Summer is the best time for a family vacation and my family just had our first, and greatest, trip together, to Phu Quoc Island City, after Covid 19.
Hello guys, my name is Pham Duc Minh from Nguyen Binh Khiem secondary-school, Hanoi. I don’t know how your summer holiday is, but my summer holiday has been memorable moments on a family vacation to the Phu Quoc Islands for 4 days and 3 nights, and there are a few things I particularly like about the beach holiday with my grand-mother, parents, aunt, older brother Khai and younger brother Khoi. There were 6 people on this trip and I wanted to explore and eat all the Phu Quoc specialties with them during this holiday.
Our first family trip after Covid 19 was about 4 days and 3 nights to the Southeastern Island, Phu Quoc, the largest island in Vietnam, similar to the size of Singapore Island. We chose Phu Quoc for this trip as a new destination for the good food, forest, sea, culture, nature, and magical sunset moments. We caught the flight to Phu Quoc very early in the morning to avoid crowds and have more time on Phu Quoc so we had to wake up at 03:30 AM. We din’t go there alone, but with my family and relatives, at 4:15AM, to catch the first flight from Hanoi to Phu Quoc from Noi Bai Airport. We went to the counter for check-in registration and came inside the airport to the waiting lounge before boarding. We had a light breakfast at the airport at 5:30 AM in the lounge just before we boarded the plane and waited for the plane to take off. It took us 2 hours to fly from Hanoi to Phu Quoc Island City.
The first specialty city, floating restaurant, and eco resort in the West
When I arrived at Phu Quoc Airport, our driver picked us up with our name and drove to the resort with a city tour on the way. We ate seafood vermicelli, “Bun Quay” which is a Phu Quoc speciality, in a local restaurant. After that, we went to the south of the island where the Mediterranean houses, buildings, and monuments are inspired from Italian architecture and are developed by Sun Group. My mother took a lot of photos, and we walked around for sightseeing.
After visiting the Mediterranean region, we moved to the wild Star Beach to see the starfish and visit the beautiful, sandy beach and swim. After that, we went to Ho Quoc Pagoda to praise Buddha and wish for good health, good luck, and more money. Then we drove to Ham Ninh floating fishing village in the East where we enjoyed lunch at the floating restaurant and saw the beautiful beach, sea and tides, and coconut palms. This place is unique, peaceful, and beautiful. There, we ate a lot of seafood. All of it was very fresh from the sea, things like shrimp, fish, squid, and delicious Ham Ninh crabs.
After our seafood lunch, our driver took us to Phu Quoc Eco Beach Resort in the center of Phu Quoc Island for beach time and relaxation. In the afternoon , we didn’t go anywhere, we enjoyed our resort in the middle of the jungle, facing the ocean. We went to the beach, but it was quite rocky. The sea water was very warm, although the water was very salty and clean. Sunset was magnificent and I won’t forget the sunset moments.
We went swimming, the water in the swimming pool was very clear and nice. In the evening, we ate in the restaurant facing the infinity pool. How good dinner was after so many activities. It was a big Vietnamese style dinner. All the food on the table was rice, pepper beef, sour soup, and sauteed spinach. It was so tasty and good. I strolled around the resort, enjoyed the quietness and the songs of insects before I went to my room and slept.
Boating to explore the beautiful Islands in the South
The second day of the Phu Quoc trip, we woke up very early in the morning to watch the sunrise and went to the restaurant for breakfast as the first guest. The breakfast menu included bread, jam, honey, sausage, salad, smoked pork, and a lot of choices of coffee and tea. When we finished breakfast, my family jumped on a cruise for a journey of island discovery in the south of Phu Quoc. Phu Quoc Archipelago has 22 islands and islets and the biggest island is Phu Quoc Island City and South Phu Quoc has 12 beautiful islands. It is good for maritime activities such as boating, yachting, kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, sea-walking, and riding a cable car.
We visited Hon Mong Tay as the first stop of the cruise trip, had lunch, took photos, and swam. We saw the beautiful beach and the friendly people were waving to say hello to us. We took photos of my family and younger brother as family trip souvenirs. After we went to the May Rut Trong Beach, the water was very green, like emerald, under the coconut palm trees and the beach was long and beautiful. We went diving and saw starfish. Too bad, I could not see the coral because my mother thought it was too expensive per person so she didn’t let me go. All the remaining people jumped in and swam down and saw coral under the sea.
Instead, I enjoyed playing in the water park, it was fun. We both took a cable car from Hon Thom Island to the mainland, my brother was scared of the height but I was not. The views on the 12 islands are beautiful from the cable car which is the longest in the world, almost 8km. I was so tired after a long day, we went to my home away from home, the Phu Quoc Eco Beach Resort, to rest and relax. I liked eating. We had a big dinner which was more delicious than dinner the day before. The dinner menu was all about seafood of all kinds, boiled, gilled, and barbecued seafood with local pepper, fish sauce, coconut, and cashews.
The North and Safaris
My father said that there was a golf course, Phu Quoc United Center, Southeast Asia’s top resort, entertainment, a shopping supercomplex, and safaris in the North of Pearl Island, Phu Quoc. We picked safaris only because I like nature and animals. Day 3, after breakfast, we went to the Safari zoo in the north of the Island. We went there by car and entered through the main door. After that we visited the big five animals. First, we visited the bengal tiger. The bengal tiger is a white tiger or yellow tiger. It originated from Asia, most of them come from Myanmar or India . Its food is beef and pork.
Next we saw the flamingos, their main color is pink and white. They often live in the western hemisphere and eastern hemisphere. There are 4 species living in America, their food is molluscs such as shrimp or squid. Next, we met a ring-tailed lemur. It is known as a large wet-nosed primate. It’s mainly focused in Madagascar, SouthEast Africa . It was a species that was fast everyday in the daytime to find food …. and many more animals that I could not count and do not remember their names.
We returned to the main lobby to wait for the car for lunch in Duong Dong down town. At that moment, we waited by buying some water to drink to quench our thirst. It was hot in Phu Quoc, 35-38 degrees C, and sunny all day. After that, we got in the car and came back to the eco beach resort hotel. In the afternoon, it was time to relax, unwind, and experience the swimming pool, walking in the jungle, and watching the sunset.
We enjoyed a peaceful afternoon, every moment counted, we went to the beach for beach activities. I tried kayaking in the ocean under the sunset. In the evening, we had dinner at the restaurant and saw the floating lights of a boat of fishermen in the sea going to fish for squid for our breakfast and lunch the next day.
Dream to come back for cruising
Day 4, the last day, we woke up late and we enjoyed our big breakfast late. Although, today the restaurant had less food. We took some photos to celebrate the outings, we took photos on the beach and at the swimming pool, but I felt that taking photos on the beach was the best. At lunch, we went to the local seafood restaurant looking over the sea. We ate a lot of food before we got on the plane so I was not hungry. It was a long journey back to Hanoi by flight, we arrived at Ha Noi safe and sound after 2 hours, non delay, and it took us 20 minutes to get to my real home. After this trip, I was so happy and learned a lot of cool things and found new places I didn’t know before. Phu Quoc is beautiful. I want my father to build cruise ships in Phu Quoc so I can go there more often and cruise around Phu Quoc on the next trip.