We went to Con Dao expecting it to be an idyllic island paradise. Geographically it is, with some beautiful quiet beaches, and forest-covered mountains.
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| Tidy |
We were surprised to be the only westerners on the short plane ride over. In fact it would appear western tourists are not that common on the island (outside the $600-a-night Six Senses resort that is). We stayed at
Con Dao Camping, which was not a campsite at all but a row of A-frame huts on the beach. It was more expensive than it would have been on the mainland, but was pretty good with air-con (required) and even wifi. Everywhere in Vietnam has free wifi as standard. The UK should take note!
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| Random Water Buffalo |
We had heard Con Dao has the best scuba diving in Vietnam. The guide book failed however to mention the cost: at $180
each for a 2-dive morning trip we were not going to find out how good it was. The main road around the island is only about 20km end-to-end so we had a nice day or two exploring on a motorbike; the empty roads were a very gentle introduction to driving in Vietnam.
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| Biker Chick |
Apart from that Con Dao was a bit of a disappointment, the restaurants were both poor quality and very expensive. English was not typically understood, and people seemed somewhat slow; often pointing at vietnamese words on a menu would only draw blank looks, as for having chopsticks delivered
before your food, forget it. It took so long to check out of the place we were staying we nearly missed our flight. My guess is that tourism is a new thing for Con Dao, and the islanders are not overly bothered about having their glacial pace of life interrupted. I don't really blame them.
Hahaha brilliant. I can only imagine Steve's stress at such a place, rural France was hard enough where he regularly hid whilst leaving me to interact with the locals!
ReplyDeleteTo say Chris was stressed would be an understatement. We had to start going for meals waaay before we were hungry because it took so long. Hungry Chris = grumpy Chris!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like they're a long way behind the likes of BK and McDonalds, which must be HORRIBLE. I'm enjoying the posts though - I like to look at the photos of exotic landscapes whilst sitting in my windowless office :) The photo of Catherine sitting on the edge of a rock made me nervous - dangerous surely?? Enjoy yourselves by all means, but don't show off by taking stupid risks for shit's sake.
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