Before you start to read, you might want to get a cup of tea or something. This is a long post with lots of pictures to look at!
Last week I had a "down week", which is the week we have between terms when there are no classes. It had been quite a while since I'd had a beach holiday and I was tired and burnt out and needed to relax, so I booked myself a flight to Phú Quốc Island, waaaaaay down off the South coast of Vietnam.
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| The northern end of the island has beaches that go on for miles, with almost nobody on them! |
After a fair bit of searching online for satisfactory and budget-friendly accommodation, I said to myself, "Right. What's #1 on Tripadvisor?", not thinking for a second that it would be a place I could actually afford. And that's how I discovered Freedomland.
The owners of Freedomland, Peter and Rita, bill it as a homestay rather than as a hotel. It consists of several small bungalows that are described as "basic" but really are far nicer than most I've stayed in before. The homestay part comes in when you get to the common areas. Dinner is served as one big communal meal where everyone eats the same thing (unless you have specific dietary requirements).
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| The communal dinner table. |
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| The bar. |
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| Communal sitting area. |
There is no obligation to eat dinner at Freedomland, but there aren't many other options nearby, and after my first meal I knew I wouldn't be eating dinner anywhere else.
It's not cheap, by Vietnam standards. The cost of the meal depends upon what Peter has to pay for ingredients at the market, and usually comes in at around $14-15. However, it's a five course meal every night, made with the freshest produce and just-caught seafood. It's presented with incredible attention to detail, with superb combinations of flavours and textures. For a meal like this in any major city in the world you could easily pay $100. I asked Peter where he'd learned to cook. He said, "I didn't. I just improvise." Oh to have that kind of talent!
The first night I didn't take my camera to dinner, and wished I had, so every night after that I annoyed my dining companions by taking pictures of every dish and making my flash go off in their eyes. Sorry!
Here's a selection of photos of the food we had:
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| Spring rolls with peanuts, noodles, and some kind of white vegetable inside. |
The second night I was there, instead of having the usual 5 courses we only had 3, but the middle one was all-you-can-eat seafood hotpot!
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| As this was added to the hotpot they kept adding more and more and more to the plate, until we had to beg them to stop! |
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| The hotpot and its ingredients |
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| My bowl - to be eaten and refilled again, and again, and again.... |
I joined a German couple to ride bikes up to the northern beaches one day, where we stopped at a little seafood restaurant with beachside huts and hammocks. Unfortunately, my companions were non-fish eating vegetarians, and the restaurant had very few veggie dishes so they ate french fries while I had fish grilled with chili and salt. It was amazing - cooked absolutely perfectly and SO delicious! |
| The perfect lunch spot! |
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| Happy fishermen! |
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| Kids coming over the bridge to see the "Tays" in a village we rode through. |
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| The edge of a typical Phú Quốc fishing village. |
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| Cute kid in a big floppy hat. |
Ok, back to the food! At Freedomland they had these barbecue buckets that they used almost every night to cook meat, fish or seafood. I saw them in the market for 60,000 dong (about $3) and seriously considered bringing one back with me!
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| Build a fire in the bottom, put a wire rack on top and you have an instant barbecue! |
The third night I was there we started with a pumpkin soup, then had these beautiful noodle baskets of cucumber, tomato, and pineapple salad:
After that it was up to us to wrap our food: fresh spring rolls with meat and my old favourite bánh xèo !
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| I was going to ask if I could watch them making the bánh xèo so I'd know how, but got a bit too distracted with the eating and forgot! |
The next night started off with a beetroot soup (but not like borscht, it was really good!)....
then we had tuna on a bed of noodles with pomelo sauce....
then a crab cake tower....
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| The tomato was hollowed out and the inside was replaced with salad. |
then prawns skewered on lemongrass and noodles with a sort of pesto-ey sauce (but it wasn't basil...I'm not sure what it was)....
and followed it all up with pannacotta!
Yes, I ate like this every night. This is NOT a place to go if you're on a diet!
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| I love the place this guy found to sleep! |
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| Part of the main town, Dương Đông. |
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| A Phú Quốc sunset |
And back to the food again:
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| Crunchy bread stacked with eggplant, prawn and squid and a delicious garlic aioli type sauce. |
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| It's time to roll stuff again! Herring this time. |
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| The contents of my roll, before it's rolled. |
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| There's a piece of fish underneath all that somewhere. |
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| Banana fritters! Sooooo good! |
On my last night there we had a sunset barbecue on the beach.
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| The bucket barbecues again! |
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| Staff hard at work. |
Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the other food. But I did get one of the glowing sky.
When it got dark they built a bonfire on the beach so we could have some light and hang out longer. What a perfect last night!
A few photos of the wildlife I encountered:
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| These little frogs often came to hang out in my outdoor bathroom. It rained really hard for a few hours one day, which obviously delighted them because that night they were SO LOUD! |
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| Little crabs like this were digging their holes all over the beach. |
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| ENORMOUS freaky looking bug on my bungalow's balcony. |
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| And some less scary wildlife: Freedomland's Phú Quốc dog Piggy had just had puppies! |
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| So cute! I wanted to take one home! |
Freedomland is not for everyone. They make it quite clear when you book that there is no AC, no TV, and no pool, and that the beach is actually about a 10 - 15 minute walk away. If you're looking for town-type amenities, you have to drive or cycle 7km. However, they do everything they can to help you out and make sure you're comfortable, and I would absolutely not hesitate to recommend this place. It was exactly what I needed. It was kept sparkling clean, the staff were sweet and friendly, there's a great social atmosphere, and that food....all I can say is wow. Go there!
