Wow! Almost 2020 and here I am back on the small plane to take us to Saigon for three nights.
Our three days here have been interesting and adventurous. There is just one small town with virtually no traffic and a lovely promenade devoid of all the usual seaside trappings including people! The island we are staying on was Con Son, but the whole area is know as Con Dao. We were staying at a small hotel in town called the The Lighthouse, in amongst all the local business, shops, market etc. No sterile protected resort for us! The staff were delightful, and the rooms were spotlessly clean.
One of the main streets towards the sea
The town beach
We arrived later on in the afternoon so we just had a walk around and orientated ourselves, trying out some of the local street food in the process
Little shrimp pancakes served with a papaya salad and green vegetables and herbs and vinegar. They were delicious .
The following day after a late start Michale and I went for a walk along the seafront round to the main resort hotels where we stopped for a cooling drink. A beautiful beach location
We saw these fish drying on street corner
We then went to meet the others and took an electric car taxi to the National Park entrance, paid our daily fees of about £2 and set off to walk one of the trails to a beach. We hadn't expected to come across road construction en route, we discovered that a new road is being built across the back of the island through this protected area. I suppose we can't blame them for trying to open up the island a bit more, and it will settle in eventually but now it is a blot on the landscape
The walk on a paved path through the jungle took us to a stony bay, with a rangers station and lots of macaques(monkeys). We walked a little further to get away from the monkeys who are adept at raiding bags and food. Amanda and I had put together a picnic of crackers and cream cheese plus the Christmas baking we had brought from Hanoi, and lots of cucumber, tomatoes etc. Amanda and Orlo and Michael all had a swim but the access was a little too stony for me. As the tide came in Orlo sat in a pool a "hot tub", with the water coming in and out around him!
The state of the tide when we arrived, it came in quite quickly.
The hot tub!
It was a steep walk out 700m of steps!
Amanda and I walked back the same route whilst the others tried to find another signposted route, however they were thwarted and caught us up as we approached the town. We saw a swift aviary where they harvest the birds nests for soup! We could hear the birds, there were entries to the nest boxes all over the building. It was called a cordyceps militaris. The poor birds, perpetually nest building.
Amanda I I saw a few of these strange flowers, PlantSnap could not identify it, but I wonder if it is from the horsetail family.
Historically this was a prison island, used by most governments for decades, this site was particularly sad and gruesome. There are many prison camp ruins on the edge of the town plus a large old prison almost in the centre. The conditions don't bear thinking about! There is still a large military presence as military training and exercises take place here.
To be continued....
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