Vietnam – Exploring with a gym in your backpack.

Vietnam is one of those places I will happily return to when the opportunity arises. I was mesmerised by many things in this country: the food, the landscape, the monuments, the people, the weather and the atmosphere.

Phu Quoc is the biggest island in Vietnam. It is down the south of Vietnam, near the Cambodian border. 
If you want to relax, recharge your batteries, take in the tropical climate, are thinking of beautiful sunsets, want to eat something that just came out of the sea or learn a bit of history, then I recommend Phu Quoc.

Pagoda Ho Quoc is the biggest Buddhist temple in Phu Quoc. This temple has a amazing view of the ocean. It is said that this is the place to see the best sunset in Phu Quoc. 

Park Sun World Hon Thom – We completed this day trip in the south of Phu Quoc in a private taxi. We arrived there by the longest cable car line in the world. The views from this cable car are out of this world. I felt like I was watching a movie. Simply incredible! We stayed on the island for the whole day.

Zonate can be found by the ocean. I found it difficult to understand what Zonate was. It looked like a display on the beach. 

Coconut Prison – It is part of the important history of Vietnam. It was build by French colonists in 1949-1950. It was used during the Vietnam War as a prison for communists and other opponents of the allies of South Vietnam. 
At first glance the Coconut Prison does not differ from any other. It’s only when you step on to the prsion gronds do you really see the acts of torture that took place. A couple hundred different tortures took place such as cooking the prisoners in a wok of boiling water, shutting them into tiny containers and leaving them exposed to the sun, blinding them by placing a giant lamp in front of their face, or by making the prisoners roll around on sharp metal wires, which tore out pieces of their skin. 

Phu Quoc Night Market – Each evening a market opens up here, which has a large amount of restaurants, souvenirs and street food.

Phu Quoc Day Market – A day market by the river, under a bridge. Absolutely incredible! You can see fruit, vegetables, meat and sea food. The atmosphere there is amazing. You can buy absolutely anything that there is to eat.

Training on the sand is completely different than training on a hard surface. To change up my training, I decided to workout on the beach. Exercises carried out on the sand require you to develop certain (deeper) muscles and motor skills as these muscles are not engaged when training on a hard surface as the sand is an unstable surface. Deep muscles are one of the most important muscles in our bodies. They stabilise our body and hold many internal organs in place. Training on the sand improves our coordination. Another positive of training on the beach is our feet muscles are engaged. Our feet have one of the most nerve ending in the body. By training on the beach you are in the fresh air, which allows your lungs to receive a good amount of oxygen and the vitamin D3.

To my standardised training on the beach I added exercises using a suspension trainer. This allows you to train without adding unnecessary pressure onto your joints or back. These bands are lightweight, easy to pack and portable (they don’t take us much space in your backpack – a portable gym).