Chợ Gành Dầu — Suối Cái

A market at the end of the road to the north of the island

Gành Dầu Market is in Suối Cái hamlet, near Gành Dầu Cape, at the far northwest of Phú Quốc. Of the island's markets, it is the farthest from the centre of Dương Đông. It is also the quietest. The market is not large, its small stalls stand close together, and it is not as bustling as Dương Đông Market or Hàm Ninh Market.

Gành Dầu is the main fishing village of the area, where most of the local people live, and the market is where they do their daily shopping. The sellers here are unhurried and easy to talk to. You come to the market to see the everyday life of the north of the island, not yet dressed up for tourists.

Gành Dầu: a headland next to the border

Gành Dầu is a headland jutting into the sea in the northwest of the island, about thirty kilometres from the centre of Dương Đông. To the east is Bãi Thơm, to the south is Cửa Cạn. The Gành Dầu area covers about eighty-seven square kilometres and has some twelve thousand people, far sparser than the south of the island.

From this headland, Cambodia's Hòn Nần island is only about three kilometres away. Looking north, you see Hòn Nần and Tà Lơn mountain across the border; looking west is Hòn Bần.

Gành Dầu beach curves like a crescent, sheltered by two mountains. The water is clear enough to see the bottom, and the sand is fine and golden. The forest runs down to the water's edge with large old trees, something few beaches on the island have kept. The waves have worn the rocky reefs into many shapes, and under the water there are corals and fish, especially red groupers. As evening comes, Gành Dầu Cape is one of the fine places to watch the sunset in Phú Quốc.

Seafood from a sea that farms fish

The best things to buy at the market are fresh seafood, and dried seafood to take home as gifts. Next to the market are stalls selling cooked seafood. Many people buy seafood at the market and carry it to Gành Dầu beach to grill and eat right beside the sea.

The waters around Gành Dầu are not only for fishing boats. The Gành Dầu marine farming cooperative was founded in 2018 and has nearly seventy members with fish cages and rafts. The fish raised here are cobia, grouper, pompano and red drum, along with spotted babylon snails. Most of the raft houses are in nearby Rạch Vẹm hamlet, where the raft village has become a place visitors seek out.