The Con Dao Conundrum

My quest in Con Dao is how to reconcile the dueling emotions from experiencing the peaceful, quiet and friendly island of Con Son with the horrors of its past. These horrors, of course, include impacts from the American War (aka the Vietnam War). They also include the unrelenting vision of plastic waste everywhere except in places controlled by the most upscale of hotels and resorts.

We spent 10 days (January 4^th to 14^th) on Con Son Island in the Con Dao Archipelago less than 100 km off the coast of SE Vietnam. Hubby took some time off from work to see much of the island, and I walked every day to new areas.

I clipped this map from our Rough Guide on Vietnam. It provides a visual for our wanderings on this small (~ 3 mile long) island.

Map of the Con Dao Archipelago from the Rough Guide

Our first adventure was to rent a motor scooter. Unfortunately, we do not have an A1 international license so we could only get a small electric motor scooter. And this is probably the smallest one on the island!

Darrell on our mini-mini scooter

We headed uphill to the Con Dao National Park headquarters and the scooter was so slow – especially with me on the back – that I had to get off and walk so Darrell could get it up the steepest hills! Most of the island is part of Con Dao National Park with controlled access to trails through the forests to the beaches or other sites. It was hard to get information on the trails even at the Park Headquarters. They don’t have a trail map so we learned from websites, travel guides and other tourists the best places to go.

We did get a tour of some caged animals, statues of animals, and some other displays – e.g. dugongs in giant tanks, and other sea critters. We paid about $2 each for a trail pass to towards Bai Bang beach. Trees were labeled but I only took a photo of the Truong tree – Indian Prickly Ash – that looks like it has limpets all over its bark. We reached the coast where the acclaimed waterfall was dry, but we did see some intertidal life – black sea cucumbers, hooded oysters and some small corals.

Truong tree (Xanthoxylum rhetasa)

We planned to walk on to Dat Tham beach but we were just knackered from heat and humidity so returned to the scooter. We were happy the ranger had told us to park by the headquarters as the indigenous Long-tailed Macaques had opened the seats of the parked scooters at the trailhead and taken out whatever food they could find there!

The scooter battery showed it still had some charge left – so we took the road to the SE point of the island. The chain came off the scooter and we were aided by a young Russian couple to get it back on. We had just limped back to town when the battery died. Darrell pedaled it the rest of the way to the rental shop! Adventure 1 complete.

Hubby worked the next few days and I wandered more trails – looking for the mostly absent birds. We can hear some, not a lot, but rarely see any. I finally saw the striped-cheeked bulbul (photo from Merlin) which was described as looking like a chrysanthemum had exploded across its face.

Stripe-throated bulbul (photo from Merlin)

Our next adventure was renting e-bikes for a hike past the runway and beach on the NE end of the island. Incredibly, Darrell’s e-bike ran out of juice just after we crossed the hard-packed sand of Vong beach. We locked the bikes up and hiked to the scenic north bay.

Hubby enjoying the swing!

On the return hike, we saw a beautiful bird - the white-vented shama. We aren’t seeing a lot of birds – as I mentioned in the last post from our bike trip. We can walk through miles of rainforest and only hear a few birds...

With our days on the island dwindling, I headed to the Con Dao Museum and walked through the chronologic displays beginning with artifacts from 2,500 to 3,000 years ago and culminating in modern progress. While the history of Vietnam is incredibly complicated, two key timeframes that included photographic images were the French colonial period (roughly 1847 to 1941) and the American (Vietnam) War. Both periods included significant tolls on life and liberty in Vietnam and on Con Son Island - termed Devil's Island at the time - with many prisoners held and killed in Phu Hai Prison.

Con Dao Museum

I can't improve on this excerpt from The Rough Guide to Vietnam: “The many cells in the now-defunct Phu Hai Prison remain littered with shackles, placed painfully close together. In a couple of exhibition cells, emaciated statues show how the Vietnamese inmates spent their days crowded together, unless they were selected for the “tiger cages” or the “solariums”, where they were exposed to the elements in roofless rooms.”

I'll only include one photo - since the images are distressingly graphic - but if you are intrigued by how the American's found out about the atrocities of the Tiger Cages in 1970 you can read this interesting article from the History News Network. This event was weell-described and illustrated with statues at the prison and articles in the museum.

Phu Hai Prison "Tiger Cages"

Respite from these atrocities comes from the nearly constant honors and blessings displayed at the Hang Duong Cemetery. The roads there are lined with dozens of shops selling memorial displays for people to purchase to honor relatives, slain martyrs, unknown soldiers, and more. People were also walking the grounds with bundles of lit incense to place a few at a time at different graves.

Grave of a martyr in Hang Duong Cemetery

Vendors selling memorial displays in the cemetery

So, Con Dao, both beautiful and disheartening. My moodiness here was also due to the significant onslaught of the present regime in the United States. The devastation to people and to nature at home made me want to shout - why haven't we learned from history? What happened to the Golden Rule we were taught as children?

Two parting images - one of the many restaurants where you can select your seafood for dinner. We are used to eating our food that isn't swimming or crawling - just wrapped in plastic on styrofoam trays in the refrigerator section of the grocery store. I cannot bring myself to eat seafood right now.

Seafood restaurant in Con Son Town

And an image that actually gives me hope. It reminds me that nature, despite our degradations, is amazingly resilient and powerful.

Nature reclaiming some lost ground

Biking in North Vietnam

Hubby and I decided on a 5-day bicycle trip from outside of Hanoi to the Ninh Binh region, a water-filled karst environment we were eager to explore. We both love the motion of cycling and to see places at the pace of a bicycle. We can go far enough in one day to see a variety of places, yet slow enough to enjoy the scenery, observe how folks live their lives, and not run over the wandering chickens and dogs!

Day 1 – Man Duc to Mai Chau

Mileage – 32.8 miles, Elevation gain – 2,525 ft.

We were picked up at our Hanoi Airbnb and fitted with bikes and helmets. We checked the toolkit, and filled the one pannier for daytime needs – extra water, snacks, sunscreen, windbreakers, etc. Darrell was on a regular “push bike” and I was using an e-bike for the first time. It turned out we were accompanied by both a driver and a mechanic on the entire tour! The owner of the bike tour company was afraid the driver, who called us “grandparents” out of respect, was too old to help us with mechanical issues, and the mechanic wasn’t a driver. So, our “self-guided tour” was really 2 bikers and 2 men in a van – carrying our luggage to the next stay and inflating the tires of our bikes each morning.

On previous tours in Europe, daily luggage transfers were handled by one hotel sending luggage on to the next hotel – since they were only about 35 miles apart. That kind of system has not been set up here. And since wages for workers are low, it doesn’t add greatly to the cost of the trip. Many tourists hire a car and driver for long-distance tours.

We were driven over 2 hours SW of Hanoi to a quieter village near Man Duc and began biking on dirt roads toward a large reservoir. We followed the edge of the reservoir, winding in and out of each bay before finally climbing a large hill to Go Lau. It was approaching dusk, but we coasted downhill to our first night at a lovely homestay in Mai Chau, a traditional White Thai village.

Note: There are 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, with the Vinh (also called Viet) making up 87% of the population, and the other 53 groups contributing a small fraction each to the overall population of about 100 million people. When we were in Hoi An I went to the Precious Heritage Museum and saw photographer Réhahn’s gorgeous images from each of the ethnic groups. It is an amazing free museum!

View from our balcony at Green House Mai Chau

Day 2 – Mai Chau to Ban Lac to Ban Hieu

Mileage - 36.3 miles, Elevation gain – 3,250 ft.

We had a lovely breakfast at our homestay, then got on our bikes around 9 am to start our hardest day. Or I should say Hubby’s hardest day since I was able to just kick the e-bike into a higher gear when the heavily forested hills got too long or steep! I realize I can make the bike ride as easy or as challenging as I want – but it is tempting to not push too hard – especially when you are “conserving” energy for later in the day… Excuses, excuses…

The reward near the end of the bike ride was amazing views over terraced rice fields and an incredibly steep descent on a narrow cement track. 

Terraced rice fields near Pu Luong

Just when we thought we were close to our place, we realized we had a 1.5 km hill to climb – and it was the steepest yet. Darrell got in his last big workout of the day getting to the Na Co Lodge Homestay. Thank goodness there was cold beer at the top!

We visited with a French family at dinner who were on a 2-week car tour with their driver. They were seeing many places off the beaten track, arranged by a friend who could speak Vietnamese. We all relied on google translate since few people speak English (or French).

We had a mosquito net over our bed in this small bamboo cottage but there were few mosquitoes and we both slept well!

Na Co Lodge Homestay

Day 3 - Ban Hieu to Ngoc Lac

Mileage – 39.1 miles, Elevation gain – 1,550 ft.

Today began with the steep descent, retracing some miles from yesterday, and then heading south and east to Ngoc Lac. There were a few nice sections but much of it was on a busier road than we preferred and not as scenic as the previous two days.

We ended up in a larger town and stayed in a sterile hotel that looked more like something the Drump would build – including gold fillagree – than the previous two nights homestays.

We did have an entertaining meal with our two side-kicks – where we had tender goat meat (a local delicacy). Our driver shared some of his brother’s homemade rice wine with all of us. We had more than one toast...

Toasting to our health!

Day 4 – Ngoc Lac to Cuc Phuong National Park

Mileage – 46.7 miles, Elevation gain – 1,425 ft.

The next day was our longest ride – but also relatively easy. It was mostly flat through many pineapple fields until we approached Cuc Phuong National Park (Vietnam’s first National Park) which is on two karst ridges. We began biking early so we would have time to see some of the Park after we arrived. Because the Park stretches along both sides of a central 18 km road, Hubby rented a motorscooter and I jumped on the back for a 2-hour jaunt through the tropical rainforest. We took side paths to see both ancient trees and giant tree ferns.

 

Giant tree ferns dwarfing Hubby

Day 5 – Cuc Phuong National Park to Tam Coc 

Mileage – 33.6 miles, Elevation gain – 500 ft.

We woke early and made our instant coffee in the room as usual - and then heard the loud chorus of gibbons as dawn broke! The noise was wonderfully raucous though we didn’t see any of these native primates. We went for an unsuccessful bird walk before breakfast along the road we didn’t have time to visit yesterday – the Endangered Primate Rescue Center, the Turtle Conservation Center, and the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Center. You can tell they are doing a lot of conservation work at this National Park - which is increasingly necessary as there are fewer and fewer animals in the wild. I was questioning why there were so few birds in the wild in Vietnam and found this New York Times article from 2019 that discusses the loss of wildlife. While the article doesn't address birds specifically - some of the same issues affect birds. We have seen songbirds in cages outside of houses, feral cats, rapid development - and many of the birds here would prized by the illegal international wildlife trade.

 

This last day of biking (on Christmas Day) took us to Tam Coc Nature Lodge. We had read the description in our guidebook and I really wanted to stay here – though it was a more expensive option at almost $50/night (crazy huh?). I figured it was our holiday present to ourselves, and it really was a delightful place.

 

View from our balcony over the pool and "moat"

View of the cottages with towering karst backdrop

Summary: Parts of the bike ride were just plain fun - when kids waved and flashed the peace symbol as we biked by. Some parts were depressing - like trash on the ground and poor air quality. But most parts – especially the scenery, friendly people and amazing food - were absolutely wonderful.

The trail was varied – from crowded streets through small towns, to quiet lanes between pineapple fields, to dirt paths through rice paddies, and potholed roads up and down steep hills in dense forested areas. We enjoyed the shifting views of peaceful fields and striking karst topography with hills like the bumps on a dragon’s back!

 

The local karst topography from the Tam Coc Heritage Trail