Supposedly built on an abandoned uni, this resort is too good to be true
I thought I was checking in to a five-star Asian resort, and somehow I’ve stepped into another world.
December 30, 2025 — 5:00am
It’s past midnight when I arrive at my hotel. The darkness is thick with humidity and the syrupy scent of frangipani. My long, two-flight day began early in Sydney and we were delayed arriving to Phu Quoc island. I am dizzyingly tired and discombobulated.
JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort & Spa is built on the grounds of an abandoned university. Or is it?
School’s in – the Department of Chemistry Bar at the Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay.
“Welcome to Vietnam, welcome to our campus,” says a young, bespectacled man, standing behind a counter surrounded by vintage suitcase trunks. “If you need anything at all, just ask me or one of the other professors.”
Say what now? I search his face for a knowing wink of irony and see only a genuine smile. I thought I was checking in to the five-star JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort & Spa, and somehow I’ve stepped into another world.
A porter ushers me past a trophy cabinet of historic wins. Framed sports memorabilia lines the corridor walls: tennis racquets, hockey sticks and football boots appear to be from a century ago. In a framed team photograph, sepia-toned and hand-scribbled with the words “Lamarck University, 1923”, the serious faces of 19th-century athlete-scholars stare back at me.
A deluxe room at the resort.
We make our way to my accommodation, passing by faded signs that urge a long-gone generation to “Run for the Ridgebacks at Phu Quoc”.
The porter shows me around the suite before handing me a student manual with all the information I’ll need to navigate my stay. Before he leaves, and I collapse into bed, I ask if this place really was a university campus before it opened in 2017 as a resort. “Yes, of course,” he says.
Really, really? He nods and leaves.
I scroll Google for answers, quickly falling into a deep sleep, still unsure what is truth and what is fantasy.
Search the internet and you’ll read that JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort is built on the former campus of a 19th Century university. The story goes that between 1880 and 1940, the children of wealthy locals and colonial residents were educated at Lamarck University. Closed and mothballed as World War II raged, the buildings stood still in time for almost a century.
Or did they? They did not. Further digging reveals the resort and backstory have been conjured by the creative genius of legendary hotel designer Bill Bensley, on the site of what was once a remote Vietnamese fishing village.
The lobby of learning.
This isn’t the first time I’ve visited a hotel with a fictional backstory: The American Trade Hotel in Panama City’s historic centre does a good impression of a centuries-old, colonial outpost; The McKittrick Hotel, home of the immersive theatrical experience during its 13-year New York run, was eerily convincing.
