with high coral density, and a great shallow dive spot for
beginners, it’s in danger of being trampled to death.
Reefs dot the west coast, actually. In a fit of lucky
timing, the über-tranquil Fusion Resort Phu Quoc
discovered its own house reef while I was staying there.
Following up on aerial drone footage he took himself,
general manager Peter Neto had called the guys at Flipper
to come investigate some dark spots in the sea. Turned out
there was a relatively healthy 100-by-300-meter reef,
reachable by kayak. Because the equipment was already
there, Forain took me out for a dive; it was so shallow that
in many spots I could feel the sun shining through the
water. We spotted juvenile barracuda, giant pufferfish,
snapper, groupers and nudibranchs.
There’s something so gratifying about not having to
take a boat to a dive site. Especially when you can shed
your tank on the shore and head straight for a massage
table. Fusion Resorts include all spa therapies in the
nightly rate, and at this one the treatment rooms encircle a
verdant black-pepper garden. Their breakfast anytime/
anywhere policy is agreeable for late-sleepers (hello!), or
those who just can’t bear to leave the sanctity of their villas
(me again), all of which come with a private pool. My villa
was tucked in a river bend, with landscaped hillocks on
either side providing unobtrusive privacy. It’s the kind of
place you could envision as a vacation home.
Neto, who has a long, wide shoreline to protect, is a key
player organizing what they’re calling a “green cham” for
lack of a better term—a chamber of commerce made up of
the top-end hotels to develop and push environmentally
friendly practices. They’re working with W WF, who has
several projects on the island, including creating waste-
management and fishing-quota systems in villages near
blue-crab breeding areas; teaching schoolkids about the
harms of single-use plastics and the money they can make
recycling; and implementing discounts at businesses if
you bring your own cup. “When I approached street
vendors, they looked at me like I was an alien who’d
dropped from the sky,” W WF junior project officer Hoang
Minh Trang told me. “What? Get rid of single-use plastics?”
To be sure, educating the local population is a major
hurdle. One morning heading out for a dive from An-Thoi
Pier, I watched a tourist boat pull in and dump a garbage
bag full of plastic bottles into the sea. The blatant act
astonished me, but then I learned there are no trash bins
at the marina, and no one designated to pick them up
anyway. “There are so many different ways to kill coral,”
Forain said. “If the Chinese liked to
eat plastic, the world would be a
pristine place.” Then again, we
could all use more educating. My
friend, who I won’t name for
reasons soon to be apparent,
emerged from her first-ever dive
triumphant. “I touched the coral!”
she boasted to me. “Give me your
hand,” Forain said. She did and he
playfully swatted it. “Don’t ever do
that again,” he said.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP
LEFT: Bar science at
JW Marriott's
Department of
Chemistry; pretty
crab legs at Lava,
InterContinental; in
the spa at Fusion; out
to sea at Nam Nghi;
calm waters and
empty sands at
Fusion; Harnn Spa at
InterContinental.