The clear waters of Bai Sao Beach

I first visited Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam three years ago. In addition to the motorbiking, the forest, the friendly people and the night squid fishing, one of the most memorable features of the island was Bai Sao Beach located in its southeast corner. After visiting Phu Quoc for a second time last March I can confirm that Bai Sao Beach is still the best beach I’ve ever been to in Vietnam. That’s even after adding a couple of beaches to my list since that first visit. I’ve since been to Con Dao Island and have tried beaches that were new to me like the one near Hoi An and, most recently, Jungle Beach, just north of Nha Trang.

So, what is it exactly that makes Bai Sao so great? Well, the beach is in the form of a cape where the water is knee deep, extending quite some distance from the shoreline. That shoreline itself is lined with an array of trees and other greenery that appears as lush as the water is refreshing. That water is, as they say, as warm as bath water. The almost complete lack of any man made structures within sight of the beach is also a plus since there are no hotels, resorts, signage or other touristy indications on this beach which is already somewhat out of the way, requiring some effort to reach. All of these things could justify Bai Sao’s standing as a fabulous beach but they wouldn’t necessarily position it as a clear winner.

Powdery Sand on Bai Sao Beach

However, beyond all of that, the real key to Bai Sao’s perfection is its sand. The sand here is barely a shade away from being pure white which certainly brightens up the overall look of the beach. However, the real secret is in the sand’s texture. The best way to describe the consistency of the sand is to liken it to powdered sugar. It’s so fine and soft and if you move your foot over the sand in a quick wiping motion you can actually hear the sand squeak beneath your foot. Yeah, that’s right, the sand makes a squeaking noise that’s actually quite surprising. So, what does squeaking have to do with a beach’s beauty? The sand when dry is like soft and beautiful powdered sugar. But once the water hits the sand the entire sandy beach turns into a unified solid. The grains of sand are so fine that there’s no air or space between them and the wet sand is as smooth, flat and as hard as a sheet of rock. This is not the kind of beach where your foot sinks into the sand when the waves roll in. The sand doesn’t give way at all because it’s packed so tightly together.

Bai Sao is not a completely still body of water, in fact, there are constant waves rolling in, although small to medium sized ones. However, with the wet sand that hard the beach completely resists the tendency waves have to churn up the sand, making the water sandy and murky. Instead, the effect is pretty amazing and you end up with perfectly clear sea water no matter how far out you go and regardless of the wave action all around you. Between the warm, ever-clear waters, the stunning view and the beach’s secluded nature, and the fact that you’re already on a beautiful island in the first place, Bai Sao is definitely my favorite beach in Vietnam.

I realize that picking a single “Best Beach in Vietnam” may indeed be a bold claim. If any of you have another beach in mind to fit that title then I would really like to hear from you and to learn about that beach. I’ll need some tips for other beaches to check out on my next trip to Vietnam.

I’ve just added high res images of Phu Quoc Island, including Bai Sao Beach!

As if I had suddenly been kidnapped in the midst of all of the fun, I disappeared from my own blog sometime around mid-February, while in Vietnam. I wasn’t kidnapped and nobody would’ve offered any substantial amount of money for me anyway. Nothing bad happened at all. On the contrary, everything good happened and I simply had no time to catch up and write about it all. But Son of Asia is an ongoing exploration of Asia and that’s why it still continues even though I’m back in New York City and have been for the past four months now. Life is so busy! I could probably continue to post a backlog photos, videos and writings from the past decade of trips to Asia (I do actually have a backlog).

Now that I’ve been back home for a while I’ve had some time to miss traveling in Asia. Some of my friends have asked me, “When are you coming back?” I don’t know what to tell them. For the past five years I’ve assumed that I would return every year. For the first time in a while, I’m not sure what my plan is in terms of my next trip to Asia. How does one surpass a great three months vacationing and working from Vietnam? Well, I can probably think of a few ways to do that… and so I am now. I know Asia is still out there and most of “Asia” I haven’t even seen yet. I’m just taking a step back and planning my next attack!

Bun Bo Hue

Before leaving for Con Dao and Malaysia I spent several days just getting set up from my new home in Saigon. I’m staying in a charming 3 story house on Nguyen Thanh Y street, just near Dien Bien Phu Street but still within the border of District 1. Somewhere between 6 and 7am I’m always tempted to venture out into the alley and surrounding streets to get some food and to see what’s going on in the hood at that hour. I’ve already posted some photos from those early Saigon mornings, including the great food I’ve been eating.
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I’ve just posted 4 new photo albums from visit to Con Dao Island, off the coast of Vietnam.

Con Dao, 2011 - Day 1

Con Dao, 2011 - Day 2

Con Dao, 2011 - Day 3

Con Dao, 2011 - Day 4

Kevin's bike in District 1

I’ve posted 5 new photos albums including:

Early Morning in Saigon,

Seafood in District 10, Saigon

Saigon at Night, 2011

Damien & Nico’s Birthday BBQ

Saigon 2011.

I originally planned to spend a month in Indonesia as described in prior posts. However, there will be no Indonesia for me at all on this trip. I was deterred by the weather reports online which called for rain every day in Manado, one of the main cities in Sulawesi, the island I planned to visit. I checked out the forecast in Bali as a backup plan but it looked very similar. Sometimes the weather looks rainy but in many parts of the world but that just means that it will rain for an hour or two in the afternoon and, apart from that, it’s otherwise very sunny and pleasant. However, when I checked the hourly forecast about two weeks before my trip began, I noticed that they called for rain nearly every hour of the day in Manado. I decided not to risk it and to change plans. Today, I heard from a fellow traveler that her friends reported very nice weather with little rain on Sulawesi and also Bali. I suppose that’s too bad but I’m not very bummed about it. It’s still not the ideal season to visit Indonesia and it’s such a big country with so much to see and do that I can easily plan another trip there for a longer period of time, in the future.

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Tet in Austin, 2011

Due to a backlog of writing and photo processing I’m just getting around to posting albums now. I’ll soon be posting more links to photos albums from prior weeks of the trip.

The first album, chronologically, includes new photos of a lovely Tet celebration during my week in Austin, TX. Festivities took place in a shopping center parking lot, not the most typical setting, but perhaps it is actually typical for Vietnamese communities in various parts of the US, outside of the major cities. In any case, the celebration was very colorful!

After three days in a Kuala Lumpur, recovering from illness, I’m now on the road again. Traveling, at least my own, has certainly evolved a lot since the days before Internet and cellphones. I’m now typing this post from my MacbookPro while riding in a modern, air-conditioned bus between Kuala Lumpur and Melaka. True, there’s no wifi on the bus (yet) but I’ve been reading up on my next destination via a PDF copy of a Lonely Planet Malaysia book, whose Melaka chapter I purchased and downloaded to my laptop just before leaving Vietnam.
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Kevin and his blue painting

My good friend, Vannitha, sent me a link to the Facebook page for LiFest, a week long festival of art, photography, music, fashion and culture to benefit handicapped kids in the Eastern Malaysian state of Kelantan. It sounded like the perfect way to experience something new for my second, brief, visit to Kuala Lumpur.
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