Another Boat and Snorkeling Trip

We found a super little restaurant, among the many great restaurants that are here in Phu Quoc.  Through this restaurant we discovered a tour guide named Jerry, A New Zealander, who now lives in Vietnam.  He runs tours that the client can self design.  He keeps the numbers and prices low and will take you to places other tours won't.  He was in the process of getting a few people together for a snorkeling tour so we signed up.

The next morning Jerry collected us at our hotel, and with nine other people, we made our way down the same red, road we took to Sao Beach, stopping along the way to collect tape for broken sunglasses and sandals, for a couple of people who were with us, buy beer, pop, ice, limes, and bathroom breaks, so eventually we got to the harbour, found our boat, hopped on, pulled up anchor, and we were on our way.  The wind was up so the ocean was pretty rough, and a couple of people were not feeling too well because of this.  I find the motion of the boat very relaxing!  Jerry took us to an archipelago that consisted of  deserted islands with fishermen selling there wares on the water.  We stopped at one floating raft to pick up some sea urchins that we could eat for a snack later on in the day.  We continued on and found a beautiful little beach.  We dropped anchor and swam in.  The sand soft and white, the sun bright and warm.  We hung out here for an hour or more, talking with the nine other people on the boat with us, and Jerry of course, exchanging brief histories of each others' lives, having a beer or two, collecting shells, sunning, and cooling off in the gentle, clear, warm, waters of this sheltered bay.

Jerry then hustled us back to the boat, and we continued on to another spot, anchored, and were treated to sea urchin, cooked and raw.  It was really quite good, and I am not an adventurous eater, but I did try a taste or two.  A delicious lunch was served, and after the meal settled, we strapped on the snorkel gear and stride jumped off the boat. 

The snorkeling here is not world class, but it was much better than I thought it would be.  I was lucky enough to spot a couple of angel fish.  They are very colourful, with bright yellow bodies, orange gills, lime green fins and a blue tail.  They remind me of the song by Dolly Parton, My Coat of Many Colours.  There were many fish and the coral had some bright colours, and no dead spots, which is a plus!!

After snorkeling, we climbed back onto the boat and found a lounger on the top deck and sunned the rest of the way home.  The captain did stop once on the way back and got people to fish.  Many fish were caught and the motor started up again, and delivered us back to the harbour, serving us a treat of fresh fruit along the way! 

We loaded the van and retraced our journey from this morning, and were dropped off from where we picked up.  The ten hour trip cost us $19.00 each.

                                         Jerry, our tour guide.

                                         Raft from which we bought our urchins.

                                        

                                         The beautiful beach we were lucky enough to spend
                                         some time at.

                                         Fellow Canadians, Terry and Sandra, who we have been
                                         hanging out with.

                                         The captain and his crew cleaning sea urchins for our snack.

                                         A plateful of cooked sea urchin.  You don't eat any
                                         meat, you eat the roe.