea light and acrobatic show. Kitschy? Absolutely. Both towns are completely unexpected in this part of the world, and yet, so well done that if you can suspend your perception of reality, you can almost imagine you’d landed in Italy. I guess that’s part of the charm as Phu Quoc brings the world to its visitors, and where else can you take a gondola and feed a giraffe in the same day?
The Hon Thom cable car, on the other hand, offers birds-eye views across the An Thoi archipelago and into daily life and fishing villages, reminding you of exactly where you are. The cable car is the world’s longest three-wire cable car, departing several times a day from An Thoi Station in the island’s south and ending at Sun World Hon Thom amusement park, unless you forgo the aquatic playground and take a round-trip instead.
Long before its tourist attractions, Phu Quoc was famed for its fish sauce, pepper and pearls, which you can learn more about at the factories and farms producing these specialities. As you’d expect, seafood plays a bit part in the island’s cuisine and you’ll find plenty of it on menus. Duong Dong Market in the island’s capital is a vibrant spot to sample just-caught seafood, particularly shellfish, and an abundance of fresh produce among the stalls selling souvenirs and beauty treatments.
The complimentary shuttle bus from the Radisson Blu to many of the island’s attractions further adds to the island’s affordability. The Australian dollar goes much further there than it does in many other Southeast Asian destinations. For example, rooms at the Radisson Blu during the rainy season, from May to October, start from $180 per night, accompanied by an enormous breakfast buffet to set you up for the day and as many bowls of Pho as you can handle. Daily workshops at the Radisson Blu include painting and cooking classes, where I learned about the intricacies involved in creating the delicious Pho broth.
Flights with Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet from Ho Chi Minh City to Phu Quoc can be as low as $65 and $47, respectively, plus you can get direct flights from several other cities within Vietnam.
Unlike the rest of Vietnam, Phu Quoc doesn’t require visas for Australian tourists travelling for up to 30 days, and you can also get direct flights from other Southeast Asian destinations, including Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. As I arrived via Ho Chi Minh City and joined the anaconda lines in immigration, I didn’t put the visa exemption to the test. Speaking from experience, beware of scam sites that look legit. Use the official site to apply for a visa at www.visitvietnam-travel.com. It costs only US$25.
Carmen Jenner was a guest of Radisson Blu Phu Quoc.
