Phu Quoc Island

On Phu Quoc, the anchovies are salted before they ever reach the shore. The moment the net comes up out of the water, right there on the boat, the fish are mixed with salt. That keeps the full freshness of the sea in them. So a day on the largest island in Vietnam should begin where those catches end up: the fish sauce vat houses of Dương Đông and An Thới.

Mornings in a vat house are very quiet. The anchovies and salt lie in wooden vats, and the wood must be bời lời or vên vên. They rest there for 12 to 18 months, with nothing else added. Only time does the work, slowly and without a sound. In 2012, Phu Quoc fish sauce became the first product of Vietnam to have its name protected in the European market. And in 2021, the craft of making fish sauce here was entered on the national list of intangible cultural heritage.

As the sun climbs higher, the whole island comes into view. Phu Quoc lies in the Gulf of Thailand, in the waters off the southwest of Vietnam. The main island alone covers about 561 square kilometers. Hills and mountains cover roughly three quarters of it, and the largest range is called Hàm Ninh. On July 1, 2025, Phu Quoc became a special administrative zone of An Giang province.

The northeast of the island is forest. Phu Quoc National Park spreads across 31,422 hectares. Its highest peak is Núi Chúa, which rises 603 meters. Under the canopy, sunlight slips through the gaps between the leaves, and the leaves rustle in the wind.

That forest is part of the Kiên Giang Biosphere Reserve, which UNESCO recognized in 2006. The reserve holds tropical forest, melaleuca forest, mangroves, coastal mudflats, coral reefs and seagrass beds. In other words, under the water around the island, a whole other world is growing. These waters are home to sea turtles, and to a rare animal that few people ever see with their own eyes: the dugong, which Vietnamese call the sea cow. Phu Quoc is one of two places in Vietnam where the dugong can be found.

The island also has a four-legged friend all its own. For hundreds of years, the people of Phu Quoc have hunted with a breed of dog that carries the island's name. The Phu Quoc dog has whorls of fur along its back. When it chases its prey, those whorls stand straight up, and the dog looks truly fierce. Its feet are also webbed like a duck's, so it is a very strong swimmer.

By noon, the road runs south to An Thới. Offshore lie the An Thới islands, a scatter of small isles. The largest is Hòn Thơm. A cable car links An Thới with Hòn Thơm. On the way, it passes over Hòn Rỏi and Hòn Dừa. The line is 7,899.9 meters long, just a little short of a full eight kilometers. On its opening day in 2018, Guinness World Records certified it as the longest non-stop three-rope cable car in the world.

A boat out to Hòn Thơm takes about 30 minutes, while the cable car needs only about 15. From the cabin, the blue sea spreads out on every side. The small islands rise here and there, like leaves floating on the water.

Also at An Thới is Bãi Sao, with white sand as fine as powder and water as clear as glass. Its name comes with two explanations. In Vietnamese, sao means star, and a starfish is a sao biển, a sea star. People say that long ago, each time the sun went down, starfish would appear on the sand. Others say the word simply means star, a name for a beach that sparkles.

Late in the afternoon, still in An Thới, there is a place where footsteps slow down on their own. It is the Phu Quoc Prison Camp historic site, also known as the Cây Dừa prison. The camp existed from June 1967 to March 1973. It covered 400 hectares, with nearly 500 buildings divided into 12 sections. In all, it recorded about 40,000 detentions of prisoners of war. In 2014, the site was ranked a Special National Monument. This is a place of remembrance. Standing before the rows of cells that remain, people understand that history is never far away.

As the sun sinks toward the sea, the road turns back north to Dương Đông. On a rocky outcrop facing the sea stands Dinh Cậu, also called the shrine of the Dragon King. The outcrop was shaped by nature into what looks like a small, oddly formed mountain, with waves breaking around its foot. People say the shrine has stood here for more than 300 years. They date it to the 17th century, when the first people from central Vietnam came to the island to make a life. The islanders regard it as a sacred place. Every year, on the 15th and 16th days of the tenth lunar month, the Dinh Cậu festival is held. At sunset, the rock stands dark against the sky, like an old man still gazing out to sea.

Once night has fully fallen, the center of Dương Đông seems to wake a second time, with its night market. The lights blaze, the pans sizzle, and talk and laughter fill the air. Scallops, shrimp, squid and oysters are grilled right in front of the customers. One corner of the market glitters with pearls, the gems Phu Quoc is famous for. Next to them sit bags of peppercorns and, of course, bottles of fish sauce.

Late in the night, the market slowly empties. Yet in the vat houses of Dương Đông and An Thới, the anchovies and salt still lie quietly inside their wooden vats, ripening for one more day. Then the time will come for a new net to be hauled up in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand, and fish that have just left the water will meet the salt.