Our alarm clock rings at 6 o'clock in the morning. We have a delicious breakfast and say goodbye to all the human and animal residents of Greenvillage as the taxi driver picks us up at 7:15 am.
He takes us to the bus station in Can Tho, where we buy tickets for the 3-hour journey to Rach Gia.
There are many buses of the FUTA Company at the bus station. It's not easy to find the right one (ours was in the middle).
This time we got a bus with regular seats. The legroom is very satisfactory, the hip room... well, we love each other, so cuddling is not a problem =)Some of the seat shells are not very stable, fortunately there are seat belts (that nobody wears).There is no highway to Rach Gia, only a single-lane country road. If you know the Knight Bus from Harry Potter, you can imagine what the journey feels like. We are relieved when we arrive safely in Rach Gia.
There, the bus company provides a transfer bus to the harbor, but it quickly fills up and we are the last to get on. This gives us the opportunity to observe Vietnamese traffic from the driver's perspective, and it goes without saying that the driver talks on the phone during the journey (and yes, a bus fits through that gap).
When we arrive at the port, our ferry to Phu Quoc, the Superdong 3, is already ready for departure. The colorful houses along the port exit remind us a little of the colorful houses at the Greifswalder Ryck. Inside, the ferry is more like an airplane than a ship. We even have assigned seats. As a result, we sit right next to the speakers in the middle of the room (we already mentioned the Vietnamese preference for loud music). 3 hours of Vietnamese pop songs from speakers turned up to the max. It's interesting for the first 2 minutes and torture for the remaining 178 minutes, not to mention that the songs repeat themselves. We escape to the observation deck at the back of the ferry and feel how fast the ferry is moving thanks to the strong wind. Unfortunately, the weather is a bit hazy and we can't take nice pictures of the many small islands passing by. When we arrive at the ferry pier in Phu Quoc, we immediately find a taxi that takes us to our accommodation, the 'Homestay Ham Ninh' in the small fishing village of Ham Ninh on the east coast of Phu Quoc. There, we are greeted by a swan and Lilly, the owner. The room is clean and spacious and even equipped with air conditioning, we're stepping up the standard ;) The homestay has a large beautifully designed garden with its own agriculture and badminton net. In the open corridor, a beautiful orchid is growing from a (former) coconut.In the afternoon, we take a little walk towards the sea to test the temperature. It is really really hot. In the background, you can see Ham Ninh.In the evening, we treat ourselves to fresh seafood at one of the floating restaurants at the pier. They're still in the colorful containers when we arrive, until they are deliciously prepared and served on our plates.We greet you warmly from the island of the sun (yes, you can proudly wear the VfB T-shirt abroad again).Tomorrow we will go on our first adventure tour of the island!
