Fah Thai Magazine Jan-Feb 2018
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PHU QUOC<br />
F<br />
rom the plane, the lush green<br />
of nature strikes you when<br />
descending into Phu Quoc –<br />
Vietnam’s largest island just off<br />
the Gulf of <strong>Thai</strong>land. A hotspot for beach<br />
and outdoor lovers, Phu Quoc races<br />
toward transformation with fast-paced<br />
and mega-infrastructure construction.<br />
Paved roads are being built to connect<br />
the entire island, and five-star resorts<br />
settle on many stretches of its beautiful<br />
beaches. But more than half of Phu Quoc’s<br />
unspoiled nature is strictly preserved as<br />
part of the Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve<br />
and protected with a UNESCO designation.<br />
This is an island with two worlds: one<br />
existing in its original greenness, and the<br />
other one possessing world-class beachfront<br />
accommodations.<br />
Visitors can<br />
explore scenic<br />
farms with<br />
abundant<br />
pepper plants.<br />
Farm tours with<br />
friendly staffers<br />
educate visitors<br />
on understanding<br />
quality pepper.<br />
When the Vietnamese<br />
government listed Phu Quoc in<br />
its National Tourism Master Plan<br />
more than a dozen years ago, locals<br />
immediately felt the changes. Over<br />
the past five years, the island has<br />
changed very rapidly into quite a<br />
tourist destination. Most visitors<br />
to Vietnam need a visa to enter<br />
the country, but not if Phu Quoc is<br />
listed as one of the destinations.<br />
Huge investments are approved<br />
in a rapid manner to provide<br />
sound infrastructure on the island.<br />
Undersea high voltage 110kv cables<br />
have been laid to provide much-<br />
needed stability to the island’s once<br />
sporadic electricity supplies. The<br />
island’s water treatment plants -<br />
worth almost US$100 million – have<br />
been in the works. The new airport<br />
opened in 2012 and has already seen<br />
additional expansion. It will soon<br />
service larger aircrafts by the time<br />
the island expects to welcome as<br />
many as three million visitors per<br />
year by 2020.<br />
We drove by Phu Quoc’s old<br />
Duong Dong airport on our way to<br />
the famous pepper and bee farms<br />
up north. Construction has levelled<br />
out some areas into stretches of<br />
emptiness awaiting development,<br />
with roads leading to the airport<br />
used conveniently as shortcuts for<br />
locals going between the seaside<br />
and inland. The front end of the<br />
abandoned airstrip is now dotted<br />
with fruit trucks, mainly colourful<br />
6-wheelers and open-through beds<br />
piled high with local fruits. Among<br />
them are durians ferried over from<br />
the Mekong Delta.<br />
The newly-built roads mean<br />
easier passage from north to south<br />
of this big island of almost 600<br />
square kilometres. Phu Quoc’s<br />
developed centre is ‘Duong Dong’<br />
which had early establishments of<br />
hotels, banks, and shops that used to<br />
cater backpackers. The river running<br />
through this area makes it a vibrant<br />
living port. Fishing has always<br />
been and still is Phu Quoc’s main<br />
industry. The island is famed for its<br />
naturally aromatic and high-protein<br />
fish sauce, still largely made from<br />
tons of anchovies steeped at least for<br />
two years in salt and water. Of the<br />
island’s many fish sauce factories,<br />
four cater to tours and tasting. Go<br />
to one of the local restaurants for<br />
Vietnamese spring rolls - fresh or<br />
deep-fried - and dip it into their<br />
famous fish sauce.<br />
Most locals you meet on Phu<br />
Quoc are descendants of fishermen<br />
on the island. Our chatty guide<br />
Danny could talk endlessly on how<br />
changes on the island in recent years<br />
dramatically impacted his family<br />
and day-to-day lifestyle, all said<br />
with an understandable mix of pride<br />
and dread.<br />
“I was still in the generation<br />
that had to travel to the mainland<br />
for a higher education,” said our<br />
local guide, who’s 25. “But now,<br />
Phu Quoc is seeing a new foreigninvested<br />
hospitality university and<br />
my younger brother who is now in<br />
a local high school can choose to<br />
get an education here, or venture<br />
onto the mainland like I did. Life<br />
should be easier for him with more<br />
education and jobs on the island in<br />
the near future. I got it a bit rough<br />
living away from family back then.”<br />
Adventurous Europeans first<br />
discovered Phu Quoc over 20 years<br />
ago. They were drawn to its remote,<br />
Clockwise from<br />
Top Right<br />
A real eating<br />
town, freshness<br />
guaranteed.<br />
Phu Quoc produces<br />
fish sauce prized<br />
by Vietnamese<br />
households.<br />
Visitors on ecotours<br />
learn about honey<br />
bee conservation at<br />
bee farms.<br />
Pearl farms show<br />
how oysters create<br />
these little ‘gems’.<br />
true far-away destination. Clear,<br />
unspoiled emerald-green beaches<br />
were a big magnet. Before direct<br />
flights from Bangkok became<br />
available, people who flew to Phu<br />
Quoc needed a full day’s journey that<br />
included a long layover in Ho Chi<br />
Minh City. Now, you can even fly in<br />
directly from Scandinavia countries<br />
and London. There are also daily<br />
ferries from Phu Quoc to seaport<br />
cities like Ha Tien and Rach Gia<br />
that are south of Vietnam.<br />
Long beach, not too far south<br />
from Duong Dong, caters to many<br />
tourists with its extensive stretch<br />
of beach – full of beachfront<br />
resorts, bars, and restaurants -<br />
both local favourites and ones<br />
catering to tourists. The island’s<br />
famed night market is also there,<br />
just under the main bridge and<br />
opposite the town’s main fresh<br />
market. It is quite easy to get<br />
around, with options of a metred<br />
taxi, a private tour or a scooter<br />
rental. And like other parts of<br />
Vietnam, ear-splitting honking is<br />
the roadside norm.<br />
The cacophony is enough<br />
to remind you of Phu Quoc’s<br />
rapid ascension on the hot list of<br />
getaways. Luckily, there’s also<br />
the option for a quiet escape to its<br />
protected nature.<br />
TO-DOS:<br />
Phu Quoc is also famed for ecotourism<br />
and tourists can roam<br />
around sampling away –from the<br />
fish sauce factories in Duong Dong<br />
area all the way to the north, which<br />
is abundant with pepper farms, bee<br />
farms and sim or rose myrtle wine<br />
factories. At Phu Quoc Countryside,<br />
the farm-stay pepper farm has<br />
good facilities - including their own<br />
restaurant and draft beer brewery.<br />
The sim plant is wild and abundant<br />
in Phu Quoc’s forests, and from that<br />
comes an island specialty. Sim wines<br />
– ranging from light enough to be<br />
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