musings on music, the human species, and the excitations of travel. maybe books, too, or architecture! and food!
May 31, 2020
Turtles and Tranquility at Hell on Earth
Note: This is my second attempt to publish this post (not counting various edits). Through some confusion/ignorance/friction between me and WordPress my first post got deleted. By me. Why is this so hard for me to get running smoothly?!
The last spot Lynn and I explored before officially departing Vietnam in November, 2019, was the island—actually the archipelago—of Con Dau (Côn Đảo), a short prop-plane hop south of our then-hometown of Ho Chi Minh City. It was a gorgeous sendoff and one that surprisingly left me feeling like maybe we had not yet seen enough of Vietnam. Such historical luminaries as Ptolemy and Marco Polo mentioned the islands in their writings, but even so many centuries later the place benefits from maintaining a relatively low profile. (Wow! Maybe I shouldn’t write about it—the place is likely to be overrun after this goes into my blog!) In fact there are restrictions on the number of people allowed to be there at any time.
We stayed at the Poulo Condor Resort and I would never hesitate to stay there again although it’s a little remote from most non-hotel activities. There’s at least one fancier place to stay, too. Not-great weather during our stay was keeping tourists away but this probably helped create an especially leisurely, luxurious feel for us. People at the hotel and beyond were relaxed and friendly as they made sure our needs and desires were satisfied. We also encountered quite a few good-natured people who had grown up in the islands and would not want to live anywhere else, despite limited economic opportunities.
Aside from the hotel, the island(s) itself has a bounty to offer, and we only chose a few starters from the menu. It seems that some people are disappointed that the islands are not more developed, but to us that is an advantage. We helped launch dozens of baby sea turtles into their thirty-year round-trip and that was incredible to behold, if brief. Much of the area is a National Park with quite a few protected animals and plants, and one can quickly go from scuba diving to mountain trekking. We strolled along, or just gazed at, some of the most gorgeous beaches I’ve ever seen, intermixed with the sort of rocky coast that I love to explore. Heavy rains caused cancellation of our mountain hikes—but that just means there’s more to look forward to next time!
To young people in Vietnam Con Dau is known as a scenic, unspoiled resort, a place with not too many people (rare in Vietnam) where one can escape hectic city life. But for older generations this idyllic place actually was known as Hell on Earth. Starting in the nineteenth century several prisons were constructed that remained functional even into the 1980’s. The French, the Americans and the Vietnamese all took turns as wardens, each seemingly trying to outdo each other with their cruelty. One of the infamous practices that was perfected here was the originally secret use of “Tiger Cages” where multiple prisoners were kept in tiny cells, the ceilings of which were open steel grating that facilitated guards prodding the prisoners with long spears even as they were dying off by the thousands from malnutrition. Many of the Vietnamese prisoners who were incarcerated here, primarily those associated with North Vietnam during the “American War,” eventually became official national heroes including a large number of women. In fact, the role of women in Vietnam’s history seems to be recognized and celebrated at Con Dau more than at most other places.
Tangent: One of the strange themes we have observed in our travels is that prisons often seem to be positioned in very scenic places—Port Arthur in Tasmania is another one that jumps immediately to mind. I’m not sure why this is. Is it just chance? Is it a result of the stark contrast between the abominations of the prisons and the natural beauty surrounding them? Is it for the benefit of the wardens? Is this supposed to make it harder for the prisoners to bear their shackles? I assume that simple remoteness contributes to the phenomenon, both by taking advantage of natural impediments to escape while by default being spots that are largely unspoiled. (The historical/visual/architectural interest that old prisons can generate is another related, issue, but that’s not what I’m addressing here.)
Aside from pondering the peculiarities of history and human behavior, as I look back through the photos I think to myself that this is one of the places to which I would be happy to return sooner rather than later…
This was one the cheerful greeters at our hotel and he’s very good at his job. He has a large family that work in various positions around the resort.Our room (an attached villa). Would anybody not feel like relaxing here for a spell, on the comfy bed, in the cushy chairs, on the front veranda, on the back, private veranda, in the jacuzzi?After wandering down the main path through the hotel’s manicured jungle, the beach slowly opens before you., the beach slowly opens before you.Try to read this photograph as the 180-degree view that it is. I have not been to too many beaches I found so satisfying. There are two or three people off in the distance. (One memory that does come drifting back from decades ago was a beach in Mykonos…that was very nice, too! But in place of the lush greenery here, that pristine beach was protected by bold red rock.Throwing it away, soaking it in! One can wade out into the gentle warm sea for hundreds of meters.One must make difficult choices: Should we sprawl out down here or up there?For our introductory lunch I chose seafood soft tacos. They were memorable!So many of these little guys around. We tried not to intrude.The inhabitants of this beach by and large are accomplished artists.But the ocean currents are not about to cede the artistry to the crabs.I honestly cannot say what we’re looking at here. There are mushrooms, but are they speeding along! What is creating these streaks of beauty?If you want to photograph plants there are plenty of willing elegant poseurs.Can you believe all we did was gaze at this gorgeous pool? Missed opportunities!Moon through the branches. Never gets old. Evening.Now morning, dawn, as we race to get the little turtles into the sea before the predatory seagulls can focus on them.There they go! Little Sensory Wanderers All! No hesitation about where they’re headed. But they’ll be back in 25-30 years, right to this spot.That’s the cycle. I don’t know if the turtles read the instructions in Vietnamese or English but they seem to get the point.This is a pretty typical view, at least at the City Center. Abandoned stuff, like boats, is not uncommon, and this is not an displeasing view. Unfortunately, in Vietnam generally, that includes bags of trash that are thrown out randomly. Is there anything more Third World?Lotus lake on an island. Folks tending the farm-grounds. Fish demanding attention. A languidly lively place.We asked a taxi driver, a friend of the hotel bus driver, to give us a tour of the places he thought were interesting. He did not disappoint. I haven’t shared the rock quarries or beaches or port or farms. We felt we were seeing the real thing. Since the mountains rise up quickly from the sea the roads hug the coast. Watch out! Traffic! A motorcycle approaching!We were riding in a simple Japanese sedan taxi. Look at one of the stylish cars we could have rented!I have chosen not to focus on the Con Dau prisons, but here is one view into a tiny cell which would have held several men (or women),, the Tiger Cages. As mentioned, women are celebrated on the Island. The song commemorated here was written by a famous Vietnamese male composer, but the subject is a devoted, loyal southern Vietnamese girl. It’s one of the unofficial anthems of Vietnam: Biết On Võ Thị Sáu (Grateful to Mrs. Vo Thi Sau). Surprisingly there were not a lot of times in Vietnam that bugs made me freak out, but I literally sprinted away from this exhibit because of the number of mosquitoes! Standing water everywhere.Back at the resort, reading room above, exercise room below: who could resist trying either one? (Me! But I did give the exercise room a workout, twice!)I’m not sure if these guys were high-tailing it for the exercise or reading room, but they were trucking toward somewhere. And they had plenty of familiar company.I wish I knew more about all the plants and flowers and fruits that we saw.Such as…It’s fascinating to watch the group mood swings of the lotus flowers. Closed at certain times in the day, open at others, open at night when one might assume flower would be sleeping. Open, as here, in a light rain, with a Japanese-style bridge offering a tempting destination in the distance...As slowly get soaked, I wonder if the rain actually enhanced the experience.Some of our greeter’s relatives were on-hand to help us enjoy a delicious buffet in the dining room.Some diners are less elegant than others, but the Vietnamese coffee with coconut milk was worth savoring.I can’t resist including a picture of Mr and Mrs.This one’s taken as we flap back toward HCMC. Those beautiful beaches are tucked away somewhere in there…I did not commission this from one of our French painter friends of a century or so ago . It’s just the way one of the photos turned out. Kind of nice.
