Phu Quoc Island

For the last 3 days we have been in absolute paradise! We arrived safely after a hellish journey from Saigon, complete with taxi drivers trying to rip us off, lots of yelling in Vietnamese and some seriously dangerous cramming in a minibus. It has all been worth it though, we are staying in a little bungalow about 50m from the beach, complete with hammocks, a little porch, lots of sand and a gecko which we named Loretta. The power only comes on between midday and 8:30pm, so that makes things fun when you forget a torch! We have been strolling down to the beach every morning, having breakfast (and the BEST coffee) with our feet in the sand, sipping out of coconuts and getting massages, jumping in the sea to cool off and then just like that it's dinner time and we're faced with the biggest decision of our day, what to order! It certainly is a far cry from the lives we were living this time last year! On the first night, we treated ourselves to some incredible cocktails, and lounged in the ocean-which was like a bath. It has rained a couple of times, but usually only at night, and we are managing to score some beautiful sunny days. A few days ago we got some coconuts and got the guys at the restaurant to chop them open for us. That was all fine until we thought it might be nice to roast them over the barbeque-to the absolute bewilderment of the locals. Everyone crowded around to stare at the weird foreigners with no idea how to eat a coconut, and we were equally as confused that they had never even tried it. As we sat down to eat, I sprinkled some sugar over the top to sweeten it up a little, which was obviously way too much for the old lady sitting opposite who began shrieking with laughter and collapsed into hysterics. I had to stop with the sugar for fear of causing her a heart attack! We met up with the 9 people who we had been seeing all the way down, so we have had a few really good nights with them. We spent almost the whole night in this one deserted bar called Amigos, just the 11 of us playing card games and hanging out. It was so much fun! Then last night we thought we'd venture out and try somewhere different, but that backfired when we ended up in what was obviously a strip club and filled with ladies that were definitely actually men... That was fun. Most of them went off to Cambodia today, and so we are waiting to hear how it goes before we book our trip. It's so weird to think we are nearly done in Vietnam, but at the same time it feels like we have been here for years! We are missing some home comforts, muesli, our own beds and our families, but we are having so much fun. Today we are looking at another day lounging in the sun, most definitely some more Vietnamese coffee, and possibly a dip in the ocean. Wow, life is hard.