Saturday 20 December 2008
Tuesday 2 December 2008
Wednesday 26 November 2008
Thursday 13 November 2008
Sunday 9 November 2008
Friday 24 October 2008
Thursday 23 October 2008
Lak Lake
Lak Lake Morning Clouds
Lak Lake Rainbow and Rain Storm
Lak Lake Rainbow and Rain Storm
view from one of Bao Dai's villas
not much to do in the rain
Thursday 31 July 2008
Phnom Penh - Ha Tien - Ho Chi Minh City
Phnom Penh
off to the market...
Kep
Ha Tien, Night Market along the river.
Tuesday 22 July 2008
Sunday 4 May 2008
Con Dao Islands
From what we've seen of this country, Con Dao is like nowhere else in Vietnam. It has a gruesome history as a prison settlement, established by the French and after that used by the South Vietnamese Army. There are relics of prisons dotted all over the island. While traveling around we came across plaques commemorating certain events of this history, such as, "This is the place where 200 people tried to escape by boat, 120 of them were re-captured and the others died at sea", or "20 people were buried alive here after the army went on a rampage to control a prison breakout." Then when we saw what was left of one the more intact prisons and got a sense of the conditions, the phrase, 'treated like animals' falls way short of describing the horror of it. It was chilling.
On the other hand, what a stunning place for a prison. It's actually part of an archipelago of 15 or so islands, mostly covered with rolling green hills of virgin rainforest, and surrounded by the calm, blue South China Sea. The sea was crystal clear and sunburn withstanding, we had an amazing snorkelling trip to one of the islands. The only town is a neat little grid and the streets are lined with big old fig trees. There's still lots of colonial buildings,some a bit run down, and some well-established,shady gardens. All good for cruising around on push bikes and soaking up the atmosphere.
What we really appreciated, and so different from the rest of this country, is that it's very, very quiet. Only 6,000 people live there. You could stand by the road for minutes and not see or hear a motorbike in any direction, well maybe only one whole minute, but still compared to Saigon...
There's only 4 hotels and not much organised tourism. The locals are so chilled out and don't seem to be particularly aware or interested in the money to be made from rich westerners. One man just shrugged his shoulders and walked away when I tried to bargain with him on the price of renting his boat. I don't think that has ever happened to me before. No one wanted to sell you anything, or get you to ride on their xe om (motorbike taxi). They're just hanging out and enjoying this idyllic place, eating seafood, playing football on the beach and watching the sunset.
This will change over the next few years though. There's a luxury resort under construction and due to be finished at the end of the year, and more plans for development and tourism. I just hope it doesn't become the circus that some tourist places in Vietnam have become.
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