After 4 short days in Saigon I was headed back to the beach – the Con Dao Islands. By this point being on the move every couple of days for months (with a few exceptions) was beginning to lose its appeal. On the one hand there is so much I want to see, but on the other hand it would be really nice to unpack my backpack for a while, have some familiar faces to talk with and not think about where I’m going next, transportation, and accommodation. Tough life right? At least I would have 6 days in Con Dao.

The Con Dao Islands are a chain of 15 islands off the South East coast of Vietnam, and held military prisons during the French and American wars. The prisons were notoriously brutal with tiny caged cells, and a reputation for torture. Due to the isolation and nature of what went on there, the islands were left largely unspoiled with 80% left as protected areas containing forests, coral reefs, and marine life (including sea turtles and dugongs). I had read that it would be expensive since everything had to be shipped in, and that service and accommodation standards were low for the price. It has only recently started to catch on as an international tourist destination, which of course made me more curious….

The only way to get there is to fly, or take a 12 hour ferry from Vung Tau. I opted for the flight. I left in the afternoon, and was joined by one of the girls that had been staying in my dorm. To be honest I was surprised when she said she wanted to come. She had seemed a bit stand offish, and had a habit of making faces at me when I spoke. I found out later she had a hard time understanding what I was saying. (Me? She had a hard time understanding me?!) She said it sounded like I was speaking with gum in my mouth. But she wanted to go diving, so I guess she was willing to get over it.

I left my big backpack at the hostel, and brought only my carry-on as we ran to catch the bus to the airport. At check in there was a bit of a mishap involving some of my toiletry items being too large to carry on. My friend agreed to put them in the bag she was checking, but in hindsight I wish she hadn’t. She spent the next hour and a half having a near panic attack about what kind of illegal, dangerous items I had made her responsible for in my toiletry bag. Ugh.

That evening my travel partner and I separated, and I checked into my room on the beach. I fell asleep to the sound of waves outside my door again. I missed that.

I woke up the next morning and went for a walk to explore the town. I walked along the waterfront, and took in the beach, mountains, and fishing boats. I spotted a round boat for the first time. It is essentially a large basket floating on top of the water, propelled by the driver waving an oar around in the water in front of the boat. How this was invented was beyond me!

I walked through the town, to the park office just outside of town to ask about hikes. My first impressions as I walked around – the natural parts were beautiful, but the town was…..sleepy? There were some hotels, restaurants, a couple of local shops, a small market, a park. Not to mention clean paved streets, intersections and cars. A strange contrast of developed and undeveloped. Even though the infrastructure was there, there really didn’t seem to be that many people, and not much to do. It almost had a feeling of a semi sterile ghost town. Maybe it was because of the grey weather, maybe it was the time of year. People tend to visit Con Dao when the conditions for diving are better (March to September), or to see the sea turtles nesting/hatching (May to November).

For lack of anything better to do I spent the rest of the day at my hotel reading. The girl I came with from Saigon stopped by after her dive, and we made plans to go for a hike together the next day. We left early the next morning, picked up lunch along the way, and set out into the forest. The hike was steep, and we came across all kinds of critters along the way – birds, giant spiders, crabs, something that looked like a millipede, huge geckos, black squirrels. By the time we reached the empty park station at the top of the mountain we were breathless. We followed the trail around the building and were greeted by a couple of curious monkeys. We clutched our lunches protectively as they hopefully eyed us and our bags. One by one more monkeys appeared, forming an eerie monkey posse inching closer and closer. I laughed and stared, but we weren’t about to share our food so we picked up the pace and kept walking. As we continued our hike to the beach on the other side of the island, the trail became less and less clear. How we managed to stay on it I’m not quite sure, but I’ll give my travel partner the credit.

We stopped at a beach full of washed up coral, and then continued on to Ong Dung Bay. We assessed the rocky beach and debated going for a swim. My mind was made up when it started to rain – if I was going to get wet anyway, I might as well be in the ocean. My partner was not interested. She said she didn’t like to swim in rocky areas where you couldn’t see the bottom because you could step on something and cut your foot. I stared blankly. We hiked all this way, it was hot – I was going in the water. With her words in mind I walked cautiously over the rocks, and then swam out, lazing in the warm ocean. Looking back towards the island the view was stunning! I immediately wished I had my camera, and swam back to get it. I teetered along the rocks as I walked back to shore, and waved to my friend smiling. Then….sh-t!! Searing pain shot through my heel as I lost my balance and fell forward. With tears in my eyes I continued hobbling along until I could lift my foot out to inspect. I cringed when I could finally lift it above water to see the blood pouring from a gash that went from the bottom of my heel up along the side. Damn it. She was right. I walked back grumpy, borrowed some antiseptic, wrapped my foot in tissue and painfully put my sneakers back on for the walk back to town. At least she had the good grace to be sympathetic and not to say “I told you so”.

The next 4 days were uneventful. I laid on the beach, read, visited the restaurants. The menus were pages and pages long, but when I tried to order I began to understand the reputation for questionable service. On average out of all my meals, at least two of the items I tried to order were not available. One time my hotel restaurant just said they were closed entirely, and wouldn’t reopen until the following day. As I left to find another restaurant my waiter/friend came to bring me back, and said they would serve me. Except 3/4 of the dishes I tried to order were unavailable. I really couldn’t do anything but laugh, and eat whatever he could pull together for me.

I had hoped to go on a snorkeling boat trip, but they didn’t go out while I was there due to poor visibility. On my last day I finally rented a bike, and rode around the island. I wish I had done it sooner!! I was able to take in more of the island, the coast was overwhelming, and it was good to get some exercise (even with my injured foot). The ride was hilly which was a bit of a challenge since my bike didn’t have gears, and the brakes were dangerously close to bare. No problem – I rode the flat, and part way up the hills. When my legs tired out I took in the view as I walked the rest of the way up the hills, and then part way down so I didn’t burn the brakes out. I think I ended up walking almost as much as I rode!

I left the next day a little anxious about my day of travel. I would be flying back to Saigon, and catching a bus to Mui Ne. The anxiety part came in because my flight was pushed back by 5 hours, leaving me with just a half an hour to get from the airport to the bus. Once again Con Dao was providing an exercise in patience and flexibility! It’s a beautiful place if you can maintain your sense of humor, and don’t mind spending some quality alone time….