Days 22 to 24 - Phu Quoc, Part 1

The island of Phu Quoc is located in the Gulf of Thailand, belongs to Vietnam, but is only 45 km away from Cambodia.

The hotel I arrived at is very nice. I rented a bungalow directly on the beach and can look out to the sea from my little terrace.

The first days on Phu Quoc were relatively uneventful, so I summarize them here. I enjoyed the peace, laid in the sun, and immersed myself in my novel. I treated myself to some sporting activities with yoga, swimming, and kayaking. I took a detour with the scooter to the nearest supermarket, where I stocked up on drinks for the minibar and snacks.

On another day, I took a trip with the Vespa to the Grand World of the VinGroup, which is 15 minutes away. In addition to an amusement park, European-looking streets have been built on a huge area with countless cafes, bars, and restaurants. Similar to the Ba Na Hills, I felt like I was in an artificial world again, which it ultimately is. What made me extremely puzzled was the lack of visitors. Some shops were open, but there were hardly any guests. Some houses were being worked on or renovated, and other visitors could be counted on one hand. If it weren't for the workers and the construction noise, I could just as easily have been in a coma while the world was being overrun by aliens or zombies.

Then I walked 15 minutes to the beach and sat under a pine tree for a while, listening to the sound of the sea.

Later in the evening, I talked to the owner of my hotel about the Grand World. He said that the entire complex - like many others of its kind - is only used for money laundering by Russian and Chinese investors. They have no interest in the success of these businesses. Their only goal is to launder their money through real estate transactions there. This fact saddened me a bit because the operators of the establishments rely on guests, and the residents of the surrounding villages also hoped for jobs and prosperity from these facilities.

Today, I drove to the west side of the north to enjoy the evening atmosphere and fresh seafood.