Vietnam - Phu Quoc and Chau Doc

I arrived on Phu Quoc with beautiful weather and found myself a nice bungalow close to the water and made it to the beach, bathing suit and sunscreen on with book in hand, by 11 am. You can guess what I did for the remainder of that day, yup just laid in the sun broken up with an occasional swim and a massage right there on the beach (sorry if I'm making all you Seattle folk jealous now that you're in December weather in the NW, hehe).
The next few days I spent driving around the island on a motor bike and boy did that improve my motor biking skills. All the roads on Phu Quoc are dirt and not that well maintained so I felt like I was on a dirt bike course but instead of a dirt bike I had a little motor bike. It was fun though and I found different beaches where I was the only one in sight or at the least the only foreigner.

I spent 4 days on Phu Quoc and each was spent with the same agenda of beach time and exploring, the pictures will hopefully come close to revealing its beauty.

The bungalows I stayed at

It's hard to take photos of yourself on a deserted beach but this one turned out in an accidental "artsy" way

Yummy fish meal on the beach

Road on Phu Quoc, this is one that is well maintained (no pot holes)

Clear, beautiful water

From Phu Quoc I headed north to the town of Chau Doc situated on the Mekong where I was to take a slow boat to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the next morning. I found a place with a couple from New Zealand I met on my bus over and then headed out on my own to find some internet but was pleasantly surprised to find out there was now power in the city (it was about 3pm at this point). OK, I guess I'll wander and see what there is to see...
I wandered by the river, through the market, down some streets where not many tourists make it out to, and then by some children playing badminton on the side of the road. As I passed by one of them saw me watching and offered his racket to me. I ended up playing badminton for about 1.5 hours with different opponents, the kids would sometimes fight over who got to play me next. I also had a crowd of about 15 Vietnamese of all ages watching and for sure got many confused stairs by the traffic riding by. It was a lot of fun and once again found how easy it is to somehow communicate when neither party speaks the same language.

Some of my fan's / opponents

To continue my adventures in Chau Doc I went back to my hotel to take a shower (badminton is a good workout!) only to find out on my top floor room the water pressure just wasn't working correctly. They said it should be ok after dinner. So after a delicious meal out with the New Zealanders I returned only to find the water still was not working (and neither was the power). So after taking money off my room for the inconvenience I was escorted to their shared bathroom downstairs and opened the door to a small bathroom lit by candles and in the middle was a large plastic tub filled with water and a bowl sized ladle. Yup that was my shower and it wasn't too bad actually, plus it was a good memory.

The next morning I got up to take the slow boat to Cambodia, good bye Vietnam!