We had 4 days at Ong Lang Beach on Phu Quoc Island which was amazing. The hotel was really quiet with its own private stretch of beach. The island is in the Gulf of Thailand off the South West coast of Vietnam and close to the Southern coast of Cambodia. We decided we'd have a few days on the beach to finish our time in Vietnam and we would have happily stayed there for a bit longer. The island is just starting to take off as a tourist destination so is still reasonably quiet but will probably get busier over the next few years. There's loads of really basic wooden beach hut type accommodation but there's also quite a few newer resort type hotels going up, like the one we were staying at, ha ha! We hired a bike one day to have a look around the island and it looks like there's a lot of development work going on including a pretty nice looking golf resort, a water park and even a theme park!!

Phu Quoc is apparently famous for it's pearls, peppers, seafood (they apparently produce the best fish sauce in the world!) and obviously it's beaches. There also used to be a big prison on the island (Coconut Tree Prison) which was built by the French and was used by the Americans during the war as a prisoner of war camp and at one time held 40,000 North Vietnamese prisoners. There's not really much in the way of night life on the island but we did take a trip into Duong Dong one night which is the main town. The night market there is worth a visit. They sell all the usual touristy stuff and souvenirs but the main attraction is the seafood market. It's like a huge outdoor restaurant with dozens of stalls selling fresh seafood, most of it still alive in tanks, so you just pick what you want and they throw it on the barbecue for you. There was some pretty weird looking stuff on display. We weren't brave enough to try anything and went for a pizza instead!!

We spent most of our time at the hotel pool or on the beach as we managed to get moved to a beachfront room which was amazing. It was proper paradise island stuff with hammocks under the palm trees and so relaxing and peaceful. Definitely somewhere we would come back to for a beach holiday but it's sure to get a lot busier over the next few years. Anyway, after 4 days of tropical paradise it was time to leave Vietnam and head to our final destination, Thailand. Vietnam has been an amazing place to visit with so much history and culture, really nice people and amazing food. We would definitely come back again as there still loads of places we'd like to visit. We're now on the island of Koh Samui for a few days and then on to Bangkok for a couple of nights before flying home on the 30th March.