Chapter 100

On my last full day on Phu Quoc, I had an ambitious schedule planned. I wanted to visit the main attraction of this area, which was a waterpark at the southernmost point of the island. If I wanted to walk to the southernmost point of the island, it would have taken me 7 hours one way. The beach going south was called the Long Beach and it was definitely named pretty accurately. Putting things in perspective, while the round trip yesterday up and down the beach had a total distance of approximately 15 km give or take, the Long Beach was around 20 km one way. Though it would still be walking on a beach, which I enjoyed doing, to get there, this was slightly too much of a time commitment. Therefore, I decided to do just a bit of walking and utilize the main method of transportation on the island instead. I was going to use the Scooter Taxi. 

The Scooter Taxi was exactly what it sounds like. You would pay someone to pick you up with their scooter and drive you somewhere. Unlike a regular cheap taxi cab, this was even cheaper. If you recall, my taxi cab from my hotel to the airport was around $150,000 VKD. The Scooter Taxi to the same airport? Around a third the price of that at just $50,000 VKD. Specifically this was for around 10 km of ride distance at around 15 minutes of ride time. Oh and the conversion? This was around $3 CAD total. Despite the low price, I still wanted to make sure that I didn’t get scammed. To that end, the manager at the Halona Hotel called the scooter taxi guy for me and made me pay him upfront at the amount they decided. The manager was a good guy.  

Now, if you’re wondering why I was taking the Scooter Taxi to the airport, this was because the airport was essentially the halfway point of Long Beach. Being dropped off here meant I just had to walk about 2-3 hours to reach the Sun World entrance. So that was the plan. First, get dropped off at the airport. Then, walk to Sun World. After I’m done there, I will walk North a bit more. 

I awoke around 6 am in the morning. I slept okay after the whole mediation thing and considering how I went to be essentially at like 8pm, this was a lot of sleep. I got ready pretty quickly and headed out for a bite to eat and to get some cash. Then, I got back to the hotel and we set off Southbound.

It was all going smoothly until it got to time for me to be dropped off. I think what happened next was a language barrier issue. I had wanted to be dropped off at the airport to walk a bit to go to Sun World but instead, the Scooter Taxi dropped me off at a place I would later understand as the “Sunrise Resort”. I think the instructions given by the hotel manager weren’t clear enough. 

This was not planned but not really a huge deal. The Sunrise Resort, which wasn’t really a resort and more like a small restaurant, was located along Long Beach and actually closer to Sun World than the airport too. Seeing as how this just shortened my beach walk a bit, I decided not to make a fuss and just headed on my way along the beach going more South. 

By my account, I had walked for about 45 minutes when I came upon the edge of the beach. The end of the beach was a large patch of green forest which I used as a milestone to orient my bearings. Then, I got on the road and just kept going South. 

The walk on the road wasn’t too amusing and to be honest, I spent most of this time frantically looking around to see if I was going the right way. I hadn’t really thought about how the road signs were all in a language I didn’t understand initially and because of that, I was very confused for this half of the journey. 

However it came to be, eventually I did end up going South enough to see the Sun World signs, which I then proceeded to depend on to bring me to the park’s entrance. I was actually doing good for time too. I had spent just under an hour and a half since the beach’s end to make it to the park. Despite that however, I had made up my mind about my trip home. I was going to Scooter Taxi the entire way.

As I walked past the giant “Sun World” signs, I found myself at the edge of Phu Quoc island. It was around noon at this point and the weather was still very temperate. The entrance of Sun World was atop a cliff side that oversaw the edge of the island. This was because Sun World wasn’t actually on Phu Quoc, it was located on an isle South of the island. In fact, to get there, you’d have to use their main attraction: the cable car. 

To be perfectly honest, the cable car was what I wanted to see all along. Nothing in Sun World itself remotely appealed to me. This ride was a 20 minute non-stop glass cabin ride that overlooked some of the fishing spots near the island. The cable car departed from the southernmost part of Phu Quoc to 2 small isles before settling on the final isle of Bai Truong (or Bai Nam. I’m unsure which one represents the isle). It was advertised as the world’s longest non-stop threeway cable car system (whatever that means). For me, it was just a really nice view over the water in a glass box that gave off a feel of flying.

I found the majority of the park under construction when I finally arrived. This meant that a lot of the water slides and main attractions were shut down. I didn’t care much about that though since I was mostly there for the 20+ minute cable car. However, it seemed like a waste to just take the tram back right away. So with that said, I took a look at what other attractions were there and found three I wanted to really visit. 

The first was just a garden with some metallic sculptures. To be honest, it was kind of underwhelming. Next was the koi pond which was surprisingly interesting because of the sheer volume of fish there. Whenever the feeder tossed food in, they would clump and even push fish out of the water. It was madness but still just a fish pond at the end of the day. Which was to say, not entirely captivating. The last visit was to Eco Beach. Here is where I decided to stay for the majority of the day. 

This was a beach where all the tourists went to. Nothing else was really open afterall. But the beach was lively enough to make up for that fact. There was a large inflatable obstacle course on the water, a kayak area where you can go on the waters for free and a DJ playing English songs chilling nearby also. Furthermore, because the park wasn’t entirely complete, the area wasn’t so crowded that you couldn’t get around but also not so deserted that it seemed awkward to stay. Despite the fact that I had been alone and on “vacation” for almost 3 days now, I think this day is when I came to accept that fact. I thought to myself, “I am on vacation, no time to think about anything else. Let’s just be here.”

With that in mind, I forced myself to try and enjoy everything as much as I can. I went on the inflatable castle obstacle course a good 4 or 5 times just trying to do it faster and faster. Then, I back flipped off the side of the inflatable into the salt water for a good half hour or so. After that, I took my stuff and went kayaking on their kayak water trail for a good hour before finally, I sat on the beach and built sandcastles for a good while just waiting for the sun to pass its apex. I didn’t care that I was just doing childish things on a beach. I was actually having a true vacation now. 

The day kind of came and went. I was lost in the amazing benefits of traveling alone. The only downside to all of this was that whenever I was on the water, I had to look back in case anyone touched my stuff but this rarely peaked my anxiety since there was security around. By the end of the day, I could say with confidence that I enjoyed being a companion to myself. I liked being alone somewhere with just my thoughts. It was a weird level of self acceptance I hadn’t thought possible without working on it directly. Even more amazingly, I didn’t know it but somewhere along the way, I had forgotten all the messes at home. 

“Damn. I really needed this vacation.” 

It’s weird to think that vacationing is good for you (yeah, I know). I mean, I know, I did plan on taking a break after graduation for a year of traveling and vacation but I had never daydreamed about what it meant to be on vacation. This was it, to be living without a care in the world. To just be in the moment regardless of what tomorrow will bring. It only kind of occurred to me then that maybe all the past issues had been because I got so caught up in the future I had I forgotten about the present.

After a bit of sand castle building, I felt exhausted. In the spirit of letting things be, I decided to take a nap. I don’t know if you’ve ever went swimming in salt water before but it kind of feels different than swimming in fresh water. I speculate that it has something to do with the salinity and making you feel extra dehydrated. As I set up my bag as a pillow, I took a nap on the beach and actually did pass out despite the DJ playing pretty loudly. It was only for a short while but I dreamt during that time for what felt like hours. 

Even to this day, this dream was the most vivid one I had ever had. In this dream, I was looking at myself on the island from a third person perspective. It was some form of projection though for me it felt more like I was flying. A group of Koi accompanied me as we hovered higher and higher until we were swimming in the clouds, gliding around the shadows and lights formed by beams of sunshine peeking through the clouds. It was freeing and relaxing. If I had to describe the entire feeling, it would be “light” in every sense of the word. I felt in control despite being hundreds of meters in the sky. It was serene. 

When I woke up, I was surprised that I was still on what was essentially the same beach in my dreams. I think on some level I may even have been lucid dreaming but regardless, I felt energized and happy. The mindscape was so positive that I didn’t think ahead of all the hurdles that were waiting for me back home. I found zen where I was.

As the sun began to set, I headed back to the cable car. I was actually so happy with my time on the isle that I almost forgot I had another amazing 20 minutes of literal pseudo-flying over water left in the day. 

When I got back to the main island of Phu Quoc, I called a scooter taxi and then rode off as the sun set. As the hotel pulled into view, I felt that the day was over. Although it was around 7-8 pm, the fact that I slept around this time a few days ago and the fact that I had essentially been in salt water all day basically meant that I was ready for calling it in already. 

This was fine though since I would need to get up early the next day anyhow. I didn’t have the energy to pack that night and I needed to set off to HK again tomorrow. With that, I took a quick shower and then immediately went to bed. I had set an alarm but I knew I was going to beat it since my sleep cycle is completely off. 

My last thought was that I hoped I could have as vivid a dream tonight as I had dreamt on Eco Beach earlier that day. It was simply magical.