Con Dao, my birthday gift

Con Dao, my birthday gift

Originally, I planned to leave the beach to the end of my trip and head North to South, but I realized that the weather in March favours the opposite direction. That’s why I started in Saigon and stayed at the beach in the beginning of March, my birthday included. I’ve heard a lot of stories about classic coastal sites, like Mui Ne or Nha Trang, more bad than good. So the islands remained my options: Phu Quoc or Con Dao. Con Dao is less known, less western tourists come here, and it is more difficult to get here than to Phu Quoc, which is called “new Phuket”. I wanted exactly the opposite of Phuket: a wonderful landscape, but peace without a crowd. That’s how I decided to visit Con Dao.

Since there is only one hostel on the island, I booked it quickly. Of course I staying in the Six Senses Resorts for 2000 USD a night was not an option, I needed a significantly cheaper solution. The hostel opened last December, but looking at the trends, soon there will be more hostels to serve foreigners visiting the island.

The island can be reached by air, a 13-hour ferry or a speed-boat service of about 2-2.5 hours. I chose the latter. Superdong’s ships are modern, with TV, comfortable seating and super professional staff who handed out the “vomit bag” with a neutral face and run with the extra paper towels wherever it was needed. I had a really windy day with huge waves, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it was a hell of a journey.

I boarded the ship at the port of Tran De. The whole facility is completely new, specially designed for Superdong. Boarding is organized and smooth with QR code boarding passes. When the crew started to distribute the little plastic bags I was sure it would be a challenging ride. Two and a half hours of closed eyes suffering. Even the loud Vietnamese film could not suppress the sound of mass retching. It was a salvation to land at the smelly fishing port. The foreigners immediately gathered together to bargain together for cheaper transport to the center. Our accommodations were close to each other, so there wasn’t much to think about, but I was happy that somebody took the lead in this.

That same afternoon I walked down to the nearest beach and was amazed not to see a soul. The whole shore was mine. In the evening, I met Letizia at the hostel, and then we had a two-day ride together and had very similar experience on our everyday beaches: either a completely empty long sandy beach or a few other people lingered somewhere far away.

Most of the main island is a national park that can only be visited after purchasing a ticket, but otherwise well maintained trails await everyone who wants to walk to the north-west side of the island and want to visit the beaches that can’t be accessed with a bike. The small beaches on this side of the island are pretty rocky, but are nice and nobody was out there. Bang Beach, Con Dao - pinterjuco.huMy favorites, however, were Nhat Beach with huge boulders and the windy, wavy coast of Vong Beach in the Northeast of the island. There are two beaches where you can see the planes taking off or landing close by. We slowly discovered the island beach by beach, but we did not snorkel or go to the other small islands because the weather was windy and the waves were too big.

Vong Beach, Con Dao - pinterjuco.huNext to one of my favorite beaches is the Poulo Condor Boutique Resort, and although there is no shade on the beach, there are sunbeds with little cabins to provide shadow in front of the resort. Imagine a long-long shore that is guarded by a security guard on one side, but it is so long and there were so few guests that no one has noticed that we actually used a cabin. Later we discovered a small gate between trees behind us that led to a small villa and its pool. Hm, there was nobody around, the villa was empty, so we dipped into the pool quickly, just to wash off the remainder of the salt on our skin. In the evening I looked it up: the price of the small villa was 640 USD a night.

I spent my birthday on this wonderful island at my favorite beaches. And no matter how difficult and lengthy to get here, I’m really happy that I visited this place.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to know better the island’s history, somehow we always had a bad timing and missed the opening hours of the memorial sites. Not having any info displayed in English didn’t help either.

Finally I left the island after three full days of beach discovery, long hours of talk, motorbiking, coconut ice creams and almost serious sun burns. This time I took a direct bus to Saigon, from where I travel further at night. I would have tried the other direction towards Vung Tau, but the ship was just under review after two weeks of trial. This time, however, I was prepared with a mild sleeping pill for the speed-boat – but it turned out to be unnecessary, because this time the sea was peaceful.

Con Dao, the prison island

Con Dao is an archipelago of 14 islands, the largest island is Con Son. It is very isolated, approx. 80 km from Tran De and 230 km from Saigon. The flight takes about 45 minutes from Saigon. On the island there is practically one road leading from the harbor to the airport, touching the city, roughly halfway. On the seafront promenade, old French colonial villas are lined up, but the streets as well as the beaches are almost empty.

Between 1862 and 1975, tens of thousands of political prisoners were detained and tortured in the prisons established here. The prison was built by the French and then taken over by the South Vietnamese and Americans during the Vietnam War. The prisons were left as mementos, and the older generation is visiting the island primarily because of the cemetery and to visit the scene of suffering. It is estimated that 22,000 prisoners were killed on the island.

Prisons - Con Dao - pinterjuco.huMajor prisons are within walking distance of Con Son town. Some of them seem to be a very friendly French colonial building, while others bring classic prison elements with barbed wire and watchtowers. The “tiger cages” where the most problematic prisoners were kept and tortured are also close and easily accessible too.

Many prisoners became national heroes, including Pham Van Dong and Ton Duc Thang, who later became Prime Minister and President of Vietnam.

Useful info

  • From the last week of February, a new company has launched a cruise from Vung Tau to Con Dao, with a price between 600,000 and 900,000 dong. The travel time is 4-4.5 hours. Vung Tau is only approx. a 2-hour bus ride from Saigon.
  • There’s a direct Saigon – Tran De bus (no need to stop at Soc Trang) I didn’t know about. FUTA Bus and My Duyen both offer direct buses.
  • Book your Superdong ticket especially in the weekend even 2-3 days in advance. This time many people had issues with leaving the island, as every ticket was sold out.
  • Make sure you get the correct information about the opening hours of the prisons. In theory, they are open from 7:30 to 11:00 and 14:00 to 17:00.

 

Prices

  • Superdong ticket Tran De – Con Dao: 310,000 VND
  • Taxi from the harbor to Con Son town: 200,000 VND
  • Bus from port to Con Son town: 40,000 VND
  • National Park Entrance: 60,000 VND
  • Entry fee to the prisons: 40,000 VND
  • Motor rental for one day: 120,000 VND
  • Cheapest accommodation: 125,000 VND / night
  • A bowl of pho soup: 30,000 VND
  • A 0,33 beer: 20,000 VND
  • An ice coffee: 15-30,000 VND