Coi Nguon Phu Quoc Museum in Phu Quoc Island will open on April 30 to mark the 34th anniversary of the Reunification Day of the country.
This museum is the result of the profound passion for preservation of a young couple, Huynh Phuoc Hue and Nguyen Thi Phuong Dai. Nestled by a small hill on Tran Hung Dao Street, Dong Duong Toan Commune, Phu Quoc District in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, five-storey Coi Nguon Phu Quoc Museum is an ideal destination for those who want to learn about the history of the island. The museum is surrounded by a green park with trees, kennels for Phu Quoc dogs, sea eagles and a souvenir shop.
“We worked as guides for tourists visiting the island and suddenly we recognized our passion for the splendid landscapes of our hometown. For more than ten years we have been collecting and storing artifacts involving the island,†said Huynh Phuoc Hue, adding that the museum was called Coi Nguon Phu Quoc (Phu Quoc’s Root) in the hope that tourists will understand more about the island which has more than 300 years of history.
The museum has been designed to tell a story with 540 items presenting the history of Phu Quoc. In one part of the museum visitors can get lost in the woods of dozens of precious timbers hundreds of years old, or in another area see the wooden boat used by national hero Nguyen Trung Truc to gather food from ships sunk by French army in 1868. Also on display are fishing boats, a primitive fishing village which produces fish sauce and grows pepper and displays of 2,645 antiques including ceramics, stone, bronze and fossilized woods. A collection of fossilized wood dating to the 15th century BC that has been analyzed at an archaeological workshop in Hanoi is also on display.
Moreover, visitors will have a chance to contemplate valuable collections including a set of 50 stone axes, 30 pieces of folk art and 300 documents in Vietnamese, English and French about the land and people of Phu Quoc.
The couple have also installed over 100 folk and contemporary paintings about Phu Quoc in the museum.