Fah Thai Magazine Jan-Feb 2018

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