AsiaLIFE

Until recently gaining access to the tiny archipelago of Con Dao, was arduous. Now the trip is a short, hassle-free flight from Ho Chi Minh City. This isolation has helped to preserve a rural atmosphere far-removed from the hustle and bustle elsewhere in Vietnam. Words by Mark Bibby Jackson.

I scramble up the narrow fixed metal ladder to get a better view of Vietnam’s long-time penal colony. The broken bottles cemented into the wall should have been a giveaway – travellers unwelcome. According to my guide Hung, the prison might be open that afternoon. There again with a shrug of his shoulders he suggests it might not. This is not the push and shove attitude to tourism for which Vietnam has recently developed an unwelcome reputation. This is Vietnam before the advent of mass tourism.

An archipelago of 14 islands off the southern tip of Vietnam, until recently getting to Con Dao involved a long ferry journey from Vung Tau or an expensive ride on an ex-military helicopter. Now the trip is a short, hassle-free flight from Ho Chi Minh City.

Most visitors to the island were never overly keen to arrive here. Its remoteness made it ideally suited as the country’s Robben Island. Originally settled by the British East India Company in 1703, for over a hundred years Con Dao served as a penal colony for successively the French, South Vietnamese and finally the Americans. Built by the French in 1862, Phu Hai Prison serves as a stark reminder of the brutality of the times. The infamous Tiger Cages, built by the French in the 1940s, confined prisoners like tigers in the sun as wardens walked above them on grilles.

Hung suggests we visit nearby Hang Duong Cemetery while we wait for the prison to open. I don my motorbike helmet and sit on the back of his Honda Dream as he gives me a lift. We chug our way through the near-deserted streets of the port and pass dilapidated buildings, further examples of the islands chequered history.

We stop at a petrol station.

“The only one on the island,” Hung explains as he allows the attendant to fill his tank. In my travels I have been to many one-horse towns, but this is the first one-refill island.

Many of those killed in the prisons were buried at the cemetery, including Vo Thi Sau, Vietnam’s most famous war heroine. One statue, an impressive example of Communist propaganda art, serves as a memorial to the country’s Joan of Arc, who was executed by the French on the island in 1952, at the age of 19. A little further on I am led to her well-tended cemetery, now a shrine for young Vietnamese women. While Vo Thi Sau’s grave has a clear headstone, many of the 20,000 graves for those who died here between the 1940s and 1970s lie unmarked.

Several prisons and other dilapidated buildings lie scattered around the island. On our drive back to the hotel, we stop by Ma Thien Tanh Bridge. Allegedly 356 people died during its construction, which started in 1930, until suspended in 1945. Now all that remains is the paltry remains of the collapsed bridge on a deserted hillside, I can only wonder as to what it was all about. Although lacking the scale of the Bridge on the River Kwai, it shares the same sense of futility.

The island’s isolation has helped to preserve a rural atmosphere far-removed from the relentless hustle and bustle found elsewhere in the country. Here you can sit on the side of the road eating a bowl of congee and play spot the motorbike. I never spotted even a solitary car on the island, just mini-buses shuttling the few tourists from the airport to the semi-deserted hotels. Locals come up and say “hello” and keep on walking without trying to sell you anything.

Not that this tranquil island paradise is set to stay this way for long. The islands are becoming a leading light in the country’s eco-tourism industry. The local master plan has ambitious plans for two million tourists per year.

Several of the archipelago’s many beaches are breeding grounds for the endangered Green Turtle. Each year from April to November, these turtles return to the beaches where they were born to hatch their own offspring. Some 50,000 hatchlings make their way into the sea. The Con Dao National Park Authority arranges tours to the breeding grounds on Bay Canh Island including overnight stays.

The park office is the best place to start planning your trip around the islands, which have much more than nesting turtles to offer. Over 1,300 species have so far been identified in the Marine Park, including 342 species of hard coral, according to the Park Authority’s Huynh Van Hung Hong. But, what makes the waters stand out is their clarity.

“At its best, water temperature wavers at 32 degrees with unlimited visibility,” says Jeremy Stein of Rainbow Divers. Jeremy opened Vietnam’s first PADI dive centre in the 90s, and is now the undisputed expert on diving in Vietnam. Off the archipelago’s outer islands are 50-metre plus wall dives. If you are lucky you might even spot some endangered dugongs in the shallow waters around the harbour, especially in December and January.

Hon Cau provides the best diving in the archipelago, including “some of the biggest table corals I’ve ever seen,” says Jeremy. Although, if you want to combine a dive with some turtle watching it’s best to head for Bay Canh. “May through August is the best time to go,” he adds, with June and July the best time for turtle hatching, according to Hong.

The archipelago’s eco-attractions are not just limited to the sea. The National Park contains almost 6,000 hectares of forest. Hong arranges for one of the park wardens to take me on a hike to the old fruit plantation at So Ray.

Originally built by the French, with forced labour, like the rest of the island’s buildings it has fallen into disrepair. Most of the trees were wiped out by Hurricane Lynda in 1997, but the park authority has planted some new trees, which attract two animals endemic to the island – the Con Dao Monkey and the Black Squirrel – both of which I see on my short hike. The watchtower, where the more adventurous can stay the night, offers great views from the hill across the bay.

There are other islands with turtle-hatching beaches, great dive sites and hikes in unspoilt forest, but these have largely become well-established tourist destinations. Con Dao’s real charm is that it has not, yet. Savour those “hellos” while they last. The arrival of the island’s first exclusive resort – the Six Senses Hideaway currently under construction – could herald the dawn of a new era for this hidden gem of an island.

As I head back towards the airport Hung makes one more attempt to visit the Tiger Cages, but the prison is still closed. Perhaps the next time I arrive there will be a queue of tourists backing up around the corner.