Same Same

I made our way to Phu Quoc Island today. I loved the bus ride the other day on Phoung Trang ( I promise I'm not getting any kickbacks for good reviews) that we went to the bus station to book another bus with them. For the same price that locals pay Phoung Trang picked us up at our hotel, drive us to the bus station, take us on the bus and then at the destination drove us to the ferry terminal.

We waited around at the ferry terminal for an hour for the ferry to leave and then loaded on board. The boat was bigger than I expected with two levels and two sections in the bottom of the boat where our seats were.

The rows were 4 across so once the boat started moving, we climbed out of our seats, we were sitting next to two elderly Vietnamese men and went to the front where there was a lot of space. I quickly figured out why they load the front of the boat last as it takes all of the movement of the boat and bounces up and down quite wildly. For a while I thought the boat was going to break in half as it was hitting the water so loudly, I could hardly hear the Vietnamese pop music playing at its riducliously loud level. I also thought I was going to throw up so I sat focusing on the front of the boat and monitoring my breathing and I ended up being okay and not spewing chunks everywhere.

Once on Phu Quoc island we got into a shared van with everyone else. Of course we had to pay more than anyone else because they were all Vietnamese. We bargained hard to find someone who would take us for the Vietnamese price but most of the van's had already left and it was either be stranded on the pier or pay a little more, so we relented and agreed to pay extra. On the way to our guesthouse the driver's assistant asked me if we had a reservation, I told him we did and we had already paid because I was worried that he would try to take us to another hotel.

When we got to the hotel the driver's assistant followed us to the lobby. This was strange because they usually drive off before you have time to get your feet on the pavement. The driver's assistant suddenly sped up in front of me to get to the lobby first and said something to the receptionist. I turned to Janelle and said to her "I bet this guy is trying to get an commission from the hotel". When I confirmed with the hotel that I already had a reservation the driver's assistant walked off with his arms in the air. He had been hoping to get even more money from us by getting a commission.

We checked into our room and again it looked nothing like the pictures online. Our room was also the furthest from the beach and right next to a construction site for building more bungalows. It was around 5pm and the workers were finishing for the day and were all walking past our bungalow, staring at us in a less than friendly manor. We tried to change rooms but the receptionist told us they were fully booked. I got online and saw that there were still 4 rooms left for that night on the website we had booked our room with. I was not impressed.

Check out the rest of today's pictures in the slideshow below: