new horizons
The word on Phu Quoc is that it’s Phuket 30-plus years ago, a relatively undeveloped island paradise that Westerners are only beginning to discover. But for Vietnamese holidaymakers, its balmy, palm-fringed beaches and thickly jungled ridges have long defined ‘getting away from it all’.
Some 40 kilometres off the south-west corner of the Vietnamese mainland that curls below Cambodia, heart-shaped Phu Quoc is the largest island (48 kilometres by 28 kilometres) in the Gulf of Thailand, not significantly smaller than Singapore in area but with less than two per cent of the population. It’s a laid-back, beachy retreat where fishing is second only to tourism in the local economy.
Currently 80 per cent of visitors are domestic and
