Visit Phu Quoc January 2020 Visitor's Guide

Island of Nature
Amazing Phu Quoc
By Rohan Barker
Geography & Climate
Topographically varied, Phu Quoc
Island offers the visitor an array of
landscapes, ranging from sandy
beaches to forested mountains,
river plains and smaller islets
surrounding it which make up an
archipelago of 14 islands to the
south.
In the center and south much
of the original lowland tropical
evergreen forest cover has been
cleared leaving behind a mix of
agricultural and secondary forest
landscapes and a variety of rural
settlements.
These areas contrast with
denser and more extensive
national park rainforest areas to
the north, where the scenery of
natural coastline and rivers at their
peak and during May to October
are stunningly beautiful.
Ecology & Environment
Phu Quoc is a very mountainous
and densely forested Island with
a total of 99 mountain peaks from
the smallest of less than 100m to
the largest 603 metres.
Situated in the North and
North-East of the Island is the Phu
Quoc National Park which covers
approx.31,000 ha of land that
accounts for more than 50% of the
total area of the Island!
The topography of the national
park is hilly though its not particularly
steep with the highest point being
Mount Chua at 603m.
The park is drained by numerous,
mainly seasonal streams leading to the
Cua Can river, which in turn drains out
of the southern part of the national
park and flows into the sea on the
west coast at Cua Can.
In terms of flora, the National Park
is an ideal natural environment for
plant species with approx. 13,000 ha
of lowland evergreen forest equivalent
to almost 40% of the total area of the
park.
To date approx. 929 plant species
have been recorded and at lower
elevations in some areas of the
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national park are distinctive formations
of Melaleuca – beautiful evergreen
trees that are alternately arranged in
dark green and grey-green colors.
Regards to fauna, there are approx.
43 mammal species and among
those recorded species 6 are listed as
endangered by Governmental Decree,
they are;
Silvered Langur, Slow Loris, Pygmy
Loris, Crab-eating Macaque, Stumptailed
Macaque, Small-clawed Otter.
The park has approx 84 bird, 29
reptile and 11 amphibian species, in the
sea around the Island there are approx.
125 species of fish, a staggering 132
species of Mollusk (a phylum of softbodied
invertebrate or Shellfish) and
62 species of Seaweed.
Another point of interest in Phu
Quoc is the islands native Dog, this
dog was originally a wild animal and
later trained as a hunting dog by the
local people.
These dogs have unusually sharp teeth
(as they tear their food when they eat
it rather than bite) and have claws that
over the years have been conditioned
for catching their prey and are razor
sharp, though in saying this generally
“their bark is worse than their
bite!”
These days they are very
domesticated and it’s hard to go
anywhere without seeing one!
68 VISIT PHU QUOC • 12 th edition JAN-JUL 2020