Cay Dua Prison

Otherwise known as the “Coconut Tree Prison”…It was declared a historic site in 1999 and developed into a Memorial for the 4000 people that died here, captured prisoners or “Insurgents” and “soldiers” of the Revolution during the French Colonial era and the “American War”.

The prison was originally built by the French and then revitalized under the American supported Southern Vietnamese. At its peak the prison covered a territory of about 400 hectares and housed about 40,000 prisoners.

Today you can see some displays of the prison perimeter and some examples of what are called “Tiger Cages”…small barbed wire enclosures that confined people in the heat of the tropical sun.
There is a section of photographs of some of the prisoners that are known to have died here. There are displays with mannequins illustrating quite graphicaly various interrogation techniques.

It’s a small museum and doesn’t take too long to explore…so if you’re looking for a way to pass some time on a rainy day here or you have an interest in some of the history of Phu Quoc this is likely a way to spend an hour or hour and a half at little cost.

I didn’t spend too much time here but I thought it was important to see and know a little about the prison Memorial if I was going to spend time here in Phu Quoc. As in other places that I’ve visited in Europe or Canada for example, right here in Phu Quoc, its so hard to comprehend that such inhumane things could happen in such an idyllic spot.

Admission to the site is nominal…I think it cost 10 or 20,000 Dong…about $ 1.00 USA and its open TUESDAY to SUNDAY from 730 AM until 11:00 Am and then again from 1:30 PM until 1700 PM

Pepper Plantation

You can visit a pepper plantation if that might interest you…North of Duong Dong you can visit the one we did close to the community of Cua Dong…follow the road from Cua Dong North until you see the fork in the road….go left and its only a short distance to Huong Tram. The sign on the fork of the road is easy to see and you really cant miss the place, again, its marked with a large sign. It might sound tricky but in fact there are NOT many roads that you can get lost on..

Phu Quoc pepper is known for its good aroma and spicy flavor…it’s rumored that pepper grown here is a more intense spicy flavor than pepper grown in other regions of Vietnam although I can’t vouch for that.

We easily found this little hide out while motor biking a loop North of Duong Dong and we stopped for a while to investigate. The woman that was looking after the place was quite happy to have visitors; she spent some time with us showing us how the pepper is grown and how it is harvested.

You can see pepper growing in row after row of staked plants…when you look closer at these plants you can see the little buds that are really just pepper corns…waiting to ripen.
When they ripen they are removed from the plant one at a time and then dried in the sun.

The whole process is demonstrated…the first picture is of the plants growing before being harvested. The second photo shows the peppercorns before ripening . The third shows the peppercorns separated from the plants in baskets and the next one shows them drying in the sun. This is pretty labor intensive and time consuming and as the prices of pepper has dropped in recent years there is less and less pepper production happening in Phu Quoc.

We made time to have a drink at one of the tables and chairs set up here and ultimately I made a purchase of a bag of pepper corns for about 100 000 Dong. Given that I’ve never seen how pepper corns were grown, and that I have a bit of a “green thumb” myself this was interesting to me and cost only the amount I spent on a drink and a bag of pepper corns.

Snorkeling Excursion

We booked this day trip from a guy on the beach in front of our hotel…and for the life of me I can’t remember his name. The paperwork says “Rex Travel” on it…from what I saw while looking over other company’s pricing all of the snorkeling tours were the same price…it didn’t matter what company you booked through.

They offer options going to the North end of the island…and another departing from An Thoi in the South end.

We went to the South…we were picked up at our hotel about 0830 AM and transported down the coast highway to An Thoi where our vehicle was whisked right onto the wharf. We were allowed to board right away onto a waiting boat.
The group was fairly small…a total of about ten of us maybe. We pushed off and cruised for about an hour South into the An Thoi islands where we made our first stop for about a half hour to try our luck fishing..
From there we made our way to three other locations where most people chose to snorkel and swim in turquoise green blue waters. It was really a beautiful warm and sunny day and I chose to sit in the sun and relax…no swimming for me on this day.
At the third and final snorkeling stop before we headed back to Phu Quoc we set anchor and eat a pretty tasty meal that some of the crew had prepared for us. Included in the meal was sea urchin that I had watched being prepared…As it turned out….those that eat the sea urchin were CHARGED EXTRA money above what the excursion was supposed to cost. This SAME THING happened for soft drinks and beers. There was no mention of the EXTRA charges so be warned that these EXTRA charges could happen to you too if you were to go on this excursion.

The day on the water was fun but reportedly the presence of fish was minimal for some reason and not too many were in fact seen. All of the stops for snorkeling were the same with not a lot of fish seen so BE WARNED…if you’re EXPECTING to see lots of colorful fish that this MIGHT NOT happen.

The boat was large and clean with a washroom on board and plenty of seating for those that just wanted to hang out in the sun and watch or read.
It was a relaxing time and I believe we returned to Phu Quoc about 3:00 PM.

The COST of this excursion was only about $ 15.00 each and I thought well worth the money to spend the better part of the day on the water soaking up some sun!!

pearl farm

We made a brief visit here while en route to An Thoi the day that we went on the snorkeling excursion. Apparently all of the “day” excursions that go by the door stop here for a quick look. It’s open to the public if you want to go on your own. There is no charge to access and look around..

There are two farming operations that are available to see…both are South of Duong Dong along the coastal highway on the way to An Thoi.

It was kind of cool to see how pearls are “cultivated” in a process that’s totally “man made”. I had not ever seen this process happen before and so I thought it was kind of a cool thing to do. It’s possible to watch…there are many workstations set up in a fairly large room where people are busy implanting a particular type of pearl oyster with the materials needed for the growth of the pearl. You see people loading the mesh panels and preparing them for deposit into the ocean where they are suspended by rope.

In case you don’t know…the process is to implant a pearl oyster with a small piece of “Mississippi Pig Toe Mussel”. A graft of tissue from a donor oyster is attached to the implant shell and inserted via a surgical cut into the host oyster shell..
The pearl oyster shells are then placed in a meshed panel and suspended in the ocean where they will grow for upwards of two years.

There is a large display area where you can purchase pearls set into different settings, necklaces, rings, etc. etc. 

I didn’t price them…but I believe that they’re not that cheap if you’re interested in purchasing Phu Quoc pearls.

Hang at the BEACH..There's PLENTY to choose from

This is really what Phu Quoc is known for…it’s a beach side Paradise and there are so many uninhabited and little used beaches it’s just incredible. Soon that will change apparently because of the development plans that the Vietnamese Government has in store for Phu Quoc…but for the time being…pick a spot…and ENJOY it!

We didn’t encounter any sand fleas at any of the beaches that we were on but we did run into sea lice and jelly fish a couple of times, depending what beach we were on. We rented motorbikes one day and did a road run to the North end of Phu Quoc and in fact we saw many many miles of beaches with nobody on them

Sea lice seemed to be present in the sea along the beach of our hotel and that particular shoreline off of Truong Beach…just South of Duong Dong. We made a visit to Sao Beach on the South East side of Phu Quoc and there were jelly fish when we were there.

Up towards the North end of Phu Quoc at Sathe beaches were almost abandoned except for the odd cow or two…occasionally we would see someone setting squid or a type of seaweed to dry on racks.

We were visiting here in January and every day the sun was shining and the skies blue so it was perfect beach weather.

I think its quite likely that if you’re visiting Phu Quoc then hitting the beach is likely high on your list of things to do anyhow…so speaking from experience….I KNOW that you’ll enjoy the beaches here!!!

Coi Nguon Museum

This is actually a private museum that is a MUST SEE when you’re visiting Phu Quoc.
The building commands a road side location set on a hill, South of the town of Duong Dong.

This is a six floor structure that is modern in design and has great functionality…it’s a fairly new building….as is the museum itself…its barley a few years old, some parts of it are still under construction , at least were when I visited in January of 2010.

Its design is such that you can move easily around from display to display and the continuity is great.

There are sections that deal with the history of Phu Quoc, including ceramics, bronze and stone tools, and animal and sea mammal skeletons.
There are sections that deal with the historical development of the people in connection to Phu Quoc.
You can see art work made by people from Phu Quoc..works using materials that are specific to Phu Quoc., sea shells and drift wood for example.

There are displays of boats here and examples of housing structures that are or were commonly used here on the island. There’s also the obligatory Shrine to Ho Chi Min and a fairly interesting display relating to the Coconut Tree Prison that I’ve mentioned earlier..
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There is in fact various structures on the property and once you finish indoors and leave the main building there’s a walkway that takes you up the hill to some of the other buildings that are a part of the museum. There is quite an elaborate Temple here, and example of a stilted house used even today by some people here on Phu Quoc.There are gardens and even an aviary where a breed of sea eagles are kept and a kennel where they are keeping a few of the “Phu Quoc” dogs, a breed that’s particular to Phu Quoc. The sea eagles are being bred here as part of an effort to save them from extinction.

It’s an interesting place to spend some time…and it was NOT busy…I was able to wander around without any worries about being crowded into a corner…I'm not sure that many people know of its existence...when I was asking people about it...before I visited the museum...no one seemed to know anything about it..

For a condensed look at the culture and history of Phu Quoc you really must make this museum a “thing to do” while you are visiting.