Incense and red flags (Jan. 26/09 - Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam)

For our final day on the island, we wanted to do a bit more exploring on the motorbike since we had only seen part of the island so far. It's the first day of the new year for the locals, so the hotel gave us both lucky red envelopes at breakfast, red satin flags with the country's signature yellow star are flying everywhere you look, the smell of incense fills the air as it burns alongside offerings of fresh fruit, and everyone waves happily, shouting "Happy New Year!" as we drove past. Oh, and almost all the stores are closed, which made the task of finding somewhere to get gas rather challenging. With a better map this time, we decided to go north to check out the village of Bai Thom at the north end of the island. Our map turned out to be pretty misleading, as we ended up on a little dirt alley dodging cows on the route that the map said was the main road out of town. Soon we were pointed in the right direction and zipping along the gravel road. 28km of forested roads later, we emerged at Bai Thom, which turned out to be not much more than a couple roadside shops and a cluster of homes. The map seemed to show a road traversing the north end of the island that would supposedly put us back at our awesome beach from the other day, which sounded like the perfect way to spend the afternoon. As luck would have it, half way there we spotted a sign to a beachside resort that conveniently had a seafood restaurant! It was deja vu, but perfect timing. We followed the signs along a rough little road for a few kilometers, and then sure enough, emerged at the beach with a group of monks who had come for a New Year's picnic on the sand. We had some spicy grilled sea snails (like scallops) and veggies and then hit the road to make a bee line for the beach. We claimed the same spot as before and enjoyed the peace of the warm wind and waves until we had to head back to town to return the motorbike by 5pm. It was kind of entertaining driving back actually, as we passed lots of big family gatherings where people were still celebrating the new year - complete with three seperate people we saw squatting beside their motorbikes, puking into the bushes. A full day of drinking in the sun will do that to you!

Back at our bungalow, we scrubbed the streaky orange fake tan off from the dusty gravel roads and wandered down the beach as the sun made its daily plunge into the ocean. There's something about walking home along the beach by headlamp, with the waves washing over your feet, that makes you really not want to leave a perfect little spot like this!