As the rain continued, but thankfully at a lighter pace than earlier this morning, we headed south of Duong Dong townn on a bumpy, boggy red-dirt road to a remote stretch of Long Beach that hosts a number of pearl farms.
Around 8kms from Duong Dong, the first major pearl farm you'll come across is Phu Quoc Pearls, an Australian-owned pearl farm. We were keen to visit this one as the guide book said it had a cafe serving New Zealand Ice-cream. Just our luck, it was closed!
Not to worry, the helpful Mr Van Khoa told us there were a few more farms down the road. Another 10 minutes drive and we were at a Japanese-owned pearl farm.
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| The Japanese-owned pearl farm and shop on Long Beach |
Out the front we were approached by one of the staff who demonstrated how pearls are farmed. Watching her get the pearl out of the oyster was fascinating. She did two oysters and gave the girls a pearl each.
Here's what we learned...for pearl farming a farmer needs oysters that are old enough and large enough to be "nucleated" to grow a pearl. Some farmers collect them from the sea, others grow their own (takes 1-2 years).
The next part of the process is for the farmer to nucleate the oyster with a "foreign" object. In the case of saltwater oysters on Phu Quoc that foreign object is a piece of thin plastic-like tissue prepared from a mother of pearl shell.
Once the oyster has the implant it is given a few weeks to recover from the surgery before being transferred back to the oyster bed in a cage where the farmers tend them for 2 to 3 years until the pearl develops.
Most pearl snobs would argue that natural pearls are better, but for a novice like me who couldn't tell the difference it doesn't really matter! I'm not a fan of pearls, I find them old fashioned, but the girls were fascintaed with the jewellery inside the store so we bought them a bracelet each for $150,000 VND (under $10!).
Heading back towards the resort the rain finally eased off so we decided to have a late lunch at one the restaurants just outside La Veranda's gates. The resort is on Tran Hung Dao Street, a paved side street that runs off the main road (also, confusingly, Tran Hung Dao). The side street houses a few of the cheaper, but popular hotels, such as Mai's Place and the Charm Hotel, as well as some rustic-looking restaurants serving up fresh Phu Quoc seafood.
We chose The Palm Tree. Set up in 2004, this is a family-run establishment that is at the owner's house (as so many of Vietnam's restaurants probably are!). Dining is in an outdoor covered pavilion. There are plenty of seafood dishes to choose from, as well as pork, beef and chicken. The most you'll pay for a dish is 80,000 VND (around US$4.20!) unless you choose the Hot Pot which is just under US$10.
While the setting is basic, and as long as you're not perturbed by the owner's mangy looking dog that comes close to your table begging for scraps, this is a great introdution to Phu Quoc's seafood for very little money. The best dish we ordered was a mackerel fish done in a tamarind sauce. Delicious!
