Flying Flip Flops in Vietnam

Flying Flip Flops in Vietnam

I was spending Christmas in Phu Quoc, a beautiful beachy island in the south of Vietnam.

Coming from England where all we get on Christmas Day is a bit of drizzle, I was eager to celebrate in style and do something different. A Christmas spent in 30-degree heat, relaxing on the beach would suffice! After all, I’d always hoped for a white Christmas, and in this case, it would be white sand!

The only issue with being a budget backpacker in Phu Quoc is that most of the cheaper hostels aren’t within walking distance from a beach. And when I say a beach, I mean a good beach. There are plenty of crowded beaches in Phu Quoc due to recent highrise hotel developments.

But I wanted the idyllic, postcard-worthy beaches that I’d heard about.

So I rented a moped. 

Now you’re probably thinking; this is how all iffy backpacker stories begin… “Stupid Bloke rents dodgy moped.” 

Sadly, I’m not going to deny that. Most backpackers who have visited Southeast Asia will likely have a story to tell you about their experiences with motorbikes.

What’s worse is that I’m going to add flip flops to the mix! How sensible…

***

Having gathered our Christmas crew together, our ungainly gang full of motorbike novices set off in search of beautiful beaches.

As we pulled away from the hostel we were quickly taken aback by the roads. We were NOT expecting them to be so busy! I was expecting chilled beachy vibes, not chaos and mayhem on tarmac!

Given that the only time I’d ridden a bike before was in the deep North of Vietnam on empty country roads, this was a shock to the system. And with many of us still a little dreary from the Christmas celebrations the night before, these weren’t ideal conditions.

Our first stop was for fuel.

As our convoy wobbled in one by one, we made sure that we hadn’t lost anyone. Thankfully we all made it five minutes down the road unscathed! Just another 25 minutes to go!

Everyone in the group has their own individual scare stories from the remainder of the ride. Apparently, I accidentally ran a red light in haste, trying not to lose everyone else (but we can gloss over that). Most importantly, we all made it to the beach.

Ong Lang Beach was gorgeous. We spent the majority of the day there, sitting in a quiet spot with some shade from a nearby tree. The water was clear and shallow which made it excellent for snorkeling amongst the rocks as well as playing frisbee.

***

Tired from a day in the sun, we decided to head back to the hostel. It had been an enjoyable day but we were eager to get back, shower, and get ready for the Christmas celebrations! Or in the words of my friend; to “get this party started!“

After wandering back to my bike, I brushed off the sand from my legs and feet. But, as you’d expect having just got out of the sea, a lot of sand remained stuck to my feet!

“Oh well,” I thought as I slipped on my flip flops and hopped on my bike, “I can always wash it off later.“

Conscious of the rush hour traffic, our self-designated “head of directions” sped off to guide us home. Pleasantly relaxed after a day at the beach, I was cruising at the back keeping my friends in sight. Either that or I didn’t feel comfortable racing along in between traffic at high speed.

Either way, soon enough the traffic ensued as we arrived at the fateful roundabout…

It was full of cars and motorbikes, and from my memory, there must have been at least 100 exits!

Following close behind my friend, I made my way onto the roundabout. 

All of a sudden, a bike from nowhere appeared, making me swerve. I kicked out my leg causing my sandy flip flop to fly off to the right.

Now stationary in the middle of the road and one flip flop down, I tried to guide the bike in the direction of the flip flop.

But other vehicles were going past quickly with no regard for this rogue flip flop!

At this point, is it better to leave the flip flop behind or try to retrieve it?

The situation was made worse by the fact I had also lost sight of the exit the others took!

It was now down to me to sort this out and make my own way home.  

I couldn’t turn around on the roundabout and go the wrong way. Instead, I would have to pull in and then try to retrieve it.

I took the next exit, hoping that the gang would stop and wait for me. But they weren’t there, they must’ve taken one of the later exits.

I wheeled the bike around to re-enter the roundabout and took a couple of shaky breaths.

As I made it to the flip flop, I realised that it is pretty difficult to reach for something on the floor whilst you’re still on a bike.

Shortly after I found out that bike stands are rather difficult to operate without a firm shoe! My bare foot, under the pressure of the situation, was incapable of pushing the lever to the floor to prop up the bike.

I gave up using the stand, quickly hopped off and grabbed my flip flop while holding the handlebars with my other hand.

Flip flop secured, I scooted away to forget about that farcical ordeal as soon as possible!

I turned off at the next exit where thankfully one of my friends was waiting. A relieved look passed across his face as he saw me.

“What happened? Are you okay?” he asked, assuming that I’d come off my bike.

I briefly explained what had happened, much to his amusement.

In hindsight, I probably should’ve said that I’d fallen off! It would’ve been much easier to explain! Hundreds of backpackers have fallen off bikes in Asia, but I’m still yet to meet someone else whose flip flop flies off on a roundabout…

Before you go

Thank you for reading my story about my moped escapades and flying flip flops in Vietnam. If stories, itineraries and travel content like this interest you, head over to my blog page to find out more.

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Happy travelling!