Final Day in Pho Quoc

Final day in Pho Quoc and my thoughts of sleeping in just didn't happen.  Up at 7:30am...along with my 21 mosquito bites I got last night at dinner...had breakfast and then headed out to take a look at some of the shops in the town with Liz and Savina.  It rained last night, but it was unbelievably humid today and overcast.

Pho Quoc is known for it's pearls, pepper plantations and fish sauce, but I decided against doing a tour to any of these places this time around.  I had hoped to buy some pepper spices today, but many of the stalls from last night were not set up, so the pepper will have to wait.  We went into a few shops, bought a few souvenirs to take home and then decided to take a rest at a cute little cafe close to our hotel.  We had a nice relaxing drink and then headed to the hotel to pack up and check out.

At noon were were on our way to the ferry...although we weren't so sure when the taxi driver started heading in the opposite direction as last time and he needed us to speak to the hotel on the phone to make sure he knew where he was going...thank god for the thumbs up sign.  We arrived at the ferry terminal at about 12:20pm, ate a little snack and boarded our ferry.  As expected it was extremely packed.  This time I had a bit of a snooze and also watched a bit of James Bond....haven't been sleeping well since I've arrived, so a snooze felt great.

Once we arrived in Rach Gia at 3:30pm, we had the challenge of hailing down a cab...easier said than done...but we were successful in the end and made it back safely to our hotel.  We checked back in, unpacked and headed out to the waterfront to see what might be going on during a Sunday evening.  To our delight we came across hundreds of people out flying kits, with lots of street vendors selling all kinds of food and drinks, people just sitting around tables that were set up along the sides of the road and lots of people traveling by on their motorbikes.  What a fantastic way to spend a Sunday evening...apparently this is very common throughout the country.

At about 5:30pm we headed back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for dinner.  We headed out as a group around 6:00pm to a try out a hotel restaurant we saw one day last week.  We were the only one's in the restaurant and we had some interesting service...now we know why Ngan always pre-ordered our dinners for us.  It can certainly be a challenge trying to order for a big group, with lots of miscommunication, but in the end it all works out.  We ended up with 16 sets of chopsticks, 2 missing orders and a lost soda for my lime and soda, but other than that...and the lack of table space for all the plates...we had a good meal.  When we were leaving, the two waitresses asked if they could get their picture taken with us to show their class...here we go again being treated like a celebrity.  They were really sweet and we graciously agreed and then headed back to the hotel...but not before a little ice cream and an unsuccessful attempt at buying a chocolate croissant.

Although we have not built for the past two days, we are all tired and pretty much ready for bed by 9:00pm...we are real party animals here in Vietnam!!  On to site number two tomorrow....can't wait!

Until then...
Lisa