First Time In Phu Quoc Vietnam, We Were NOT Welcome Here! (The Reality of Most Popular Island)

It's reminding me of like some sort of American Caribbean island or something. I'm a bit in shock. Yeah, he was just like looking at me and shaking his head saying no. Do they like, do they want us here? We've just tried to order. It's a 30-minute wait just for one coffee. Because I came and asked for an iced latte, the guy just looked at me like dead in the eyes, went no and then just stared at me. But we've been to Vietnam before, we don't remember that actually. To me it was like a little bit rude how she was talking. Good morning and welcome to Phu Quoc island here in Vietnam. Welcome back to the channel. Welcome back to a brand new video. Hope you're doing well watching today. And we are really excited to take you along on today's video. Because honestly, often when we film these vlogs we know what to expect from a place. We've done a lot of research. We maybe have been before. We've watched videos on it. This place is totally new to us. So in today's video you're going to be seeing a full review on this entire place. Well as much as we can do in a day. It is a quite a big island. And just to see what it's like. Because I honestly, I didn't even know this place existed until we booked our flights here. So we've just come from Taipei in Taiwan yesterday. And we were on Skyscanner looking for the next flight to go to on our Asia trip. And this just came up as a good option. I'd never heard of it. We looked it up. We did some research. And it looked like this pocket of paradise just off the coast of Vietnam. And I don't know how but I'd honestly never heard of this place before. So really excited to be here exploring somewhere totally new. And if you're new around here, my name's Lucy. My partner is George. We've got our two kids Koda and Remi who are four and nearly one years old. And we're going to show you what it's like staying here as a family. We're getting straight in a taxi this morning and heading out to stop number one. Which is somewhere that looks kind of just from pictures. It's almost like surreal. It looks like a different country and just not what you would expect to see when you think of like a Vietnamese island. To me it would be like focused around nature and the ocean and everything. But this looks like something from a film, something from a movie. So I'm really excited to see it today. See if it looks like the pictures. And then we've got some more exploring plans after that. So yeah, welcome back to the video. If you are new around here, please don't forget to hit the subscribe button. You can follow us over on Instagram as well for more like updates on what we're up to. But for now, we were going to book a Grab. But someone came up to us in the hotel and offered us a better price than Grab. So we've gone for it. It seems like a bit of a thing here. We were at the airport yesterday and there were a lot of people with Grab on their phones. It's like the word Grab saying, can I take you instead? So I don't know if that's like a thing or if they are with Grab. Or if it's separate to Grab and they're saying it's like Grab. It's separate to Grab. This one's separate to Grab. The guys at the airport had like a Grab logo. But that could just be a few images. Maybe, we don't know. But I literally opened Grab, the second I opened Grab sat here. She appeared. She was like, where are you going? She's the genie. But the price is better and the car is bigger. So let's see. Let's do it. Are they here? Yeah, she said the car's here. Oh, great. Let's go, guys. So we only arrived last night. We had our first night's sleep here and woke up in this gorgeous, beautiful kind of paradise. I'm good. Probably should check with the kids. Does anyone need the toilet? What do you think? When we were driving in, it almost feels like we're at the start of something here. Driving in, there's a lot of building works either side of the road. It was... Thank you so much. Thank you. There's a lot of building works. It was basically like a building site, driving from the airport to our hotel. There is so much development going on here by the looks of it. And we said how rare it is these days that you can almost be somewhere at the start of like the big tourism boom. Yeah, getting in our cheaper car alternative. Nice big car. She was like, we have a bigger car. Air-conditioned, you'll be more comfortable. So yeah, we saved... I mean, the journey's only about £12 in English money, but we saved maybe £4 or £5. £12 in English money? Yes, £12 in English money. Pounds is English money. Yes. Is that like a weird way to say it? £12? It doesn't sound right. As Lucy said, we haven't done crazy amounts of research before coming here. We watched a couple of videos and did a little chatty-patty, of course. It seems like there's two main areas, one north and one south. We're kind of staying in the middle. So maybe that's why it kind of looks like it's at the start of the development here. So we were just kind of on these roads and then the resort is just back there. So driving in, our first impressions were kind of like, okay, how interesting to be. And a lot of the comments and stuff on YouTube were saying, yeah, this is the place, this is where people are starting to come. And at the breakfast buffet just now, there's a lot of Western tourists. And Australians as well. You can see we just left the hotel and there's all this kind of work going on at the side of this road. And before booking a flight and booking the hotel and arranging the trip, it's actually somewhere that we hadn't heard of in Vietnam. And we told a few friends back home that we were going here. They hadn't heard of it either. So could this be the new undiscovered gem, potentially? Let's see. This is surreal. We're driving through a very local province looking place. People selling coconuts on the street, palm trees, really tropical island feeling. And then suddenly it's reminding me of some sort of American or Caribbean island or something with these bright coloured buildings all built up. There's these bizarre, what are these, little golf buggies with big car fronts on them. It's like, I'm a bit in shock. Honestly, both. We just turned one road and then we were like, hang on. It's surreal. It's just different. We just haven't seen anything like this, especially not on an island like this. Anyway, we're going to go in now. It's like it's just been put here, isn't it? It's like a theme park world or something, you know, the PlayStation game. Yeah, it's literally like that. It's amazing. Okay, we're going to get in. Also, the drive here was basically one main road going from the middle of the island right up to the north and things did not change. It wasn't the fact at first we thought it was like just because we were around the airport that it was a lot of building sites. But pretty much the whole way along was building sites either side. There is going to be so much development on this island. We need to come back in like 10 years. It is going to look completely different. Beautiful island, by the way. Really, really lovely, gorgeous green scenery. And I hope some of that isn't lost with all this building going on. But this, I'm telling you now, this is going to be a different place in five to 10 years. The tourism is obviously amazing for jobs and things. But is it like a positive for the locals? If you're a local watching this, let us know. Is it amazing that this is happening here for you or is it not so good? I guess it's a positive, right? For jobs and revenue and tourism. It must be. It's always that balance of losing nature for this versus obviously income for the island. And I'm sure this brings in a lot of tourists. Because it seems busy already and it's only 10.30 in the morning. And this place, things open at 8am here. I was thinking, are we going to be here too early? It seems it's like Vegas or something, like open at all times. It's crazy. Okay, should we go and explore? Is that a mango on the floor? What? I saw it in the corner of my eye. No way, is that a mango? That looks like a mango. Yeah, that is a mango that's been eaten by bugs. Not for us. I wasn't planning on eating it. Okay, what? Wow, it's like a river here. It's like a canal, like Venice type thing. Is that what they're trying to do? Oh, there's gondolas. Okay, maybe that's what they're trying to do. Do you know what you remind me of? What? Curacao. Oh, yeah. In the Caribbean, we went on a cruise in 2016. All the colourful buildings. Yeah, that's so true. I'm so confused. I'm so like, imagine you were just plonked here and you look this way. And then you'd guess where you were. You'd say Europe, right? Yes, I suppose. Apart from all the Vietnamese writing. Yeah, I think so. Or the US somewhere, I don't know. Yeah, US or Europe. First mission for me. If you watch the channel, you know what I'm going to say. Coffee. We're going to try and pick up a coffee. There's a place here called Highland Coffee. Here it is, Highland Coffee. Let's try and get a little iced latte. Lucy just said it's the least buggy friendly place she's ever been to. That's incorrect. There was another place we went. Where was it? Somewhere we couldn't walk at all. Yeah, there's a lot of steps. Here we are, Highland Coffee. Let's see how the coffee is here. Very, very hot day today. It's like 32 degrees. Seems like a lot of people are in here escaping the heat a little bit, getting in the air conditioning. It feels like... It's not too humid, but very hot. Okay, so we're not getting a coffee here. We've just tried to order. And it's a 30-minute wait just for one coffee. And it's not busy in here. I wasn't sure if I was misunderstanding. So I got Google Translate and spoke. And they were like, yeah, it's 30 minutes just for one iced coffee. Which I'm still not sure if I've misunderstood that because everyone here has a drink. But we're going to try and find another coffee shop anyway. So let's go. Okay, finally got my coffee. Okay, that's super sweet. They've added a lot of sugar into that. That is that Vietnamese coffee taste that I remember. I actually forgot how sweet they make it. Actually, I couldn't drink this like every single day. It'd just be way too sweet. But as a one-off in the sunshine, in the heat, that is delicious. And I didn't have to wait 30 minutes. Also quickly learning that we have to be super specific with the language because I came and asked for an iced latte. The guy just looked at me like... Then I just went, no. And then just stared at me. I was like, oh, okay. Can I have like an iced coffee with milk? No. I was like, okay. And they just pointed at the menu. And the menu basically says white coffee. No, it says black coffee or milk coffee. I know, then I tried to explain. I was like, can I just have like espresso, milk and ice? And he's like, no. So I pointed at the menu. I was like, ah, milk coffee please, milk coffee. He's like, nodded, okay, okay. So he went away and made a milk coffee. Then I forgot they put, yeah, they make it super sweet. So interesting coffee experience so far. Tastes really good here. That's nice. Highlands coffee, still not sure. Comment below if I got that wrong or if that's normal. I've never been to any coffee shop in the world where it's 30 minute wait. But now we can crack on. We've cooled down slightly. I say we've cooled down, I still feel very hot. We've cooled down a little bit. There's lots of massage places and then like cocktail bars and stuff. I guess this place is quite lively at night time. And again, another point for the stroller friendliness. This is a big old ridge that we'd quite like to cross. No, it's all steps. There's no ramps, which is a bit unusual, I have to say. Things have escalated. Yeah, in a strange turn of events, we are now in a teddy bear museum. The biggest builder here that just stood out to us with this huge bear out the front. Like air conditioning. Turns out we're like air conditioning. Walk in, wander up, what is this place, figure it out. It's a teddy bear museum. £18, 670,000 Vietnamese Dong for us all to go in. 20 minutes in the aircon, something fun for Koda to do, walk around. Let's see, see what this is about. Okay, we are in. These teddy bears are roasting a chicken. By the looks of it, it's quite cool actually. I've never seen anything like this. It's very unique. All different countries way. We went there back in the day, Lucy and I before kids. Got some Egyptian teddy bears here. It's hard to believe that teddy bears helped build the pyramids, isn't it? Just in here, they've got an antique teddy bear collection. And just how different and a little bit creepy did teddy bears look back in the day? These were designed for kids, right? They're just a bit... Look at the eyes on that one. They just look so old, bless them. I mean, yeah. Something quite nice about older teddy bears, they look quite well made and stuff. But less on that. I mean, these days they've got those like softer, more cartoony looks to them. Did not think I'd be speaking so much about teddy bears in this vlog. But here we are, Fuquok, a world of wonders. I really hope there's teddy bears in the next bit. There should be. And there will be. I think there will be, yeah. What is that? I love it. I think we need to do some research. Is there a reason there's a teddy bear museum here? Like, is there like a reason behind it? We're just thinking it's quite random. But maybe teddy bears are famous here or something. Google, why is there a teddy bear museum in Grand World? Lucy just said she's a little bit creeped out by like the life-size bears. Yeah, but I don't mind them being life-size. Like behind you, cute. Like here. Yeah, but it's a little bit shorter. No, no, I don't mean the height. Because that's like a proportion of a teddy bear. I think it's the body. This is the proportion of a human with a teddy bear head. Yes, the body shape, isn't it? Freaking me out. Afternoon, ladies. Lovely dresses though. Off to the races. Okay, we've come to this kids' fair. And it's actually great for the kids. I mean, and for George, it seems. Where are the kids? I'm trying, I'm not sure. But I'm trying to hit this target on the teddy bear. The monkey? The monkey, that's it. In Grand World. Yeah, where are you? What do you mean, come in? Where are you going? What is this? This is lovely, isn't it? Behind the whole thing. What do you mean, come in? I don't want to come in. Come in. Careful mate, is that way? Oh my goodness, he's through his gap. Careful, don't get stuck. I'm not going to be able to get through there. So we do quite a lot of full days out, especially when we're traveling. And there's one thing that's particularly annoying to forget. And no, it's not the snacks for the kids. Although forgetting those can end very badly too. Because once we're out for the full day, your phone is being used for directions, filming, taking photos, messages, everything, emails. And suddenly it's on 8% when you still have hours left. So this is the INU Outdoor Rugged Power Bank. It's the sort of thing we now try to keep in the bag whenever we're heading out. It has a 10,000 milliamp battery, up to 45 watt fast charging. And it's built to cope with water, dust and everyday kind of knocks. This thing's rugged. It's also small enough to clip onto a backpack or bag. And it has a built-in light, which is handy. Including a flashing red SOS mode, a white light and a red light. The link is in the description. Go and check it out. Okay, out of the Teddy Bear Museum and into Cafe Green. This place is very well rated and it's on the corner of the museum. However, we have not been able to order exactly what we want. They had some stuff that was out of stock. Like not really. Lucy went up to order. They do smoothie bowls here and we really want to try a smoothie bowl. But they're out of stock of a lot of things. So we've ordered what they did have, which was a croffle. Which is a croissant roffle? No, a croissant waffle, I want to say. Did you order any shakes or drinks or anything like that? We're actually moving seats because it's a lot cooler around the corner. And Coda just had a really nice interaction with a family here. Who I think were Vietnamese. Oh yes, nice. Thank you so much. Can I have some mango? Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Are you happy for your sentence? Well, let me cut in with my sentence and then you can complete yours in a minute. Just coconut taste test. Vlogging is sometimes challenging with two children traveling around the world. Anyway, where was I? Coda had a very nice interaction with a local family. Well, I think they were Vietnamese. From what I could hear them talking, it sounded like Vietnamese. Anyway, they had a Pokemon fan. They had a Pikachu fan. And Coda is absolutely obsessed with Pokemon. He's like, I need to show them my Crocs. He's got new Pokemon things on his Crocs. And he went over and they were like really showing their kids and stuff. And then they turned the fan over to Coda's face and he was being called out. He just stood there getting fanned. So that was nice. The coffee here is really nice. Tasty. Iced latte. Asked them to remove the sugar this time just because I'm having like multiple in a day. It's a lot of sweetness in the Vietnamese coffee. That tastes great. The mango is delicious here. Really, really sweet mango. And we got the croffle waffle thing, which is tasty as well. Staff here are really nice. We're using Google Translate a lot here. We realized there's definitely a barrier. But everyone instantly has Google Translate open on their phones. And we just speak through that and it works really well. So really, really good experience here. Which is a blessing. We got a fresh coconut. Nini said fresh buko. We've been in the Philippines for a long time just now. Need to find out what it's called in Vietnam. He's literally using a straw. That's the cutest thing I've ever seen. You need to do it, Remy. Show Dada. Is it nice? I've seen babies can have coconut, right? Yeah. I know you need it. Good boy. Well done, Rems. Is it actually coming up? Yeah, look. Watch. Oh yeah. Go on, Remy. Yeah, well done. Oh yeah, that's so cute. And all back in again. And all back in. Yeah, there, yeah, yeah. We're actually glad we had a really nice experience here because... Oh, the next buzzer is there. We're actually glad we had a really nice experience here because the first part of this day, like with that coffee shop this morning, and then the next guy who was just like looking at me and shaking his head saying no. I was like, oh, do they want us here? We felt... The first girl was like, to me, seemed slightly rude. I don't know if I'm misunderstanding some of the mannerisms or like if it's slightly different. But we've been to Vietnam before. We don't remember that. To me, it was like a little bit rude how she was talking because it's completely opposite to how these guys are here. And then we had that experience and then it kind of felt like a few other interactions that we didn't film almost felt like they people maybe didn't want us here. I don't know. Or it's hard because we travel all the time. We have, if you watch the channel, we have vastly positive experiences. We always give very honest and genuine reviews or not even reviews, just we film our day. Whatever happens in our day, we film it and we talk about it. That's what we do. And yeah, we had a few experiences this morning that were kind of not the warmest. There was nothing like standout that was like, oh, the people were really like super friendly here or they really made us feel welcome. It just kind of didn't happen in the first part of the day. But I have to say this place has turned that around. So just interesting. Yeah, I don't know. I don't mind speaking negatively. But you either feel welcome somewhere or you don't. And when we first got here, it felt a bit like maybe, I don't know. Maybe this is a place for Vietnamese tourists more than people. I don't know. I don't know if they like wanting the Western flow of people here or whether they see that as a negative. We really obviously don't know. And it's so hard. I really hate to say it as well. To get... But when we came to Vietnam before, we were... We went to... We did. Went to Hanoi. Went to Hoi An. Went to Hue. All the H's. And Ho Chi Minh. All the H's. Yeah, we went to loads of great places and had a really great time. And we are here for just one day. It's a... And it's... You can't say... You can't generalize a whole place just by a few interactions with a few individuals. But it's just what happened. Just how we felt. But this is very nice right now. I'm actually going to try some of this coconut, even if Remy has deposited... Ew, don't use that word. It's horrible. That's sweet. That is really sweet, but really nice. It's because it's like young coconut. It's older, right? It's a darker colour. Oh, it's slightly darker. Yeah, very nice. Make the most of this kind of stuff, guys. We can't get mango like this in the UK. We can't get coconut like this in the UK. So all the way along these streets, they kind of have different stores and things. And then classic scooters all lined up. Vietnam is full of scooters. I remember when we were in, I think it was Ho Chi Minh. And we were trying to cross the road for the first time. And you just have to walk out. It was the first time Lucy and I had experienced that. Do you remember? I remembered it here. I assume it's the same rule. I sort of would walk out. You can just... It's a busy, busy road of traffic, scooters, scooters. And you can just walk and they will go around you. It is scary the first time, but it does kind of work. Okay, these guys have checked out one of the stores along here. This is Le Maison de Dinor CX. CS68. 35,000 what? I mean, what did you get for... Let me start that again. Dollars. 35,000 US dollars. Nice. Have you got an ice cream? Thank you. What ice cream did you get, mate? Oh, it's a Walls. Very nice. Back in our car now. And heading back towards the hotel. We're going through town here. This seems to be like a town that people go to. A lot of tourists walking around. A lot of coffee shops. A lot... It looks really nice here. A lot of spas and massage places. There's a lot of Korean stuff. I've seen Korean nail places. Korean... Not so much restaurants, but... How cool is this, mate? Got some loud music. Oh, don't worry. You can get croc sweat. It's all good. Wow, the vibes are nice here. It feels like a beach club kind of thing. It is boiling hot. Really, really, really hot. It feels hotter than it was a couple of hours ago. And it's 4.30 p.m. Wow. We've got a nice spot here. Oh, you already ordered me a beer. Oh, no. Someone's old bottle. No, I'm good. I'm good. So I've got like a live saxophone player playing on the little middle bit behind us just here. It's a really nice atmosphere down here. And I cannot believe how hot the pool is. When I say it's a warm pool, I mean it's actually hot to get into. You'd want a bath at this temperature. It's a bit weird because it's so hot outside. You kind of want to cool down. But equally, just getting into a pool and it just being comfortable instantly, there's none of that, oh, it's a bit cold. That is really, really nice, really relaxing. It feels like a spa pool, but on like a grand scale. It's lovely. There is a beach down here where apparently sunset is amazing. So we're going to be getting some burgers at a place called The Shack, a little restaurant here later on. Have some burgers as the sun sets. I'm really looking forward to it. We've kind of accidentally skipped lunch today because we originally were going to have food at that green cafe, but there was only like the sort of sweet stuff and the drinks available. So we've kind of had ice cream for lunch, which wasn't the plan, but it was great. But yeah, looking forward to some actual food food now. Yeah, going to head down soon to The Shack, watch sunset and just enjoy. But it's so nice. It's just really relaxing. There's loads of people are enjoying and it feels like a lot of sort of calmness here with all the palm trees above our heads and stuff. And we've had such a chaotic time travelling recently in and out of airports and hopping on flights and buses and vans and taxis and boats and all of that. Having this time just to chill as a family is really, really nice. And Coda is so good at swimming now. He's literally just like doing lengths without a float. He's amazing. I don't know. I'm so proud of him coming on to do that. And like the fact that he's got that skill for life now. So great. George is playing catch by himself. I'm not sure of a lonely sport. Remi's not quite old enough to catch the ball yet. So solo game of catch. Okay, we just ordered some food, didn't we? We got some burgers on the way. Met the chef here, Australian guy. Really, really nice. Looking forward to that. They're famous for their burgers here, which is great news for me, for Coda, for Lucy. We love our burgers, don't we? Coda cut his finger. That's why he's holding out. I know. Well, it cut a little bit, didn't it? And it was his middle finger. So yeah, that one there. That one right there. That one. Bless him. So you're doing so well, mate. You've been so brave. But we're just walking down now to the beach. Those are okay, aren't they? Wow, Coda, this beach. These are all my middle fingers. That one, that one, that one. Oh, they're all your middle fingers. Got it. Oh my, Coda, look at the beach. Guys, this is a little bit stunning. It's crazy, isn't it? I know, right? And we're also going to have sunset right here. Oh, the soft sand. This is amazing. Oh, Remy wants to high five. High five, Remy. He's so into high five at the moment. It's so cute. Isn't that funny? It's so cool, isn't it? I really wasn't expecting that. I think because our room is tucked away in loads of trees. True, it's hidden away. You don't see this. No. Even at the lobby when you're high up, you don't see down to the beach. And then suddenly it's like, oh right, there's a nice beach at the hotel. And it's all private, just for guests. Super nice. Lovely. When we came to Vietnam years ago, we really didn't go to any beaches from memory. Just kind of stayed city-based. And we did some river tours from memory and some cooking stuff, I want to say. This is going back eight years ago. So my memory is a little hazy, which is why it's good that we vlog. Because I can just search Juicy Vlog Vietnam. Previous younger me will pop up. And I can watch that day back. That's one of the reasons, well, it's literally the main reason we love vlogging so much. Because in 10 years time, I can watch this video and remember this. This moment right here in Phu Quoc. A place we hadn't heard of a couple of weeks ago. And now we are here on this amazing beach. Looking forward to dinner. How special is this? As a family, with the boys. Look at that. High five. Okay, burger has arrived. It looks so good. Bacon, it's Wagyu beef from Australia. Amazing. And so another day draws to a close. A great day. An interesting day in Phu Quoc. I feel like we've had all kinds of experiences today. Mainly positive. Some interesting. When you travel, these things become the memories. The 30-minute wait in the coffee shop will stick in my mind. Not to bag on about that. But the day picked up and we enjoyed a beautiful dinner. Really, really nice food here. Sunset was lovely. And just this beach setting in this pool here was really, really nice. So we are looking forward to spending a little bit more time on the island. We have some more videos coming. So if you're new around here, please consider subscribing. It really helps us out. If you enjoy the channel, please give the video a thumbs up if you watched till this point. And if you did watch till this point, you're in an exclusive club on the channel. The End of Vlog Club. Please comment End of Vlog Club so we know who our top audience are and who the top audience are. That sounds so clinical. Real people. Thank you so much for watching. We do appreciate it. We'll see in the next vlog very, very soon. From Phu Quoc in another video very, very soon. Bye-bye.