Phú Quốc, aka Phú Christmas. A result of a last minute decision to scurry as far away from a freezing Northern Vietnam/Laos as we could get. Escaping instead to a warm tropical island paradise, one with sandy beaches, warm water, and of course, comfy swim trunks replacing uncomfortable, restrictive, once-fashionable-turned-unfashionable (thigh rub is real) jeans.
Phú Quốc is a warm tropical getaway for much of the Southern Vietnam population – foreigners have also caught on, the secret dissappeared a long time ago, the island is well on its way to complete overdevelopment. We witnessed countless massive hotels and shopping centers in construction, usually in front of beaches that not long ago were highlighted on travel blogs as “hidden gems”. Give it two more years and you can probably Uber in a Tesla, shop for organic condensed milk at Whole Foods, and get Amazon Prime packages of emergency toilet paper air-dropped via drones (for when you find out that the “organic” milk isn’t actually organic).
Phú Quốc was our Vietnamese kindergarten, a place for tons of first experiences with the culture and cuisine that would set the foundation for an adventurous and carb-heavy month of traveling. I’ll take you through some of the experiences:
(1): Bánh mì
Evident in most of her Snapchats and Instagram posts, Emily usually frames me as being “obsessive” and “hopelessly in love with” Bánh mì. Well, friends… FAKE NEWS!
Nah just kidding, all the allegations are true. I’m in love. For those not in the know, Bánh mì is the term for a Vietnamese sandwich, traditionally served on a freshly baked French Baguette, served with a variety of ingredients that you’re better off not knowing about. The words “liver pate” have been permanently blacklisted from my mind, replaced with “totally non-mysterious goop that sure does taste great!” Enjoy these pictures that I’ve included for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to contact me if you too are in love with Bánh mì, and your significant other just doesn’t understand. I’m here for you.
(2): Vietnamese Drip Coffee & Condensed Milk
Wow. Wow. WOW! Talk about total caffeine buzz. Vietnamese coffee is incredibly thick and strong, usually served with condensed milk. We’ve had tons and tons (and tons) of coffee. Emily’s disciplined and drinks the coffee straight black, I, however, like to indulge… but it doesn’t take a medical expert to determine how bad all of this thick, sugary, delicious milk has been for my body.
The condensed milk has entered by bloodstream so frequently, it’s started taking over my viens and likely, my DNA (I’m thinking of that scene in Spider Man when Peter Parker gets bit by the spider and has his DNA sub-atomically altered – that’s happening in my bloodstream right now). Instead of reaping the benefits of evolution and giving me superpowers however, it’s made me a sluggish, often irratable individual with a conceringly slow heart rate. Even my blood feels thicker than average (seriously, the other day I scraped my arm on a nail and didn’t even bleed, it sealed up almost instantaneously, as I thought to myself: “