One of the best parts of our trip was the visit we took for one week to Phu Quoc Island. We flew over from Saigon and were greeted at the airport by a throng of people wanting us to visit their resorts. We chose to go to the Hotel Saigon-Phu Quoc and it was very pretty, sort of like a Club Med. I didn't want to complain to Doug, so I kept my mouth shut about secretly wishing we were staying in a more authentic Vietnamese resort. The next morning we went for a motorbike ride and he told me he wanted to look around for a more authentic Vietnamese resort, so it worked out pretty well!

We biked down to the Tropicana Resort and fell in love. The owner, Mrs. Trang, invited us to stay in a beautiful cottage overlooking the ocean. We looked around at a few more places, but opted to stay at the Tropicana, which was clearly the loveliest of them all. Although the first hotel has a huge swimming pool, it doesn't have a nice beach. The Tropicana has a gorgeous beach and we choose gorgeous beach over pool any day.

Pictured here are Mrs. Trang, Thanh and Hiu, the owner and managers, essentially. They were the sweetest people and we loved them so much that we plan to go back there as soon as we can - either next fall or winter.

There is a pearl factory on the island and we motorbiked down there one day to look, but we didn't like the pearls. They were big and not the type we are interested in. Later we motorbiked to Sau Beach, a lovely private beach on the other side of the island. Doug is a wild man on the motorbike and we had quite an adventure biking along the back trails of that island. The trail to Sau Beach ended as a single wide trail going through pretty heavy undergrowth, but somehow Doug kept it on two wheels (mostly). We pulled out of the woods to find a group of Europeans playing some sort of gambling game with island residents, while their children played nearby. There was a restaurant of some sort there, although there was no sign there were several tables and we sat at one on the beach. Doug went into the water and splashed around a little. We had a couple of cokes and took photos of the kids. They sure have the sweetest, cutest little kids here.

The food in the restaurant was perfection, the service was so friendly and warm - the Tropicana is the best place to stay if you ever make it over there. The last night we were on the island we went out to a karaoke bar with Mrs. Trang, Hiu, Thanh, a number of the young people who worked at the Tropicana, and Eric, a Canadian we met during our stay at the resort. We had a GREAT time singing with them. Eric did a killer rendition of "My Girl," Sherry sang, "I'm a Believer," and the Vietnamese were terrific, but Doug brought down the house when he decided to sing a Vietnamese song - in Vietnamese. Those kids laughed so hard I thought they were going to fall on the floor!

I'm in the process of making a website for the Tropicana, so as soon as its done, I'll link to it from here and you can contact them if you are interested in accomodations there.