Motor boats take visitors to explore the small islands around Con Dao (Photo: VNP/VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - The US newspaper New York Times includedVietnam’s Con Dao island among its 52 places to love in 2021.
The destinations were selected from more than 2,000 suggestionsthe paper received after asking its readers about spots that have delighted,inspired and comforted them in a dark year. It said these places remind us thatthe world still awaits.
Thang Dac Luong, a lawyer and a writer in Sydney, chose ConDao as his place of significance, describing it as “a tropical paradise with aterrible past.” The author wrote about his father’s captivity on the islandfrom 1961 – 1963 and his memorable trip to Con Dao.
“I spent three days on Con Dao. I visited a cemetery whererelatives of people who died or suffered in the prison can bring offerings.There’s a marine conservatory, where baby turtles are being raised. On the lastday, I was on the beach. As I swam out in the warm, turquoise water, I burstinto tears. It’s important that we have these places where we can remember thepeople we’ve lost. Someday, I’d like to take my children there so they canlearn more about their grandfather.”
Located around 230 kilometers (143 miles)southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Con Dao island was once dubbed ‘Hell on Earth,’home to a brutal prison where the French and American invaders jailed andtortured many Vietnamese freedom fighters during the 19th and 20th centuries.
This is not the first time Vietnam’s prison islandhas been highlighted by prestigious publications.
In 2017, CNN praised it as one of12 paradise islands in Asia, while US magazine Time included Con Dao in a list of 13 placesaround the world to amaze travelers with its blue water./.
