Phu Quoc — the breathtaking scenery of the world's greatest over-the-sea cable car! (written by Ho)

The development of southern Phu Quoc Island still has a long way to go! The paradise that will surely become a new tourist destination from now on is Thom Island. As for transportation, there's a cable car from the southernmost tip of Phu Quoc Island. The over-sea cable car connecting roughly 8 km is recognized in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's number one.

The cable car was completed in February 2018 and has been featured all over the place, but even now, roughly two years later, there are still lots of unfinished parts! Even though it's still under development, little by little some spots you can enjoy have started to appear, so it seems that Vietnamese people and foreigners living in Vietnam are heading over to the island one after another. When my husband Sei rode the cable car on a company trip in October, he was moved! He said, "You really should ride it at least once," so we decided to go. From the cottage, it's about a 30-minute drive. A taxi costs around 2,000 yen, but when I looked into it, I heard there was a shuttle bus stop nearby, so we went to check it out. But... there was nothing that looked like a bus stop. When I asked an employee at the tourist attraction, they said, "It's right here~~~," but... because there are so few tourists, sometimes the shuttle bus comes and sometimes it doesn't. "It might have already left for today~~~" was their vague answer. That's Vietnam for you!! We gave up and decided to take a taxi. (I had been trying to save money, but... oh well.) When I told the driver "cable car," since there are no traffic lights, we arrived in no time. And then, a little before the ticket window, we bought our tickets from an auntie who came over selling them. It was about 400,000 VND = 2,000 yen per person. It's a set price that includes both the cable car and admission to the facilities inside. There were no tickets for just the cable car (at least for now). Well, oh well, we thought, and when we went to the station, there was a big operating schedule board right there.

I had read online that you need to be careful because there's a lunch break from 12:00 to 1:30... and it turned out to be true. Due to the impact of COVID, the number of departures had become even fewer. The last bus back was at 16:45. I spent a while strolling around the station grounds. It's still under construction, with work going on all over the place, and the energy of it all is just incredible.

At the clock tower, they're even building a stage like an attraction. But I wonder if it's really okay to build this much. Will shops move in? Will people live in the apartments? — I found myself worrying about things that aren't even my concern. Meanwhile, the time for the cable car to run finally arrived. It was just past noon, so there were few passengers. Maybe, just maybe...

Yes, we've got the cable car all to ourselves — a private ride! This cable car normally carries 30 people, but it's just the two of us, husband and wife. So luxurious~~~. I guess it means there aren't many tourists yet~ Lucky us! Off we go~~~

The moment the cable car departs, there's a soft, delightful feeling of being released into the sky. From the cable car floating along as if tracing the outline of the park, you see a landscape lined with yellow and pink European-style houses. Before you know it, you find yourself murmuring, "How cute~~." Is this really Vietnam? It even feels like the world of a Hollywood movie. Though it is a bit of an otherworldly place with a slightly stage-prop, fake-set kind of feel. It's like I've come to another world, and my mood just lifts~~ And then the cable car glides all at once out over the sea.

The sea spreading out right in front of me, straight below! The vividly colorful fishing boats! Since they called it a cable car, I imagined it would be something like a ropeway... but it's completely different. So dynamic! The support pillars connecting the cable cars floating high above the sea are as thick and tall as control towers. The ropes are firmly tripled up. But in strong winds and such... it does stop, right? If it gets battered by the salty sea breeze and isn't properly maintained, it'll stop, won't it... You might even get to taste that kind of thrill. I think I was riding for about 15 minutes until I got attached to it. Since it was just the two of us as a couple, we went to the front and the back, going "wow!" and "eek!"—enjoying the scenery to our heart's content! And what's more, the windows open! So you can stick your hand out and feel the wind. It makes it even more thrilling. Holding up the camera to take pictures... oh man, it was just so much fun, nothing could beat it.

Since we fly over two small islands, you can capture photos that look just like drone footage — with the lush, densely overgrown jungle right below you and scenes of fishing boats and more.

It wasn't exactly clear blue skies, but the blue and green sea was beautiful. The boats were tiny like toys, each one colorful, and I got carried away daydreaming — imagining how cute it would be if I had clips like these~

That jolting shock when you go over the pylons is a little scary but fun. And yet, I found myself wondering—how on earth did the Vietnamese, who aren't so great at running smooth operations, manage to plant these pylons out in the middle of the sea?—and I was dazzled by a whirl of surprise and admiration at such modern facilities. Soon, as the final stop drew near... an artificial structure that looked like a swimming pool came leaping into view on my right.

There are several big slides, or rather giant water slides. I thought you could spend a whole day at this huge pool attraction~. This time we didn't actually get in the pool, but it would be so much fun if you could make friends here as a family. It looks like a park is going to be built here too, so the less active people could take a stroll in the park. It seems the cafés and hotels are going to keep increasing as well... This is a place you can enjoy all day long — it's like Disneyland. Tom Island, where you can have plenty of fun with just the cable car alone! For now there still aren't many people... so it's still a hidden gem. It might be a good deal to enjoy it while you can. Relocation Life Ranking