Phu Quoc - 8 days sick on the island😬

The ferry ride from the mainland to Phu Quoc was quite smooth for me and my motorbike!👍 Phu Quoc is not particularly big, after arriving I had to drive for another half an hour and arrived in the center of the island, in the city of Doung Dong. After some tough price negotiations at my trusted accommodation, I rented a bungalow for myself (15€ per night, supposed to be 22€)...originally with the intention of having enough space for some sports (which the bungalow also offers). But the next morning I had to realize when getting up that there would be no sports. I caught a cold and, what is even worse, conjunctivitis as well!😱

Now I've been struggling with this conjunctivitis for 3 days and I walk around the town like a pirate because with 30 degrees and blazing sun I can't open my eye anymore. Of course, I went to the pharmacy on the first day. I paid 1€ for cold tablets and eye drops (here you can get the antibiotic drops directly from the pharmacy)...so I can afford a few more!😀

Today is day 3 and the cold is somewhat under control thanks to the pills. But the conjunctivitis is not, it's really annoying. The only good thing is the fact that I'm here at 30 degrees and not at 0 degrees (I don't expect much sympathy from you back home either) and that my breakfast is brought to my terrace in the morning (because I'm still completely blind after getting up).

Unfortunately, I haven't seen much of the island yet, I've left the scooter parked so far. I forced myself to go to the beach (to at least bring home the necessary tan😋) ...it was okay. Quite dirty, the resort beach is adjacent to the bar beach, but overall it's not really a blast...no comparison to the Philippines!

But I hope that in the next few days I can open my eyes again and explore the other (probably better) beaches with my motorbike!🙏

When it comes to food, you can get everything here. In addition to heaps of seafood, which I'm not so interested in, there's also pizza, sushi, and more...I also found decent bun cha here (haven't had good bun cha since Hanoi).

Price-wise, everything is a bit more expensive than on the mainland. I would say that the main part of the visitors are Russians, but you also meet all sorts of people from Europe and the rest of the world here, just like on the mainland of Vietnam.

In any case, it's bearable here but it's not really enjoyable for me at the moment. I still have ~1.5 weeks until I will return to Germany. I'm definitely looking forward to the food at home, after a certain time it's enough! (although I'm also looking forward to the 1-2 days in Bangkok food-wise😋).

My plan from now on looks like this:

- get fit again and explore the island

- take the ferry to the mainland and go back to Saigon

- sell the scooter there

- fly to Bangkok

- spend a few days in Bangkok

- fly home

That's it! See you soon in good spirits!✌️

Update:

Day 5 on Phu Quoc and I'm still screwed! My conjunctivitis is still as shit as it was on the first day!

Yesterday, the landlady of my accommodation discreetly pointed out that she knows an eye doctor and that I should maybe visit him!...I'm not really sure if the hint came out of concern or if her staff is now afraid to bring breakfast to bungalow 3 when the hungry Cyclops is lurking behind the curtain!?🤔

Anyway...on the coat tails of the landlady, we went to the eye doctor on Sunday evening at six o'clock...he came straight from the kitchen table to my eye, pushed and moved it three times, and then gave me a handful of new tablets and eye drops for 10€ including treatment😀

He also said that my eye is "hot" (I took it as a compliment😄) and that I should rather stay away from the beach and the sun!...Great! But well, it was more hassle than pleasure anyway😒

Now I spend the day burying myself in my favorite café in the far corner (with sunglasses on) and killing time with cappuccino and banana split (of course also with my phone, WiFi, and power bank) ...best vacation ever!🙈

Now I'm trying to get rid of my scooter here on Phu Quoc. I asked the landlady for help and she apparently knows the friend of her cousin, whose sister's brother-in-law was recently looking for a scooter...so there's a potential buyer. If this deal doesn't work out, I'll probably have to go around to all the scooter rental places here and try to sell my scooter to them🤓

Then I would take a flight to Saigon. In any case, I should get better soon...I already see how the Vietnamese disease control will kick me out of the plane in a quarantine suit if I arrive there with my eye😱

That's it for now! See you soon!✌️😉

Update:

Since the deal with the bungalow owner didn't work out, I finally went out myself and tried to sell my scooter.

At first, the prospects didn't seem so rosy! I asked about 8-9 scooter rental, purchase, and repair shops...either they didn't want it at all or they wanted to take it for around 50€. They particularly didn't like the license plate from the north (registered in Haiphong), not one of them took a test drive with the luxury liner!😬

In the end, I stood on the street and asked a mechanic who declined, but when a neighbor got wind of it and called her friend -> my buyer!🙌 She came about fifteen minutes later and after a short inspection (also no test drive) and a 5-minute price negotiation, the deal was done!👍 I got about ~100€, I paid 200$ for the scooter! Still, I was quite satisfied. And the buyer was too, especially after I made it clear to her that she would also get a cool helmet, a smartphone holder, and 1.5 liters of gasoline! I also forgot my action cam holder on the scooter, so the Vietnamese lady can really go wild now😎

By now (after 8 days on Phu Quoc), I'm sitting at the airport and waiting for my flight back to Ho Chi Minh City. I didn't really see much of Phu Quoc...well, that's how it is...😒

My eye looks a bit better now and is not so light-sensitive anymore. I still have a slight distortion in my vision, but I will probably survive!👍

In Ho Chi Minh City, I will only stay for 2-3 days and then fly to Bangkok, where I will have another 2-3 days. See you soon!✌️