Ngoc Hien Pearl Farm – Phu Quoc Island Vietnam

The Ngoc Hien Pearl Farm is an Interesting place to buy pearls or see how they are made. It’s right by the airport actually, so maybe it can be your first, or last stop. 

Main floor is a large shopping mall area that sells pearls, fountains, shells and sculptures. They have a little café. We got a coffee and a strawberry smoothie.

The types of pearls here are also quite diverse with many different designs, sizes, colors and prices.

These pearls go for 35 million dong a pop or $1,500 USD

I don’t even want to imagine how much this thing costs. Do you need to hire a bodyguard to help you take that home or go anywhere with it?

The more interesting part is downstairs. It’s a museum.

As you make it down the stairs you see some giant oyster shells that are thousands of years old. Don’t forget to take a family photo.

They take these shells and turn them into beautiful works of art by carving into them. Here’s a  guy working on creating a shell sculpture.

After that you get to see how pearls are made.

They will explain to you how they cultivate pearls, how long it takes to make one from a spec of sand to a beautiful pearl. Apparently 3-7 years.  There are differences in the types of oyster used which lead to the different colors and sizes. Then they cut one open and popped out the pearl so we could see it.

Now that I see how much money they make off these, I wonder how hard it would be to set up my own little pearl farm at home in a fish tank. I can be patient if it’s this lucrative. 

We learned if you rub two pearls together and some dust comes off the pearl it’s real. If it doesn’t it’s fake. The cheap pearls from the market must be fake. Never got to test it out. 

The rest of the museum are ancient artifacts recovered from the ocean.

There is a gallery of ceramics from sunken ships in the East Vietnam Sea.

Looks like we have been polluting the earth for longer than I thought. This pottery is from the 15 to 17th century. 

Beautiful collection of  coral reef fossils which are around 1 million years old. I thought these were pretty cool. If I was a billionaire maybe I would get one for my private garden or something. One can only dream. Please subscribe to my channel, maybe one day that can come true. Pearls for all the loyal fans out there.  All jokes aside was an interesting experience to see how pearls are made.

Mary decided that for her Christmas present she wanted to get one.

This is the process they follow to turn it into a pendant for a necklace. Pricey little piece of sand.

Apparently they offer free polishing service for an item bought up to 5 years ago. What are your thoughts? Would you buy a pearl or is it a waste of money. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Things Todo Phu Quoc Vietnam