Pepper, Pearls, and Phu Quoc a Vietnamese island experience

Vietnam’s largest island, Phu Quoc sits in the Gulf of Thailand off the southern tip of the long narrow country.

Marie and I traveled by fast boat from Ha Tien, Vietnam. The trip is about an hour and a half by a vessel called the Super Dong. That gave me a laugh.

Phu Quoc has benefited from government projects to develop it as an international tourist destination. In recent years several high-end resorts have been built on the island. There are also more modest accommodations. A tour guide we had met in Ha Tien had referred us to one which turned out was owned by her cousin (surprise, surprise). It was okay, so we stayed there. It included breakfast at tables that gave a new meaning to sit down.

The beaches were great, and we went almost every day for the week we were in Phu Quoc.

Our favorite adventure on Phu Quoc was the day we rented motor scooters and went touring around the island. Vietnam produces 1/3 of all the pepper in the world. Pepper is one of those things most people take for granted. We had no idea where pepper came from or how it was grown. There are several pepper farms on Phu Quoc, and we decided to visit one on our scooters.

Our first stop, however, was at a bee farm that was on the way. The parking area to visit the bee farm was a small strip of land that faced a sharp drop to a small stream below. as Marie parked her scooter she mistakenly hit the accelerator instead of the brake and the scooter lurched forward into the ravine and the stream below. Luckily, she was standing beside the bike and not on it. With a resounding splash the vehicle was covered with water.

The Vietnamese are very friendly people and soon a group of young men came to the rescue with ropes and pulled the drenched bike out of the water. There was no way to get it started. I called the rental company and told them where their property was, so they could come and retrieve it.

The bee farm was interesting but overshadowed in my mind by the incident with the scooter.

Undeterred, we proceeded to the pepper farm with Marie riding pinion on my motor scooter.

For another story about motorcycling in Vietnam see the following link.

Did you know that pepper is the fruit of a vine?

Black pepper is made by drying the fruit in the sun until the outer shell turns black. White pepper is milder and is made by cracking the dried outer shell of black pepper to yield the white grain inside. Red pepper comes from a different plant, the capsicum family of peppers.

Pearl farming is another new industry on the island. During the last seven years, pearl farming has grown in Phu Quoc sponsored by investments from Australia and Japan. Some of the highest quality cultured pearls in the world come from Phu Quoc.

While the pearl farm was on our return route to the hotel, we decided to skip it since we had no idea how much the scooter repair was going to cost. Buying pearls just wasn’t in the budget anyway. If I ever return, I would definitely visit the pearl farm if only for information.

With a little trepidation, I went to the motor scooter rental place to see what the damage was. I was pleasantly surprised that the total cost of repairs was only about $100US. Things are surprisingly less expensive in most of the rest of the world than in the USA.

We celebrated that evening with cocktails and dinner at a fine restaurant.

Phu Quoc had great beaches, pepper and pearls and I would definitely recommend it as a stop on any tour of Vietnam. From here it was back to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for a flight to Laos.