Part 12: Con Dao, Vietnam

Hai An beach on Con Son Island, Con Dao Vietnam.

At long last, Good Morning Vietnam! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

We finally made our way to be neighbors with our friends Ed and Buffy for 6 weeks in Da Lat, in the central highlands of Vietnam. It is unbelievable to actually unpack our bags and breathe! We are so lucky to have a lovely house available, right next door to our friends, in this beautiful (and cool) mountain city. Buffy and Ed built a goat farm together with the people who own our house (their original home when they moved here), and then bought the house next door. Lots to say about this place, but I will cover it later, since we have more to discover before leaving Da Lat.

Unknown to us, Buffy and Ed had been doing a marathon of juggling houseguests, and our place was only just vacated the day before we arrived. Ed's daughter Toshi was still visiting, and another couple of friends (Colin and Bridget) from Seattle were arriving soon in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Toshi was soon to start on a 6 day motorbike trip from Da Lat to Saigon, and the rest of us were all going to meet in Saigon, take a short flight to spend a few days in Con Dao, then reconnect with Toshi for a few more days in Saigon. So many moving parts! Buffy was also suffering from a sprained ankle, and still being a consummate host through it all. It wasn't much time to catch our breath, but 4 nights on a tropical island with some great people sounded like pretty good R&R. Plus we could finally leave half of our stuff behind!

We met up with Colin and Bridget, a super lovely couple from Orcas Island. It turns out there was a connection between them and my former editor when I worked on the San Juan Islands newspapers. Small world indeed. We spent a fun night in Saigon, then made our way to Con Dao. It's a tiny archipelago off the southern coast of Vietnam, with a huge natural and historical significance. To preserve its heritage, The Vietnamese government strictly limited development, turning a large part of the island into a national park. Not a lot pf people get there, but many of the tourists who do, come for the sea turtle migration, when thousands of turtles come to 14 nesting sites in the park to lay and hatch their eggs.

Many locals, however, come here to make grim pilgrimage to the cemetery, which has a darker history than most. This tropical jungle paradise of pristine beaches and secretive, high-end resorts was also once known as Hell on Earth to the estimated 20,000 people imprisoned here. Vietnam's oldest and largest prison complex, it was home to 3 notorious camps, first established by the French colonists in 1862 and eventually used by the South Vietnamese government and then the American forces. The conditions were horrific in their brutality, including the infamous "tiger cages." A troubling background for a beautiful place, impossible to ignore when the barbed wire covered walls and turrets are blocks away from your lavish hotel pool.

The biggest island, with the only real town, is Con Son. The airstrip is located between 2 beaches, coming so close to either shore that it looks like a giant zipper from one to the other. (I borrowed a couple pics from the internet to show it; words don't do it justice!) Coming in to land in our puddle jumper, we were sure we would end up in the water on one side or the other. There was a hotel bus to pick us up, which we had all to ourselves for the 6 of us. Buffy had made all the arrangements, and when we rolled up we realized that we were staying in a fancy place - for the price of a motel 6 back home. Kind of crazy not to do it. Turns out it was definitely the right choice, since David had picked up a nasty cough that turned ugly on the plane ride. It helps to be miserable in a nice place, and the surroundings made it easy to lay low for the rest of the day. Fortunately during a night of wretched coughing, I found enough Mucinex rations in our supplies for him to sleep and function, and we were able to venture out the next day.

The island is a perfect place to get your bearings on a scooter, since there is so little traffic, and somehow almost all the roads seem like they were just paved on the same day. It was a lot for David to tackle, being out of sorts and long out of practice, especially with a rider on the back. Steeply winding mountain roads and exposed headlands with troublesome winds had us both a bit nervous at times, but he handled it like a champ, of course. We cruised around the park end of the island with Ed & Buffy. Hiking was out with Buffy and David not fully functional, but riding along the empty jungle roads we saw a big snake wriggling out of the way, and bunches of macaque monkeys popping up every so often. We stopped for lots of gorgeous views, and cold beers at a little grass hut overlooking the beach, with a bustling bay full of fishing boats.

Once back at the hotel, we took advantage of the nearly empty beach and super shallow, bathwater ocean. In the evening we reconnected with Bridet & Colin, and made our way to the night market for dinner. Everywhere you go, there's always a night market, and it's always chaotic, strange, and delicious. This one had tons of tanks with live seafood to choose from. So many creatures we'd never seen before, let alone considered eating! We were happy to meet Nick, who had lived in San Francisco for many years and then gone back to his family on the island, and was eager to speak English with us. He turned out to be our ambassador to the market, giving us advice on where and what to buy, and providing invaluable help deciphering out the bill when it came time to pay for all of our various piles of food. Our favorite was crispy purple rice pancakes cooked over a rotating wok and filled with goodness. The walk back was full of bustling nightlife, especially the adorable little girl with a cap gun who played stick-em-up with me.

By the next day David's cough had also become my cough, but we were determined to persevere. After another lazy morning making up for a night of no sleep, we decided to scoot around other side of the island with Ed. Buffy was lying low and resting her ankle, so Ed volunteered to take me on as cargo, giving David a break to ride solo. This time we were headed back towards the airport, and found a path to the beach to see if we could (literally) catch any planes landing. Sadly it turns out that not all of the beaches here are so pristine; there was so much garbage it was heartbreaking, accumulating courtesy of the Asian Pacific fishing fleet. It really put the whole plastic issue in dramatic and daunting perspective. It's so much easier to ignore when you can pretend that it's getting taken care of somehow.

It turns out that we were at the "take-off" beach rather than the "landing" beach, and we got to see a plane leaving the island while we were there. Continuing around, we got to the road's end, and were in time to watch another plane take off in the near distance. Then we stopped for some amazing stew and meatballs, in a tiny shack on the side of the road. We knew we were in the right place, which was pretty much the only place, when we saw the hotel shuttle drivers pull up there to take advantage of the hammocks and lunch, while waiting for their next passengers. So good!

That night we were still too full to do much in the way of dinner, so David and I went out on our own to walk in the town a bit. The New Year's/Tet decorations were still on display, and everything was in bloom. We passed some kind of room open to the street (not sure if it was a business or a residence or both?) where a woman was sitting with her children on the floor, cutting up a massive fruit with a cleaver. We stopped to watch and try to guess what it was, and she wrapped up a large piece for her daughter to give us, wanting nothing in return. We found a spot for a drink that brought us plates and let us eat it, and confirmed that it was jackfruit (delicious), which we had never seen or had fresh before. We made our way home through the wet market, which was pretty intense. Then I was off to bed to nurse my cough, while David stayed up listening to terrible hotel music for a bit.

The following day was our last, so we decided to finally go see the local museum and prisons. There are 3 camps here, but one was definitely enough. I won't write about what we saw, but there is plenty to read on-line. Suffice it to say that it was a very sobering experience. We didn't feel up to much running around after that, so we laid low for the rest of the day, watching people do crazy things for their Instagram posts, which is a total obsession here.

Originally we had thoughts of hiring a boat to take us to some of the other islands around sunset, but every day in the late afternoon the winds would get pretty strong. Having heard from some other guests who took the boat to the island that everyone on board was nauseous and vomiting, we decided not to chance it. Apparently people here are extremely susceptible to sea-sickness, but it didn't seem like a good gamble. Instead we found a spot with awesome lobster bisque and home-made noodles for super cheap, and kept our dinners intact, haha.

With an early departure on the horizon, we packed up to head out first thing the next morning. What an amazing place - I hope we get back here for the turtles and the hiking someday. Next stop... Saigon!