I got back from a 5-day trip to Phu Quoc, a Vietnamese island off the coast of Cambodia. About a month ago, Spencer mentioned that he was feeling like he needed a break from the city, and I was all too eager to join in on a vacation. We took Tuesday and Thursday off of work and head to Phu Quoc for the week. Landing in Phu Quoc, it was hard to believe that a place this beautiful is only a 45 minute flight away from Saigon.
There's not a lot to say about the trip - it was very relaxing...most of our time was spent sleeping, sunbathing (managed to avoid a sunburn this time!), swimming, reading, listening to music, doing crosswords, eating, or drinking. Our resort was a gorgeous little place right on the beach, and as we discovered the first night, conveniently right next to a bar and restaurant that had delicious cocktails and BBQ, and about five dogs that roamed the area (to the best of our knowledge, the dogs and the BBQ were kept completely separate). We went back there a few times, and couldn't get enough of the pork BBQ, or the dogs (again - separate thoughts).
Towards the end of the trip, we were having lunch at another resort down the beach, and they mentioned that they were having a seafood BBQ that night. I was feeling adventurous, and Spencer wanted some seafood, so we put in a reservation for that evening. We showed up, and there was a large buffet table set up with all of the raw seafood on it. We walked around, pointing to what we wanted (snapper, scallops, tuna, black king fish, and some beef skewers for good measure), then sat down and they brought the food over to us once it had cooked. I'm getting better about seafood, as this wasn't just bearable, but I actually found some of it pretty enjoyable.
There's not a lot to tell from the vacation, as every day but one we stayed at the resort. The one day we managed to leave, we went to Sao Beach, which I can say is one of the nicest beaches I've ever been to. White sand, clear water, and beautiful green forests lining everything. We only stayed for a few hours, but the whole beach reminded me a lot of the Whitsunday Islands in Australia, though with far fewer people, which was lovely.
It was also nice being out of the city because everybody on the island was beyond appreciative when we spoke Vietnamese to them (and by "speaking Vietnamese", on my part, that consisted almost exclusively of saying "hello", "thank you", and ordering beer in Vietnamese). I'm picking things up, phrase by phrase and street name by street name.
We got back yesterday and since today is a national holiday (Labor Day), have had the day off to get back into the swing of things in big city life. It also means that we only have to work a one day weekend, which will definitely help. The teaching's still going well. One of my classes that I really don't like is set to end on Tuesday (by going on holiday when I did, I managed to avoid giving the speaking test part of the exam, as well as the whole grading of the exams, so I get to come back for just the end of course party), so after the end of course party with them, I'll be switching classes. Other classes continue to go well for the most part, though summer school that's coming up soon may change my schedule for a bit.
I'm off to catch up with Zara for a bit, since we've pretty much only watched The Wire since I got back, and haven't talked much.
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