Pearl Farm in Phu Quoc

Phu Quoc, August 31st 2011

After a long frustrating argument with the staffs of Moon Resort, at last... I got the tour which was like the one I had booked according to their website but... was charged 750,000 VND whereas their website stated "15 USD" per person. The reason was that due to low season, there wasn't a group tour. When I booked online, I wasn't told anything about this. And when I booked, for sure I mentioned the date I wanted to join the tour. The manager only replied that the tour is ready at anytime. Aaarghhh.

One of the reason I insisted on this tour is because a visit to the pearl farm was included in the itinerary. So here's the first part of my 1-Day Tour in Phu Quoc.

There's a big pool where small nets each containing of several oysters.

One net at a time is placed on this wooden table.

And then the oyster's shell would be sliced.

Using a knife, the oyster meat is cut off the shell. By luck, you will find a piece of pearl inside it. When luck isn't on your side, there's a chance you slice up the entire oysters from the net and yet not get even a pearl.

Some pearls are white, some are yellowish.

Inside the shop you can see some workers placing pearl by pearl into an ear ring or ring. There was a glass showcase in between, so I couldn't get a clear picture of this delicate work.

This equipment is to make a hole through the pearl so it can be attached to an ear ring or arranged into a necklace or bracelet.

Attaching a pearl on a ring.

Choosing the pearls.

Pearls can be white, yellowish, pinkish, brownish, and even dark green. However, the price isn't determined by the color, but by the shape.

Look at these ones. The pearl beads are perfectly in a round smooth condition. The more perfect round shape it is, the more expensive. This green necklace cost 29,000,000 VND. That's like 1,450 USD.

These aren't natural pearls. These were implanted into the oyster.

An example of a shell of an implanted-oyster.

The natural pearl's oyster shells should look like this.

These are also pearls.

I wonder what lotus-sea pipes look like. Is it a plant or an animal?

This is the pearl shop at the pearl farm. On the left is my tour guide, Cham. On the right is the sales girl. She was very sweet and informative.

This is the seashore behind the pearl farm.

It's a pity that the beach was littered.

Cham insisted on taking my picture-S but asked me to turn on the life preview on my camera. Yes, she did take many pictures while I hadn't turned off the continuous shutter function. So, click... click... click! However, life preview on EOS 50D doesn't provide auto-focus feature. Hence, if one takes a close look on this picture, the focus doesn't fall on me. In other words, I'm rather blurred in this photo. It's Canon to be blamed, not my tour guide :P (Olympus' entry level doesn't lose its auto-focus even in life preview mode.)