I am a solo-female traveler with an extremely minimal budget and limited days. So, I am eager to inspire females to travel and want to help with all sorts of information from my experience to make it easier for you. This time I will be writing about my solo trip to Vietnam. If you have any questions, do feel free to ask.
Phu Qouc Island!
I am calling it the promised neverland!
In my many years of life, I think one of the most beautiful evenings of my life I spent was in Phu Quoc island. I have been to beaches, seas and islands before, but none of the experiences was so serene, mesmerizing, and well spent before.
Most of the sea beaches I have been to were crowded, chaotic, and were not up to my expectations.
I did not get to go to HaLong Bay, however, I felt like I found everything I needed in Phu Quoc as well. My target to go there was snorkeling/ scuba diving, fishing and enjoying the island.
How do you reach Phu Quoc island?
As I mentioned before, public transport in Vietnam is quite complicated and finding long-distance buses is quite hard, also not having internet banking is an issue for buying tickets as well.
I found only "Futa bus service" is the only long distance bus service that provides long distance bus services within a limited budget. Online, I found they charge way more extra than the actual fare! So, search for the bus station on the map and it should show you the nearest bus station. Also caution, their main bus starts from a different place, and they have a small van to pick up from different bus counters and take to the main place.
Caution about the bus timing and place
I did not know that, and I went to the counter in time when I learned my bus has already left but they were kind enough to let me go with the next bus.
There will be a screen where it keeps updating which bus leaves in what. You check your bus number in the ticket provided from the counter and find your own bus.
It was a sleeper bus and they will give 2 breaks in between the journey. You will drop at the very last stoppage and take their mini van from there to go to the ferry station.
From Ho Chi Minh take the night bus of 11/10 to Ha Tien. After reaching Ha Tien in the morning, their minivan will take you to the ferry station to go to the island.
There you will find people to buy ferry tickets without travel. They have a particular time table as well, which you will find from them. They do not ask for random fare for the ferry and have a list of the fare and time in the list they will show you.
You can get freshen in the small restaurants beside and have nice, warm breakfast as well.
It did not cost much and was delicious.
Took the ferry, it took about 2 hours to reach the island. From there, you can take a taxi or bike easily and go to your destination hotels/hostels.
Even though that is an island, I never realized it would be so well maintained! Roads, shops, electricity, and every service there were so well taken care of that you will find yourself landing in a dream place!!
Perhaps the only inconvenience, yet a rather major one is that-
As aforementioned, everywhere in Vietnam, people use bikes as the means of transportation. In big cities, you can hire bikes from Gojek/Grab to travel around, but in small towns or villages, it is hard to find. Same was the case on the island. So I had to trouble my lady in whose hostel I was residing to go around. She helped me a couple of times to drop and pick, which was so very kind of her, as that was not her responsibility. She provides bikes to her guests of the hostels with probably some very little additional charge.
So, again, try learning to ride a bike or at least small Scooty-bikes before you travel to Vietnam, which I will certainly do before I go back again. It makes life so easier and convenient, and cheap as well.
Anyhow, the taxi driver of course did not try to scam me, and the hostel owner also told me about the taxi-fare. I was able to reach the hostel by 10//11 AM I think. She welcomed me with a big smile and showed me my bed, bathrooms, and all necessities.
And dear heaven, she had beer in stock for her guests at her hostels as well with a very reasonable price. I was so surprised that even though everything in the island is and should be actually a little more costly than the normal places as a part of business standard, but I found it is really not!!
I just dropped my bag, grabbed a cold beer and sat in that beautiful front yard like there is nothing in life at this very moment except sipping through the cold beer, listening to the song of the birds and some other unknown creature, and with no other unnecessary noise at all.
It felt like absolute summer: a tender, beautiful summer noon, not unbearable heat, surrounded with trees having small breeze soothing not only you but also your soul...
They provide packages for all sorts of activities you would like to experience such as snorkeling, scuba diving, fishing, sea walking, paragliding etc.
For me, Nana (the hostel owner) arranged everything.
Nobody is there trying to scam you just because it is a beautiful, isolated island, and you are a tourist there!! There are lots of restaurants, spa, BBQ corner, bar and everything you need is at arm's length. There was this bar to chill at night if you are a party person. The beach was after a narrow end of the road.
Though there were lots of hotels occupying the side of the beach to provide beach view rooms to the tourists, and that there were lots of people even in the evening, it did not feel chaotic at all.
As if everyone there is making an effort not to break the serene beauty of that place!
If you want to go back to Ho Chi Ming, you can go back the same way. I went to Hanoi from there so I took the flight as I did not have much time in hand.
But if I had, I would have travelled by bus like from Ho Chi Ming to Dalat and stay 1/2 days at Dalat, then from there you can make a stop at Nha Trang as well, if not then Da Nang...I mean many more places actually!!
Well, that is all for the informative article about Ho Chi Ming- Phu Quoc-Hanoi. I will write about my wonderful moments spent on the island later.
All the contents are mine until mentioned otherwise.