Con Dao: Vietnam's Secret Paradise

we were looking for a place off the beaten path tiny little plane to a tiny little island this chill Island Paradise should fit the bill nicely welcome to Kow Vietnam do do Kow is a real gym tucked away in the South China Sea there's pristine beaches gorgeous lush jungle and a at times sad but very interesting history a lot of kow's history was really kind of traumatic puto Camp was built in 1925 during the French Colonial period it was largely just a prison Island and also during the Vietnam war it was an American prison camp but since then it's become a symbol of resilience to the Vietnamese people and a beautiful nature reserve kto is a group of 16 Islands it's kind of a secret paradise the main island where we're at now is also called condal pretty much where all the action is I think there a few resorts on some of the outling islands but the full-time population on this one it's right about 8,000 so it might be where the action is but there's not a lot of action to be D great place to come and relax and to grab a coconut and in case you're interested in getting in a few workouts while you're here no pain no game it is exactly 1 mile from that Pier down there to the end of the beach so 2 m round trip hey math math is a really cool thing it's a bit windy today which is kind of a theme around here but with this kind of a view who can complain this is one of our favorite beaches it's right in conson town it's easy to get to conveniently enough the access to it is one of our favorite places to eat bar 200 it's about the only place we found so far in the island that takes credit cards at least International credit cards that's been a big help to us trying to save on our cash supplies a little bit in the money game cash is King they also have one of my favorite things I've had here the breakfast calzone calzones are pointless I know we're in Vietnam but you got to give this thing a shot waiting for lunch to be delivered careful she bites ah thank you so much en thank you come this is the breakfast calzone and you'd be like so what it's just a calzone pizza is your grandfather's calone It's a Wonderful pizza crust Kone stuffed with smoked sausages egg cheese and ham one of my favorite things that I've eaten in Vietnam yes it's not vietamese food but look at that smoke sausages this is amazing it was a Kel Zone judge me all you want that's a 10 out of 10 catch in a bit now that we're all up and ready for adventure we head out to explore the island by scooter really easy to rent one from our hotel I'm sure your hotel will have them too if families of monkeys all over the island but they seem to be a little more nervous of people than some of the ones we're used to so that was a nice change the ride around the island is easy enough for pretty much any ability level due to the nice paved road that goes all the way over to the national park no this isn't the national park it's just the PK but it looked pretty so we're going to check it out stand calling at your door oh now I stand Here calling at your door yeah I'm Yours anywhere you want yeah I'm yours and now we're [Music] singing This is the national park we're not sure what we're doing and there is a giant price list with a ton of different things so I think we're just just going to smile and say to please and see how that [Music] works we have just made it to the famous cond down National Park got to buy your ticket down the hill 50,000 dong which is about 250 per person you park your bike the rest of it's all on foot this is all the chose your Adventure hike there's some beaches up here there's Turtle sanctuaries there's caves we're going to see what we can find there's a path right now there's no question anymore and now I stand Here caring at your door oh now I I just learned from the sign here that these are called Lanas they're vines that begin life on the forest floor where they only get 1 to 2% of the sunlight they're a little more clever so they climb up the other trees knitting intricate webs between the Trunks and branches and eventually take over their host trees my grandma always said company was like fish they stay too long they start to STI we've been heading this direction for about a half hour we decided to turn around and head back because we did the cardinal sin braying our little bottles of water thinking that somewhere around here they would sell water before we got on our hike no we're headed back in the opposite direction so we warned always bring enough water it's been downhill that way and like we have one we had two little bottles we have one left so back that way top we wandered around in the National Park amazing walk up through there we never did make it to the beach it was stunning we ended up going out a different way we didn't have any water left so we just canned it but we walked around up there for a couple hours definitely recommend most beautiful walk we've been on in a long time and now we're down at what is supposed to be the best beach in condal it's the one right behind the airport got to pay 5,000 to park your scooter and I think it's 3,000 to get in but we'll find out in a minute 3,000 okay you over 60 I'm not over 60 I'm not quite that old come on 10 more give your tickets entrance fee is only 3,000 dong which is not very much I don't remember I can't do math right now but if you're over 60 it's free we're not there yet all right beach is pretty darn nice the airplanes land right there but no big airplanes around here just a little ones I can see why this beach people say it's one of their favorites it's long the sand is wonderful and the entertainment is the planes come in and watch everybody go crazy over them but of course we're waiting for one of those planes too so where are those crazy [Music] people this is a really neat Beach it took about a I say about a half hour to get here here um from town I would recommend coming Chris is about to get in the water I'm staying on land he said the water is clear and it's very [Music] chilly this's a little coffee shop right on the corner next to the Havana cond Hotel it's right next to our hotel this is the secret local spot every afternoon all the taxi drivers gather here for coffee I forget it had to be amazing coffee if all the taxi drivers are here so giving it a shot how are you today did you just get iced coffee that is really good very strong it's really good is it it's very good tasty very [Music] strong a cafe dog little stands across the street I got what is supposed to be the number one milk coffee the ice sweet milk coffee that's pretty darn good all right the taxi drivers are right come to this place get a iced coffee and then continue your [Music] day it's the same day we just went back to the hotel and took a shower real quick we needed it after being on the scooter all day cond is such a lovely mix of Vietnamese culture and chill Island Vibes the locals are just warm and welcoming always willing to help us with Vietnamese s we speak none and everybody tries their English to help us it make makes it really easy to get around despite the fact that I had calzone for breakfast I love czone we know the local food is wonderful we're going to take you to our favorite local place called suu or as Katy likes to call it a pick and Point Place this little walking path runs right downtown parallel to the boardwalk I love this place because I never know what I want and everything's in picture form and I could just pick and point and they scoop it up and give it to me usually cost about2 to $4 for a [Music] [Applause] [Music] mealing [Music] alone best food in condal number one table tea which is absolutely delicious got the little bowls got the sauces got the steaming fire of death around here somewhere which is right there sorry I ate something I had a little bit of spice strip they give you rice and then they you have string beans and a pickled something that comes with everything and soup soup is uh very is light really good sometimes it has a little bit of a fish flavor first thing I tried was this I not sure what it is it's cut up meat but I like it because it has a little bit of gristle in it so it's a little chewy really good one of my favorite things is their pork chops they Grill them as you saw out front and they're [Music] delicious this place is a 10 I love the food here the kids always run up and make sure that they have it was this little boy that's sitting at the other side of the room he came over ran over he goes hello and then he gave us a thumbs up and then he ran off that what you Gob that was a massive amount of food we're both stuffed and it was less than $8 it was like $6 that's also another reason why I love this place crazy there's something cool we haven't mentioned yet it's kind of interesting there's these loudspeakers around and every night I assume it's the news but as we've already covered I don't speak vetnam me so I don't know what it is but there's announcements that go on for like 45 minutes or an hour out of the loudspeakers like all over town every night we're going to grab some uh water head back to the hotel and we will catch up with you a bit later there are tons of trails and Pathways all over the island so you can explore without using a scooter we spent most of our two weeks here hanging out on the beach or wandering these Trails which to Katie's Delight had a bunch of cows and other animals along them hey little guy so cute for a special culinary delight head up to the beach house which by the way is nowhere near the Beach we tried about half of their menu and everything we had was absolutely amazing this little island was just amazing but the signs of development are everywhere so if you're going to come I'd probably come now kind of hard to beat that for gorgeous keep drinking this coffee the Thumbs Up And subscribe no that was good that was good that was good