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

Hoi An, My Son, Hue and Phang Nha – Ke Bang National Park

We moved from our Lavini Boutique Hotel in the rice paddies of Hoi An to “Local Beach Homestay” just a short walk to the beach. The homestay can’t be accessed by cars as it is on one of many narrow alleys in this area – so we walked the last bit there. We’ve learned that "homestays" are a family's way to run a small hotel – usually 2-4 rooms for guests. They serve breakfast but you don’t live with the family. They vary a lot as you would expect.

Signs showing the places in the alley to the right!

I walked along the beach most mornings, and many locals were exercising – swimming, calisthenics, tai chi, soccer, and more. The beach was busier at 6 am than it often was later in the day with the few tourists around. The beaches near where the tourists hang out have much less trash than the beaches that have no hotels or restaurants.

The fishermen were up even earlier. I missed seeing them out on the water but caught them as they dragged their basket boats up the beach to store above high tide for the day.

Hauling in the basket boats and their morning catch

Sunday, we took a tour of My Son Sanctuary, an ancient Cham (Hindu) site dating from the 4^th to 13^th centuries. Unfortunately, it was also a site of massive bombing during the Vietnam War (called the American War here) and many of the original standing temples were destroyed. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999 and ruins of about 70 buildings from successive dynasties of Cham kings have been partially restored with contributions from other countries. It feels peaceful nestled in a gorgeous mountain setting.

My Son Sanctuary

We left Hoi An on December 12^th and got a ride (Grab is the Uber of Vietnam) to the Da Nang train station where we stored our bags while we toured the Museum of Cham Sculpture. The Museum is on the Han River near the coast and has fine displays of Cham culture from My Son Sanctuary as well as other Cham sites in the region.

The Museum of Cham Sculpture

An afternoon train took us to Hue where we walked to our very bright Sky Homestay. Our host was amazingly proficient in both English and French and super attentive to her guests while also helping her husband corral two busy young sons!

Sky Homestay in Hue

While Hubby worked, I walked to the Imperial City of Hue which began when the Nguyen Dynasty moved the capitol city from Hanoi to Hue and ruled the country from 1802 to 1945. While the Nguyen were conservative Confucianists, the French also had a large influence during this time, and were the de facto rulers from 1884 until 1945, when the last emperor abdicated his throne. A huge fire in 1847 burned much of the Imperial City, and then the American response to the Tet Offensive in 1968 pretty much finished it off. The site gained UNESCO World Heritage status in 1993 which spurred massive funding to help restore some of the buildings.

Imperial City of Hue

It rained most of the next day but we did a little more sightseeing before catching the afternoon train to Dong Hoi. A driver met us there and delivered us to the Karst Villas in Phong Nha in time for dinner (delicious as always) and a nice room and sleep. We couldn’t see the karst features that night – but the next morning we had this view from our room.

View from Karst Villas in Phong Nah

We borrowed one-speed bikes and headed to town where we joined with two other couples (French and German) to rent a dragon boat to take us to the largest cave in Phong Nha–Ke Bang National Park. The karst formations here are about 400 million years old – and the Park is home to the world’s largest cave – though we didn’t go to that cave. We were lucky that the water level dropped just enough to allow the boats to enter the large Phong Nha Cave opening. We were dropped off to stroll back through the impressive formations. We then climbed a zillion (almost) steps to tour Tien Son cave before returning to our boat.

                   

After an amazing bahn mi at the recommended Thang Nhuhg café, we took advantage of the dry weather and the borrowed bikes and headed to the beautiful Bong Lai Valley just a few kilometers past where we were staying. They are just opening up to tourists now - but you can get coffee and wifi along with beautiful views. You'll need to zoom in on the photo to see the offerings!

Beautiful Bong Lai Valley

The next day it rained (again) so Hubby worked inside and I walked on the paths through the rice paddies. We found a nice café for lunch and got in some birdwatching on the way. It is a pleasant area and the folks in the village we biked through yesterday and walked through today were incredibly cheerful and friendly, waving as we went by.

Last view from our porch - incredibly hard working farmer plowing rice paddies in the rain.

Welcome to Vietnam!

We flew to Vietnam at the end of November, just before our 90-day Australian visa expired. We have never been here before and it is popular for many reasons – friendly people, delicious fresh food, good internet connections, safe place to travel, and relatively inexpensive. We don’t know how long we will stay – but it is a great new place for us to explore!

Our plan is to get used to the country and allow Hubby to focus on his work by staying in one town, Hoi An, on the central coast for two weeks. We chose to stay in two places for one-week each. The 10-hour time difference with Arizona makes it so he can connect with his colleagues and students in our early morning and in their late afternoon.

We started close to the UNESCO Heritage old town of Hoi An and stayed in a small hotel on an “island” surrounded by rice paddies. It was a great retreat from the busy-ness of town where there is nonstop motor scooter traffic and lots of people everywhere.

There are narrow cement roads that connect the rice paddies to each other and to town. My favorite thing to do was birdwatch along the rice paddies in the mornings.

You can tell these paths are not meant for cars, though our hotel was close to town so cars could get in and out the shorter road – but not pass each other! Most folks (over 90%) travel by motor scooters though – including the postman, trash pickup, delivery services, etc. Scooters had trailer attachments hauling long loads of wood, pipes and rebar!

The “sidewalks” are obstacles to navigate as they serve as parking lots for cars, bikes and scooters, as well as sites for people to pile garbage, burn garbage when it was dry, weld metal together, cook meals and as sidewalk cafés. Sidewalks are NOT meant for walking so the few people that walked (mostly tourists) end up on the sides of the streets. Because of the traffic flow it is customary to just walk on the same side as all the other traffic. Pretty crazy at first – but I’m getting used to it.

Hoi An has a lantern festival every full moon, and we were lucky to be here for it. The festival dates to the 16th and 17th centuries, when Hoi An was a lively port and trading post. The Chinese and Japanese who settled in Hoi An brought lanterns and hung them in front of their door as a reminder of their homelands, and all the stores today are required to have lanterns. You can buy lanterns everywhere, take a boat ride and float your own lantern on the river, or just enjoy the spectacle of an electricity free night. It is pretty and marvelous!

If you miss the full moon festival, you can still enjoy the lantern-filled city and the boat rides every other day as well! But you will miss the alters that people put out in front of their homes to honor and feed their ancestors. Here is the alter at our hotel. You can see our hotelier working into the night in the background.

We have had a lot of rain though the rainy season should be nearing an end. Darrell caught a cold and was trying to get a lot of work done so he didn’t get out as much as I did – but I walked in rain or sun to see the sights.

One popular tourist activity is to go out in the round basket boats that have a long history in Vietnam. This article has more information on these unique boats. The boatmen and women can make the baskets spin – causing lots of tourist fun, though I haven't tried it myself.

I’ve been impressed by the incredibly industrious Vietnamese people. Honestly, everyone seems busy doing whatever they can do to make a living and still be friendly!

Yesterday, we moved to a beachside homestay for our second week in Hoi An. More adventures to follow! 

  

Ten Days in Tassie

First – pronunciation. If you are an American, you are likely to pronounce Tassie with a soft “s”. Just pretend it is Tazzy to pronounce it correctly. Same with Aussie – it is Auzzy. I had to learn the hard way and want to spare you the heckling I received from some big Aussie blokes for mispronouncing this.

Second – geography. Tasmania is located between 41° and 43° S. Latitude. This is roughly the equivalent of Wyoming’s north latitude. Except Tassie is also surrounded by polar waters. So not a tropical island.

Third - Our friend Denise planned this entire trip. She does intensive research and takes the time to ensure maximum hiking experiences and the most scenic places to stay. I wish I had her patience for planning. It was a treat to enjoy all the fruits of her planning as we traveled together.

Map of places we stayed along with some hiking areas

Day 1 - Hobart

We were met by pounding rain when we landed in Hobart, the charming capitol city of Tasmania. I was lucky to receive an umbrella from a woman whose Uber driver had given it to her, and she was passing it on to me before her flight. That umbrella has been a gift that keeps on giving!

Denise stayed at the airport to meet her friend Iain flying in from New Zealand while Darrell and I went to get our rental car. Denise met Iain on a hiking trip around Monte Rosa in Switzerland this past summer and they had planned future trips together. Iain had trekked in Tasmania several times so was an invaluable resource and fun travel partner on this trip!

We stayed in a funky garden apartment in North Hobart and barely got there in time to clean up and meet my friend Karen at a nearby restaurant. I met Karen and her now husband Kim when I volunteered with the catering crew for the Gibb Challenge way back in 2012! Kim was working in Western Australia so I missed him, but it was so wonderful to have a small catch-up with Karen. We borrowed their esky (cooler) for our trip and it was invaluable. Rental cars should just come with eskies in the boot (trunk) for all their tourist trips.

Catering Crew for the May 2012 Gibb Challenge
Kim and Karen are just to my right in the middle of the photo

Day 2 - Gowrie Park

Today was a long drive north to our Airbnb in Gowrie Park, situated so we could hike Cradle Mountain the next day. The weather was clear and I walked up the track towards Mt. Roland but the many trees blocked good vistas.

Day 3 - Cradle Mountain

We had decent weather in Gowrie Park but it was raining with blowing wind when we got up to the National Park. We took the Park bus to Ronnie Creek where we walked high enough to see Crater Lake and then took another track down past Wombat Pool to Dove Lake.

Darrell and I at Crater Lake overview

Darrell and I took a magical fern and mossy walk and met Iain and Denise who were having tea at the Lodge and warming up in front of the fire. We were all chilled from the cool, wet weather.

Magical Mossy Walk

 Day 4 – Mt. William and Bay of Fires

Our drive today took us downhill to Launceston where we stopped in at the Visitor Center, enjoyed a bakery and got groceries before driving to Mt. William. We had a nice easy hike up to good views from Mt. William and then checked out some of the campsites on the NE coast. Stumpy’s campground was grand and a great place to stay if we were camping but we pushed on to our place at Bay of Fires – right on a long, beautiful white beach with the orange lichen on rocks that may have inspired the Bay of Fires name. Note: It is more likely named for aboriginal fires seen by Captain Tobias Furneaux and his crew in 1773!

The gorgeous Bay of Fires

Day 5 – Bay of Fires

We took a beautiful walk north along the bay, clambering over rocks and enjoying long beach stretches. Iain made us a wonderful grilled dinner on the barbie. A picture perfect Aussie day!

Iain working his own magic on the barbie

Day 6 – Coles Bay – Freycinet National Park

The drive to Coles Bay was a shorter one so we had time to hike up Mt. Amos before going to our Airbnb. Mt. Amos is a steep climb up both smooth granite faces and big steps in the more vegetated areas. Darrell and Denise got some amazing views from the top while Iain and I hung out a little farther down.

Darrell and Denise get the view from the summit!

Day 7 - Freycinet National Park

We walked to the absolutely gorgeous Wineglass Bay (bay on left of photo above), where we wandered the beach before crossing the isthmus to the other beach (on right of photo) and then hiking back. We drove to our place in Triabunna so we were close to the ferry terminal to Maria Island for the next morning.

Iain and Denise on the lovely Wineglass Bay beach

Day 8 - Maria Island National Park

Maria Island was one of the sites where convicts were held in Australia. It is now a World Heritage Australian Convict Site as well as a National Park. There are lots of places to explore on the small island - from the settlement sites to some natural wonders. Darrell rented the last available bike on the island while Denise, Iain and I walked. We saw a wombat up close and personal plus a large Forester Kangaroo resting in the shade of a tree. The fossil cliffs were truly fossiliferous with giant clams and relatives of scallops and sea fans.

Iain herding a Cape Barren goose on Maria Island

Day 9 – Nubeena – This area has easy access to some of the tracks that go out to the capes on this peninsula. While we couldn’t do the entire Three Capes Hike, we did have a great day hiking the track to Cape Raoul and then adding a short hike to the Shipstern overlook to see farther west. It was probably my favorite hikes with great plant biodiversity, lots of birdsong, and wondrous views of the coast including tall diorite columns. We all went out to dinner in Port Arthur to celebrate the conclusion of a great trip!

Iain and Denise at the overlook of these amazing diorite columns

Day 10 – Drove to Hobart and said our goodbye’s to Dee and Iain who were off to Bali as we flew to Sydney.

Big thanks again to Denise for organizing this spectacular trip!

Denise in Tassie!