ON THE POND

June 2,007

Fishman here with an update on Phu Quoc Island.

If you happened to read the April edition of "on the pond" you may have noticed that the size of the island was estimated at 1,500 square kilometres. As is the case with most information coming from the mouths of fishermen, the size was grossly overestimated!

We now have a revised estimate of 600 km2.

You may also have noticed there was reference to pictures that didn't appear. This was caused by a technical problem that the fool and the fishman are still trying to rectify.

So the Bluewater fishing feature articles on toothpicking lures, and poaching eggs on your boat will not appear in this edition.

Where to stay

We also mentioned in the April edition that....

"Longbeach Ancient Village, the islands second 5 star Resort will officially open its doors in just a few months"

This will not be the case, as in a marvellous piece of speculation it's been sold to Malaysian interests.

The management team, along with the head chef, and F&B manager have all been dumped. If you're booked in here you should consider staying elsewhere.

Speaking of elsewhere why not stay at beautiful Ong Lang beach?

This is a secluded area on the west coast only 15 minutes from town, and has some lovely resorts.

Bo, Mango Bay, and Thanh Loi are all great places to stay. To find out more about these and other resorts, check out travelfish's Phu Quoc section online.

Chen La Resort

Will be the latest addition to Ong Lang beach when it opens in December.

This European managed 4 star resort will feature a large saltwater swimming pool, and a restaurant by the pond, and for the toey, each of the villas will have its own private balcony spa pool.   

Where to eat, drink, and be merry

Due to the downturn in European tourists, which is no doubt caused by the Spice Girls getting back together?

A number of restaurants are closed at the moment.

These include Eden Bar. (Can't say I'll miss the pizza with carrot and cauliflower)

The Palm Tree, Le Bistrot and The guy who cooked barbequed marinated chicken wings outside the soccer ground.

All will resume again around late September. We especially hope the chicken wing guy comes back sooner.

On a positive tack, Buddy ice cream and info café will be including toasted sandwiches and barbequed stuff to compliment it's eXcellent X cream.

For those not knowing too much about the island, Buddy's is also an excellent place to find out what to do and see. You can get info on tours, bike and jeep rental, fishing and snorkelling trips etc.

Other stuff

There's something in the sea air on the pond in October!

Or the seas are too rough for fishing, and there's nothing on telly.

3 of the dozen or so expats with wives on the pond had grommets in June.

Congratulations to all.

Anyone wanting to start a school please contact the fool.

1 Foreigner drowned while swimming in May, it was a calm sea and witnesses suspected nothing out of the ordinary. Those lunching nearby heard no cries for help or saw any signs of distress.

There have been no instances of dynamite fishing recorded so far this year.

The Dao Ngoc Dance club renovations continue, no one seems to know what it's going to be, let's hope it's a late night venue as the island needs a kick in the nightlife department.

Baited breath.

 New road; no progress

New airport; no progress

Ferry to Cambodia; no progress.

4 golf courses; no progress.

Thoroughbred racetrack; no progress.

Dishlicker racetrack; no progress.

Monorail; no progress.

The fishing scene

The guys from Bluewater fishing have been concentrating on the Snapper and Trevally of late, and are also starting to hook some small Cobia, of around 2 kilos.

They've put the lures away and say most of there catches are taken on squid and prawns

Dr Ken's old mate Murph (former manager of the Norfolk Hotel) is on the pond at the moment and the guy's have got some new lures, as well as some soft plastics to try on the local piscatorial varieties.

We'll let you know how they fared in the next edition, complete with photo's if the fool and yours truly can sort the glitch.

It's time to fish the bombie off the pearl farm as it's well known that the Cobia there get up to around 12 to 15 kilos. The problem is the guys with the AK 47s keep trying to get us to bugger off. More on that trip in the next edition.

And finally: the locals are getting quite good catches off snapper rocks.

They're taking fish of any size really! No throwbacks here. Really makes the old saying "old enough to bleed, old enough to eat" ring true.

They're catching fish of about 6cm size and keeping them.

By the way, Snapper rocks aren't named because you catch snapper there, it's because every morning the locals go out onto the rocks, newspaper in hand and snap one off!

That's all from me, keep your lines tight, and only keep what ya plan to eat.