Even though the JW Marriott had more than enough to keep us occupied, we were happy to explore the rest of the island to see what all there was to do.

Just down the road from the resort was the Hon Thom Cable Car, some decent diving, and even a night market in town.

 

Hon Thom Cable Car

A couple kilometers from the resort was the Hon Thom cable car, which takes you across the bay to a remote island where the Sun World resort is currently being constructed.

This breathtaking ride is supposedly the longest cable car system in the world, at nearly eight kilometers long.

The landscaping was beautiful, but as you can see, some parts were still under construction.

To get around the island, you can grab a ride on one of these buggies.

There were two restaurants down by the beach serving delicious Vietnamese food at an affordable price.

Since the Sun World resort wasn’t fully up and running, the cable car didn’t run continuously, so we wandered around the island for another hour before grabbing a ride back to the main island.

Everything was immaculate here. The attendants even wiped down the windows so we wouldn’t have to contend with the smudges left by the previous passengers.

Even though the Sun World resort wasn’t finished yet, it was definitely a fun adventure riding the cable car and exploring the island.

 

Diving with Flipper Diving Club

Obviously, we had to do some diving while on the island too. Although the conditions weren’t the greatest, it was a perfect opportunity to get my PADI Advanced Open Water certification.

During the high season, we would have had to travel into town to pick up the dive boat, but since it was the rainy season, we were diving from the south, just down the street from our hotel. Each morning we were picked up by van to head over to the beach where were ferried to our dive boat.

The visibility was decent, but didn’t come close to what I experienced in Guam.

Nonetheless, when I wasn’t on my training dives, we were able to explore the reefs and get a few good pictures.

After our dives each day, the crew prepared a delicious Vietnamese meal on our way back to shore.

 

The Night Market

A quick cab ride downtown got us to the night market, where you could try unique foods and pick up some souvenirs.

It was definitely a challenge to find my size, but I happily bought one of these!

 

Phu Quoc was awesome overall. The island has been built up extensively over the years and is geared to become one of the largest tourist destinations in southeast Asia. There was so much to see and do, the exchange rate to the US dollar is excellent, and the people were very friendly.

After seven days here, I didn’t want to leave, but it was time to head out on the next part of our adventure. We headed off to the airport to and caught our flight to Ho Chi Minh City.