At first glance, Con Dao Island might seem an odd choice for a getaway weekend to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Can Dao was used as a penal colony by the French and others for over 100 years - think Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman in "Papillon"...Still, Con Dao is also a National Park, has been given protected status and Vietnam are working with the WWF to protect endangered species such as sea turtles and dugong as well as the coral reefs. And it has some really cool beaches, crystal clear waters and is pretty much unknown on the tourist circuit (so far).
Not such an odd choice after all. A true getting-away-from-it-all, romantic break for the two of us. Well, that was the theory... We turned up at the airport only to find David Appleton on the same flight, my long-time friend and CC's boss!
It's a 45 minute flight to Con Dao and we arrived on time to a fantastic island setting - the runway starts at a beach on one side of the island and ends on a beach at the other side. The resort we stayed at was right on the beach and had a nice pool. We decided to have a relaxing day, have some seafood, go for a swim and read our books.
The following day we caught up with David and his friends, Brian and Hoan, to take a boat trip out to Bay Canh island. We were able to do some swimming, see the coral reef through the clear waters and also see the turtle sanctuary. We had lunch and then waded through the mangroves to pick up our boat on the other side of the island, getting there on a small coracle.
On Sunday, we hired a motorbike and did a tour of the island, driving round Shark Cape to Ben Dam Port and also doing a tour of the old French & American prison buildings which have been converted into museums and tourist attractions.
On Monday it was time to go home. We'd had a great time and a very relaxing break, but we were looking forward to seeing Catriona, who'd been missing us a lot - she was very happy to see us!
Catriona and I sat down to a dinner of a large New York Deli pizza - she has taken a liking to pizza & lasagne, much to the consternation of CC who is trying to feed her baby food! We're going to try her with mince & tatties next, I'm sure she's going to love it!
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