Vietnam TravelTravel Special FeaturesVietnam - A Coastal JourneyThe Con Dao Island - Archipelago of Secrets

The Con Dao Island - Archipelago of Secrets

When visiting Con Dao, a remote and mysterious archipelago of 14 islands some 100km off Vietnam's southern coast, part of the adventure is getting there. Visitors have two options: Seventy teeth-rattling minutes abroad a shuddering former military helicopter, or 14 hours on a boat from the southern port of Vung Tau.

Thanks to its isolation, this wild and windswept archipelago remains one of the least tourist destinations in Vietnam. Those who do make the effort to get here are rewarded by breathtaking views of dark forested hills, sparkling lagoons, while sand beaches, and offshore coral reefs. To take advantage of the archipelago's strategic position on the sea route to China. In 1703 the British East India Company established a fortified outpost on Con Son. Within three years the island's British commanders were all dead, killed by the Sulawasi mercenaries who had been drafted to build and guard the fort.

When Vietnam became a French colony, another dark chapter in the island's history began. Then known as Poulo Condore, the island was used as a penal colony, where common criminals and political opponents to the colonial regime were imprisoned in torturous conditions. After 1854 Vietnam's southern regime continued to incarcerate political opponents on this remote island, adding to the island's legacy of pain. Untold thousands of men and women died here during Vietnam's long struggle for independence; the sole remaining graveyard contains some 20,000 graves of those who died here between the 1940s and 1970s.

Today, the ruined cells remain; haunting remainders of the island's cruel past. The former governor’s mansion now houses a museum, while the old colonial town is intact, it's crumbling villas now inhabited by fishing families. The 2,000 or so people who now reside on Con Son survive by fishing, growing cashews and peanuts, and by diving for pearls and collection swallow's nests from the island's rocky peaks.

Con Dao is hauntingly beautiful, its surrounding waters home to giant sea turtles that lumber up the deserted beaches to lay their eggs, rainbow-hued coral reefs, dolphins and sharks. The islands themselves are a patchwork of mangrove swamps, thick jungle, rugged peaks and blazing green paddy fields.

Climb to the top of Chua Mountain or Thanh Ha Mountain and the archipelago's islands shine like green jewels in the aquamarine sea. Or sit on a lonely beach and watch the soaring swallows, joyful symbols of the island's hard-won freedom.

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