We took the fast boat to the island (about 2 hrs from the mainland at Rach Gia). The boat, "Super Dong VII" was clean and nice but cold as the tundra inside due to extreme air conditioning and once again, Vietnamese singers serenaded us on the TV the ENTIRE time.
Upon arriving at the dock on Phu Quoc island, we got in a mini van and started looking at hotels. We looked at several and, not super impressed, decided to head to the main town, Duong Dong, to try for one there. A long, complicated adventure ensued as we became separated from our bags in town. Through some detective work, a stroke of good luck, some helpful translations, and phone calls, we were able to recover our bags after about 5 hours of stressing. For the final leg of the chase, Chris sported a Hello Kitty helmet and took off on a motorbike with this guy...
It's rained everyday for most of the day since we've been here. We've been entertaining ourselves by writing new songs on Garage Band, scouring the island for a new book (no luck yet), and trying to make out episodes of Tom and Jerry (the only show we can understand) through the black and white fuzz of bad reception.
Lauren has been sick as a dog every morning so she's not really up for much anyway. Every morning we wake up, drink coffee, eat breakfast, then Lauren runs (literally) back to the guesthouse bathroom for about an hour then swares she's only going to eat bread and yogurt and Pringles all day.
We did go for a rainy, yet very fun and refreshing walk yesterday. We walked the entirety of Long Beach, the island's nicest beach, and back again.
Our guesthouse is nice and clean and only $15. We have a nice view of the coconut trees and the Gulf of Thailand in the distance from our large balcony.
Next door there is a lovely little family restaurant, "Hung Long Homestay" which we have been eating at frequently. Besides having the nicest, most thoughtful and fun owners, we love the food, especially the pho which is apparently more of a northern Vietnamese style - ground beef, wider rice noodles, less veggies, no Thai basil, but a really lovely, rich beef broth.
(and they have the cutest dog) The place has the fastest wifi and we were rocking out to Jimi Hendrix and Manu Chao last night which is sure a lot better than Asian-accent covers of songs by the Carpenters. The desserts we had last night were amazing.
Chris had what they called "glutenous fermented rice with yogurt" which was somewhere between a panacotta and a rice pudding. Black rice is cooked then mixed with a little yeast, left to set for 3-4 days, then at the last minute, topped with vanilla yogurt creating a lovely mix of sweet and savory with a little bite at the end from the fermentation. Weird but great! Lauren had a delicious "banana cake" - both homemade.
Today we rented a motorbike and rode to town in the rain in our neon green ponchos. We hit a dog on the way, but it was fine.
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