After a long journey, we usually find a cosy place to get rid of tiredness and regain the balance. The coffee shops with beautiful design seems very nice to hang out. I’ve seen many Con Dao coffee shops but just really impressed by two names: Infinite and Lacasa. They are really unique in design with a reasonable menu.
Infinite cafe
This coffee includes 2 sectors with very specific style. The left house look young and modern while the right one is quite vintage. While watching the coffee, I came up with an idea that it followed a rule of design: a style of no style.
The exterior looks like a nest with a lot of brown leaves and timbers while the interior is more outstanding: it looks as if it was made completely wooden: from walls to roof. The roof is very charming with a piles of wood up-side-down.
The board is made from steel roof with a laurel wreath hanging on. They use heavy yellow as major lighting solution for interior, along with wood material, which sometimes, makes you feel not only warm but a bit hot. Hot! You know.
The price is higher than average and in some special occasion, it seem they charge very high for service: we ordered a bottle of white wine for price around over 100 000 vnd a bit but finally we had to pay 100000/ person (we are 4 people).
We experience the Christmas buffet there for 16$, the food was good, but drink was not free at all.
I recommend Infinite for ones who love somethings chaos a bit in design, like the way they combine modern and vintage.
Lacasa
Another coffee shop I visited after a long trail in national park. It’s simply beautiful.
The owner put on a modern design in every aspects from the signboard to steel-glass structure. You’ll love it if you are a fan of simplicity.
The bar is so lovely and very colorful with dozen of wine bottle arranged neatly on shelf. There are some artful light hung above, adding more beauty.
While it generally follows the modern architecture, there are still some corner of exhibiting the vintage art like paintings, racks and lanterns. You’ll love the way it is. Very simply but artful.
The price is also the same as Infinite. I ordered a pot of tea for 35 000 vnd and really enjoy my time there, very peaceful.
If you are looking for a Con Dao hostel in budget style, I recommend Uyen’s house for its very relaxing and romantic experience.
As the only one hostel in the island, I loved its wooden style at the first sight. There’s a mid-size signboard “Uyen’s house – Bed & Room” at front with some bird-house-like props on.
The house looks like a garden in a-style-of-no-style, various plants, put in various places, along with some art installation. The typical materials are woods, glass and metal mainframe.
the ceiling at lounge
There are many plants in both exterior and interior details. A rolling bench is put at front, with a table made from a timber block, a wooden ashtray on, watching small fish pool. If you’d like to do some fitness, there’s a weight lift and a horizontal bar at the corner of the hostel yard.
The hostel is a two storey building. Downstairs is dorm room while upstairs is private room. When standing by the balcony, I felt it shaking a bit because of the wind blows. I thought it needs to strengthen the structure a bit while still reserves beautiful aspects.
Yard Top-down view from balcony
The lounge is more attractive, most of furniture are wooden, from the long bench, wall covers to plate shelf. It’s also decorated with a dry creepers hanging on ceiling, some lights on. That’s for looking up, if you look down, a various cement tiles would amaze you.
There is a kitchen with full of tools and spices to make meal. I was impressed by the fact that the nearby Infinite coffee and the hostel belongs to the same founders, which are said to be cooks in Six Sense resort.
the timber table
The dorm is designed very nature-friendly with brown tone of woods and forest leaves hanging up. I sense that every things above my head were hung artfully: fans, lights, private lamps,… Books are piled up right beside your head bed, so no worry if you are a book digester.
At the lounge, near receptionist, there’s a map of national park which provides a lot of useful information of the wild life in the island. Remember to consult it before go out for a wild day.
Dorm room at night
The hostel is at the town center, so you’re likely to walk around to visit all historic building, complex at very relaxing pace. In the morning, it’s great to shoe up and take jogging along the shoreline pavement.
Once I requested some food but there’s nothing, even instant noodle available. However, you can buy anything in the nearby grocery at very reasonable price. Uyen’s house is also very close to Con Dao market, so it’s ideal to collect some ingredients for cooking.
For the price range, it’s quite high compared to the average dorm in Vietnam, but it’s still very budget compared to the hotel, resort in the island. That’s why I chose it for the first time visiting Con Dao.
The prologue of my Con Dao travel story covers how I manage to get onboard a ship at budget price and first glance of the beautiful Con Dao
Getting onboard
I had few days off and a plan for Con Dao. There are 2 options to get to the island: flight or boat. Airline is not a budget choice, there’s no cheap ticket at all, so it must be getting on a boat for more reasonable price.
When I got to Vung Tau, I thought that the port routing to Con Dao and HCMC was the same. I was wrong. They are two places independently, and 10 kilometer away from each other. It’s was late afternoon so I rushed to the port, in hope of the tickets were still available.
It’s not a large-scale port. On the contrary, the ticket station was very small, divided into 3 sectors: ticket booth, passenger lounge and goods transfer ticket booth. Though, I highly rate the restroom for its neatness and cleanliness.
When I asked for ticket, the ticket seller requested my ID card, which I was surprised at first. I didn’t think it must be strict like that. But it’s OK, I gave her my ID and soon she provided my the ticket, 85000vnd. Nice!
The next task, buy another ticket for my motorbike. At first, I was down when I was told that it cost 50000vnd, more than the number I’d researched before, only 30000vnd. He pushed me to bring my bike to the docking bay in hurry because it was nearly departure time.
I showed the vehicle ticket for an officer who was in charge of loading goods onboard. He said I had to pay 30000vnd for loading fee, so my bike cost total 80000vnd, mostly as same as my ticket price. The officer then used a big bottle and plastic pipe to draw fuel out and reminded me to keep the ticket to take my bike, along with fuel, also. I was regretted a bit when my bike was full fueled, it’s quite wasting.
16:30, I was embarking, just like other people. There were 2 conductor guarding the only way to the ship. They requested the boarding ticket along with ID card. There was a old man stuck with the problem that he didn’t have ID card. He insisted so much, I thought he was successful, because I saw he sitting on deck and chatting with the other later. So it seems the procedure was not completely strict.
A night on the ship
Passing the ticket gate, people were walking in queue to the basement. It was very noisy, the engine roared every time. But the cabin was very clean, I spotted no trash on the ground. There are 3 room for beds but only one room equipped seats.
I heard some one suggested hanging hammock for more comfortable night. It was perfect truth. The desk performed up-and-down while the basement make you sick with left-right-swinging, the hammock will keep you balance, which is nice if you are a seasick guy.
I seated a while, but the closed atmosphere forced me to go out for fresh air, so I staired toward deck. Wind flows welcomed me, I saw the last light of the day, a blend of orange-red and blue color, it was beautiful, simply.
On the second time, the ship was on water, not far from the shoreline, it got darker, the lamp posts were lit and city was drown in warm artificial orange light. People gathered on deck to chit-chat, enjoy windy ambience, photography, or just have dinner. The canteen offered hot soup with scallions, a boiled egg, a slice of pork bologna roll. They only sold purified drink. I think the next time I would bring some cooler beverages.
The third time I’d reached the deck, there was no one there, the city was far far away, the ship was swinging strongly with stronger winds and higher tides. It’s resting time.
I came back to my seat then, and tried to sleep. But it was not a comfort night, though my room was not air-con equipped, the cold flew from the next room. The whole night turned completely hell when I had to manage to keep body warm.
The ship was swinging continuously. Some one had seasick, I heard the sound of vomiting in the next door, then a guy had seat at the center line with some ones like his parents. They used medicated oil to ease him, which the smell even made me possibly turned to vomit as a crowd affect. It’s hard to hold on.
Having toilet in the ship was more terrified, your body remained frontward-and-backward making it extremely difficulty to do the job.
My sleeping was interrupted sometimes. When I opened my eyes, and looked at the watch, it showed 1:30, 3:30 and the last time at 5:30, I decided to go on deck to watch sunrise. It was the cloudy sky, winds blew powerfully, twilight sea. Few people there, but soon after, more ones joined.
The island finally appeared. When the sun was high and everything was clearer then it’s time to disembark. I stepped down and few minutes later, my bike was brought out of the ship. I paid loading fee (30000 vnd) and guided to the barrier station to refuel.
First glance of the island
The landscape was astonishing. Ben Dam port was a large area, covered by several islets, making it still enough to be perfectly docking. The distances from the ship disembarking location to the refuel place was around 500m. I loved that 500m, giving me a glance at how beautiful the island was.
At the barier station, I showed the vehicle ticket to a man, and he was back to the room, then brought out a big bottle of gasonline, he poured into my bike just one litter, which was enough for a journey to the town center, where I should do a full refuel.
The road was rough, some holes appeared accidentally, requiring my full attention. However, the weather was great. Sunlight on everything, green lines of tree, lamp posts with linking wires, free ride on a coastal road, where I was excited by what I see.
I stopped near a monument, where the best view on the turquoise beach and wild shorelines, somewhere mountains meeting the sea in stunning shape. That was amazing! A sense of adventurous blood run in my heart.
This is the next chapter of my Con dao travel story-day 1, which cover how I had bun rieu for breakfast, hiked Dam Tre bay, visited the prison complex and managed to get onboard back home.
I woke up early, and got out of the bed quickly to check the weather. The cloudy sky outside was not promising. My friend even said that there was a serious storm coming from Philippines, which drew the cloud and rain.
Though the dorm offered free breakfast, we still decided to explore local food with bun rieu. Frankly speaking, it was not as good as ones in HCMC, the the price was nearly double. I guess the cost of living in the island was high so it affected the food price.
Another annoying issue was ticket. The ticket agency was not friendly, and when I asked for the seat option, she said that the it was sold out, only bed available. However, at night, when no one was on deck, I saw a great number of availability in seat room. I thought she was a cheater.
Back to dorm, my friend said that the hostel owner, which was a young but experienced trekker, promising to guide us through a wild trail, couldn’t make it because of the Christmas Eve party hangover. So, I went on my plan to explore the Dam Tre bay trail. Everyone joined excitingly.
That was the chance for me to explore the rest of the beautiful coastal road, via incredible Tau Be cape, luxurious Six sense resort,… But the temperature was very cool with cloudy sky and grey cloud. I didn’t enjoy the landscape much. It was a little sad.
Finally, we got a sign showing that turning right to get to Dam Tre bay. We were confusing a bit in the beginning, then decided to take an off-road challenge, left the bikes and hiking 2 kilometer on wild seashore to reach the trail entrance.
Because of the far distance, very few people get here. All people we met were 3 local guys going back from a wild pineapple collecting and my next-bed room mate, who had help me go trails previous day.
It was kind of isolation. And the beach was full of trash at first. The closer I we got to the entrance, the cleaner it was. When we were hiking, there was a man riding over us, which made my friend regretful because of not riding bike on the beach.
Honestly, as a young traveller, I preferred hiking for fresher and challenging experience, while some older ones in the group was likely to choose relaxing way. It struggled a bit. But when we reached the entrance, it was alright.
We crossed over a stream in low water level, nothing difficult. The trail was naturally preserved, so I was exciting to explore it, but my teammates was exhausted and looked like they were not interested in trail hiking. So we turned back.
On the way, my friend spotted a dead corpse of sea turtle. We didn’t know what killed it. The corpse was in decomposition, so it looked scary a bit. What a poor guy. My friend said that if a man killed sea turtle, he would be in jail for 5-7 years. Oh oops.
We rode back to town, the older ones rested at dorm while the two younger kept explore the famous vestige of the island: the prison complex.
Prison complex
In contrast to the noisy outside, there’s a great silence behind the metal door. Though it was in the late noon, walking around the prison with empty prison rooms, some filled with wax figures in very painful gesture. It was so creepy, like I was exploring a ghost house, even a “click” sound in my camera echoed walls to walls.
I was walking carefully and it was tensed a bit. I didn’t try to get inside jails, my mind was full of idea of wax man would move and the door jail would close like ones in horror movie. I think it is a must-try experience, though it was frightening at first. War is bad, come to Con Dao jail to understand that. We visit for 2 more prison then heading to the port to get onboard in time, which another trouble came up.
Managing to have a vehicle ticket
That was, after reaching the port, I managed to find a booth ticket to buy vehicle ticket. It was not easy to locate it at all. I asked the nearby local and after 5 minute conversation, I was pointed to ride to the back of the barrier station. Most of the door was closed, no sign of any banner “ticket” on any rooms. I was confusing.
There was a man nearby, wearing blue shirt, I guessed he was an officer or a guard, so I asked where the ticket booth was. He pointed toward a room with half door closed. There were 2 women inside, I provided the bike license and she quickly gave me vehicle ticket, 50000 vnd, the same price as the land.
I turned back and my fellow asked me why it took me so long. “Well, it was quite complicated to find out” I said.
We were sitting next to a booth, see loading activities and chit-chat to kill time. My friend was a hard-core traveler, having been to many places, behaving appropriately and respecting people opinions. I appreciated her for those.
It’s time to get on the ship. She was seasick, so she took some spills to prepare for the “night struggle”. On the deck, I saw Con Dao for the last time. It was nice moment, though the grey sky reminded me of the night of disturbance.
Epilogue
In the evening, the ship was swinging heavily, which made some people vomit continuously. Imagine you tried to sleep but that sound kept annoying you, made you turn to vomit and all you had to do was to tried to neutralize it. That was completely uncomfortable at all.
That’s disturbing night because of the storm. I couldn’t sleep well, just jumped into dream for a while and opened eyes. Then I blogged to kill time. It was one of my longest, worst night that I wouldn’t forget.
If you do adventurous travel, so you know what expects you. Be ready for that!
