Spa Stories
Read about places our team has been to.
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Rock around the Quoc
There is something fishy going on off the coast of Vietnam, as Marc Llewellyn reports.
Sticking your face into a barrel full of rotting anchovies might not be the obvious way to get the most out of a holiday in the sun. But, if you visit the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc, don’t turn your nose up at the opportunity.
Fish sauce, or nuoc mam, is a daily staple for most Vietnamese, and the best – and most pungent - is said to come from Phu Quoc.
This teardrop-shaped island, which is about the same size as Singapore, is a one-hour flight west of Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it’s more popularly known.
As far as tropical getaways go, it is relatively new on the tourist block – despite its white sand beaches, which easily out-class those on Bali.
Up until recently a few low-end accommodation options, including palm-thatched huts and faded concrete complexes, mopped up those tourists adventurous enough to make it here.
But things are changing rapidly. Leading the way is the luxurious La Veranda Resort, near the southern end of very long Duong Dong Beach.
The resort features 43 rooms and villas, including six with direct beach access. The most expensive villas come with glorious views, a king-size bed, an oversized bathroom, and wireless internet.
Narrow brick paths meander through tropical gardens, past a sparkling pool, and up the main house, which is modeled on a colonial French mansion. Here you’ll find a bar, an upstairs restaurant open to sea breezes, plenty of potted palms, and rafts of cane armchairs.
For quality and atmosphere you can’t go past La Veranda’s spa, but alternatively you could opt for a quick massage on the beach from one of the female touts.
The resort really makes the best use of its location in the evenings, when you can take a table on the sand and dine on prawns, crabs, calamari and ocean fish fresh from the Gulf of Thailand.
Another option for dinner is the locally-owned pub almost next door, where you can play pool, drink cheap cocktails, and choose from what must be one of the world’s most extensive menus.
Both the resort and independent operators offer tours around the island, including visits to fish sauce producers and pepper plantations.
Phu Quoc’s main industry is fishing, with anchovies the major catch. Millions of these tiny, oily fish ferment for a year in large wooden vats in island warehouses.
Fish sauces from elsewhere are often brewed for less time, and consist of inferior fish species. These are fine for general-purpose cookery, but for something special use Phu Quoc’s rich, golden fish sauce for dipping.
Or, you could do what the unsuspecting tourist does – take a short tour of a wonderfully smelly warehouse, buy a few bottles for your larder,and get them confiscated at the airport by alert officials who don’t want the plane to be grounded for deoderisation following a breakage.
Phu Quoc’s other main claim to fame is pepper. The island’s peppercorns are larger than most, and have a very intense flavour. The locals grind the corns into a fine powder, then blend it with salt and lime juice to create a spicy dipping sauce for seafood and grilled meats.
Tours also include visits to pearl farms, coral atols, and the rainforest, which covers some seventy percent of the island and is protected by a national park.
If you don’t like organised tours you can jump on the back of a motorbike, or hire your own, and take off down dirt tracks edged by cashew nut groves and bamboo houses to remote, sugary-white beaches.
The most spectacular are spread along the western coast, or gather around the southern tip of the island. Most of these are more or less deserted, apart from a few fishermen perhaps. The busiest have a few inexpensive restaurants and places to stay, and a handful of non-pushy touts, selling everything from large crispy cracker breads to massages costing a few dollars.
Make time for a trip out to the An Thoi Islands too. You leave from a bustling fishing port on the southern tip of the main island, and thirty minutes after motoring across a green expanse of sea you arrive at the first of a series of 15 largely-pristine islands marked out by beaches, lagoons and coral reefs. The snorkelling is superb.
Don’t miss out on a visit to the street market in the main town of Duong Dong though. Here you can wander between stalls selling tropicalfruits, fresh fish, live eels and crabs, and everything else from spices to conical hats.
Close by is a major port, where dozens of large, brighly-coloured trawlers crawling with fishermen, are roped together to form a suburb of boats.
While the island still has that undeveloped feel, it won’t last long. So go see Phu Quoc, before the fumes from sunblock overpowers that delicious smell of fish sauce.
Spa Files
Getting there: Jetstar flies from Sydney to Ho Chi Minh City several times weekly, with connections from other capitals. Vietnam Airlines flies from Saigon to Phu Quoc four times daily. Look up www.jetstar.com for deals to Vietnam.
Accommodation: Rooms at La Veranda Resort cost from around $150 per night. Look up www.laverandaresort.com, book through www.accorhotels.com.au, or call 1300 65 65 65.