A legendary ice cream café

The Kem Tràng Tiền is more than just a peripheral, easy to miss ice cream café in Duong Dong. The franchise comes from Hanoi, where the original café is still around and seems to be a place of pilgrimage to Hanoi residents. For years, it was the only place to buy ice cream in Hanoi and there was only one kind - made from the mung bean. Today, Kem Tràng Tiền offers a variety of ice cream, but the mung bean popsicle as well as another old kind, based on fresh rice and coconut, is still available and definitely worth a try.

Kem Tràng Tiền is located just outside the Duong Dong city center on 47 Tran Hung Dao.

Introduction!

So we've been on Phu Quoc for 3 weeks now! It's my first time here, my wife was here 2009 as well. We decided to post on this blog mostly to remember and comment on the stuff we experience, and hopefully to guide other visitors to the best places.

The basics - we're renting a room at Bon Bon Bungalows and despite the many construction sites along the street we love it. It's run by a bunch of sweet young people who always go out of their way to keep guests happy. We threw a party with them last week and went along their private snorkeling tour the next day - they're so much fun!

We're travelling by motorcycle most of the time, traffic on Phu Quoc is nothing compared to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh and we feel pretty safe. We started with a pretty old bike and payed a million dong per week, but are upgrading tomorrow to a brand new bike and will pay 8 million dong for the remaining 7 weeks.

If you prefer taxi it's cheap and safe, you pay something like 14k dong per kilometer. They only charge per kilometer and the driver will happily wait if you're away for a while and need him again.

Finally a few words about the island itself. You've seen the pictures, you've checked out the climate data - but what's the experience?

First of all, Phu Quoc is growing. My wife told me that when she was here 8 years ago, the roads were bumpy dirt roads. Today,  many roads are 2 lane highways or at least asphalted. Wherever you look, construction is underway - some projects are incredibly large.

Is Phu Quoc "touristy"? No. There are plenty of resorts, restaurants, tour companies etc targeting tourists but the absolute majority of the island is very, very "native". We'll write about the main city, Duong Dong, later but in summary there is little there aimed at tourists except for the night market.

Thanks for reading! Let us know if you want specific information!