Ahhh, Phu Quoc. Where to begin?

You know when you arrive somewhere new and you say, "okay, what is there to do here?"

(I suppose some more organized travelers ask this before they arrive...)

Well, we usually make a list of things we want to do/see and then try to do as many as we can, starting with our top choices.

In Phu Quoc, we did the entire list. We seriously got after it. 

Our six days on the island included touring a pepper farm, where we bit into peppercorns right off the vine, and a fish sauce factory, where we had to breathe through our mouths to avoid passing out. We checked out the beaches and the temples. Another stop was the Coconut Prison, turned into a museum after the end of the war. 

At night, we ate $1 chicken and rice with new friends and walked through the lively night market, stopping to check out the crazy variety of live seafood in fish tanks, awaiting a firey death by BBQ. 

We spent Christmas Eve scuba diving and capped off the night with a bonfire on the beach. Then, for Christmas Day, we rented an old Jeep and explored the north of the island. We ate fresh seafood, walked around a remote fishing village and spent an hour floating in the salty ocean water. It was the most un-Christmasy Christmas day ever, but totally awesome in its own way.