On my third day in Con Dao Islands I attempted to go to Hon Ba or Ba island which seems to have the best views of Con Dao islands from what I’ve seen on the map. There is nothing in English on the web on how exactly to go there, but I tried. It proved to be hard so I ended up exploring Con Dao National Park instead.
I went to 3 different places to end up hearing the same answer: No Boat to Ba Island.! How come, if at the hotel I was told the opposite?? I asked a few people but none of them were English speakers. It felt like they weren’t simply willing to help and I was right. One of them told me no as an answer even before I could tell where I wanted to go haha.
Honestly, not easy for a foreigner in certain places in Vietnam, they are not as willing to help as in Thailand for example. I was successfully ignored by a lady while asking her the same question… whatever. I decided to give up. What can I do if all I hear is no? Not even a pointing directions nothing at all? It’s no that comes from their mouths and don’t dare look at me anymore.
I didn’t have a plan B that day so I decided to go on the same trek I had done 5 years ago. I remembered a beautiful beach absolutely empty on the other side of the jungle trail through Con Dao National Park, so I decided to go back for it, even though the weather wasn’t promising. Yeah, I didn’t see the sun this day but at least it didn’t rain like last time.
Con Dao National Park
So, I headed to the National Park entry to find a different scene from what I remembered last time. Things have changed. There is a big building with some preserved animals to show off. Very different from what I remembered. I actually tried to enter the park with the ticket I had bought the previous day but they didn’t let me haha. Well, at least I tried but the guard said the ticket wasn’t even for the same area… ok never mind I went to the ticket counter to buy another. Each Con Dao National Park ticket costs 50K dong.
I’m glad I decided to talk to the staff about what I have just experienced. The man at the counter spoke good English. I asked him if he knew anything about how to get to Hon Ba Island. He was the one confirming that people told me NO because I’m a foreigner. He told it straight to my face!! I wasn’t that surprised though. But, I was extremely lucky because this guy knew the captain of the boat that goes to Hon Ba and he said he could help me to get there if I wanted to. I was so so grateful and happy OMG. We exchanged contacts and once I wanted to go to Hon Ba, I would call him and he would call the boat captain who spoke NO English at all. That was so fortunate honestly!!
I went on my jungle trek which I knew would be long. From this jungle trail, you can reach 2 different beaches. I have been to both before so I was willing to go directly to the beautiful one. What I didn’t know was that I didn’t remember things as much as I thought I did. I went to the furthest possible beach thinking it was the beach I had in mind, but it wasn’t OH NO.
Bai Dat Tham
What!? Things have changed a lot in the past 5 years in Con Dao National Park. The beach access is different. There are buildings that weren’t there before and this beach is basically rocks. There is no sand to lay on or beach to enjoy!!! The path leads to rocks!! I remember that last time I finished this trail on a sandy spot haha.
This beach doesn’t have much sand indeed, but it has some. I don’t know why this path is leading to the rocks only. As it was low tide, it would be possible to walk towards a sandy spot, hard but possible, but during high tide, this trail ends up on water… weird. Anyway, this wasn’t the destination I wanted to reach so I was very disappointed cause it is further and tiring to get there haaa
I had to go back and follow the first trail to the beautiful beach. Only later did I realize why things looked so different to me. I have never been to Bai Dat Tham Beach before LOL. I was confused haha and had to read my previous blog post to realize.
How to get to Con Dao Islands HERE!
Bai Bang Beach
This was the beach I had visited years ago. But even the beautiful beach looks different haha.
No beautiful shades of blue as I had seen last time and barely sand can be seen. There was definitely way more sand on this beach 5 years ago, even if it was just a little anyway. What a shame. Still, this was the spot where I stayed that day. The water is very clear. I think the tide was way too low for me to see the beautiful shades of blues I have seen in the past. What a pity. I rested up in the same spot as last time and I was as well the only person at Bai Bang Beach. Great at least I can enjoy the silence and peace this emptiness brings. Occasionally a few people pass by to see the waterfall that is ending up at sea, but no one stays. I stayed a bit later than 5 pm so I wouldn’t be walking in the Con Dao National Park jungle during the dark because this is still a 40-minute walk out of the forest.
The tide was super low when I left Bai Bang and I spent large minutes exploring the exposed corals and beautiful colorful clams that I spotted. That was cool!
Vietnam Heritage tree
One thing I ended up seeing this time on this trek along Con Dao National Park was this ancient tree. A 400-year-old tree in the middle of the jungle standing tall and imponent. It is surrounded by lush green vegetation. Pretty cool. I liked to walk here, especially because I saw a jungle crab along the way. It was just there in front of me. I remember seeing these orange crabs running with me under the rain in 2019. It was fun to see one closely and admire it for a few minutes.
And that was all that day. The next day, the national park guy helped me to have the best view of the Con Dao archipelago in Hon Ba!
Ong Cau Beach
On a different day, I explored another beach accessible without any fees. It is called Ong Cau Beach. You will see a small bush path from the main street and within a few meters, the beach is just there. It is not a very sandy beach though. There is a bit of sand but the way in the water would be too rocky to enjoy the day. It didn’t feel like to place to stay and go for a swim. But the beach was quiet and pleasant. Lots of beautiful trees with fancy shapes. Was nice to pay a visit.
So Ray viewpoint- observation tower
And on my last day in the morning, I decided to hike to this viewpoint. It seems to be beautiful but I couldn’t notice its true beauty. To find the beginning of this trail was kinda tricky. There are several new streets on the island and they don’t show on the map. The beginning of this trail was kinda hidden, not well signalized. I had to follow my position on the map carefully to find it. It is a steep hike and tiring. Cemeted path too and easily done but extremely slippery. It was the most slippery one I have done on Con Dao island and the only one that had handrails all along, so I think I’m not the only one finding it dangerous. I held on to that rail all the way down because, guess what: it started to pour down once I reached the observation tower. I had literally 5 min of view before it started to pour. And think that because of the rain, no one was around to collect a ticket fee, because otherwise, I would have to pay for a new ticket for this different area of Con Dao National Park.
What a bad day to rain this much cause this was the worst trail to do under such weather conditions. So, on my way back I went super carefully and slowly. Took longer to do but was still doable. Saw some animals on the way and the Con Dao squirrel that jumped from a tree very close to me, greeted me, and climbed up. What a moment!
There were also some abandoned houses in the middle of the jungle that were taken by nature. They looked cool and a nice shelter from the rain. There was also another trail leading to Ong Dung Beach that I discovered while writing this post was the beach I have visited before in 2019 lol. Therefore, I didn’t follow this trail on this day.
Check out more beautiful views in Con Dao Island HERE!
