Feb 20 Con Dao

I was up early and on the beach at 6:00 am this morning. Overnight the fishermen had beached 2 fishing boats to perform some maintenance. The larger boat had 8 people crowding around the stern and one was removing the propeller. The 2 youngest boys were scraping the hull and cleaning off the barnacles. There are some young crewmen on these boats that cannot be more than 12 years old. Due to the clothes hanging from most of the boats I assume the crew lives onboard. I don’t know what the Vietnamese do to enforce the education policy.
Then Joan and I went into town to visit the museum. Con Dao’s history seems to be based on prisons. There are at least 3 prisons on the island that are now museums. The prisons were used by France during the colonial period and the USA during the Vietnam war. The first museum was enough – they are dreary places. However the main village on Con Dao is anything but dreary. It is a town with a very French flavour – red and white road markings, wide boulevards and lovely villas all throughout the town. There are several government buildings and they are well maintained. Flowers are everywhere and the people are always in the street and friendly. The total population of the island is only 6,000 but there seems to be more people here.
We finished the day with a very nice meal in town. After eating squid for 3 days I broke out of my rut and ordered a fish hotpot. Joan ordered a beef with chilli. Joan got beef with onions and it was delicious, however it was intended for the only other couple in the restaurant. I hope they enjoyed the beef with chilli.