Hon Tre (Bamboo Island), Vietnam

I've just got back from my TET holiday break from a place called Hon Tre. I went with some Vietnamese friends. The Island is just off the coast of south west Vietnam and not on the tourist route. Hon Tre means Bamboo Island in English.

 

The only road around the Island

 

Only about 1,000 people live on this small Island and during my trip there I was the only western person there. I don't think they get many western visitors at all as everywhere I went everyone stopped and stared at me and ever ran into their houses to bring out their families to have a stare.

 

It only take about 10  minutes to go around the only ring road on the Island on a motorbike, there are no restaurants or hotels or Internet and no one speaks English. Most people live around this road and in the middle of the Island is a big hill and jungle.

 

Trekking up the hill

 

The only things to do were to go around the one road on the Island, trek up the big hill or relax in a hammock. My kindle came in very useful!

 

We trekked up the big hill one day which was very hot and sweaty but gave a great view of the Island. There is so much fruit that grows here, Mangos, bananas, pineapples, dragon fruits, star fruits, jack fruits, all of which we were picking off the trees and eating. It was good to see how people live and really eat off the land. The only other food was seafood which obviously they catch themselves.

 

View from my room with offerings to Buddha

 

My bedroom was nice and had a great view of the sea. I needed a mosquito net for sleeping and could hear the sea all night which was lovely. It was a nice relaxing holiday. One thing that was strange was that the Island had a speaker system set up all around the road on the Island, one was outside my bedroom. Every day they broadcast the news with various communist information with stuff about what great things the government are doing and how lucky everyone is. There are also a few communisit tunes too. Sadly this came on a 5am every morning! Yes, 5am! I was still pitch black, was really loud and went on for an hour. As there was no Internet I was hoping they'd have the football results but they didn't even have them.

 

You can see the 5am speaker in the middle of the picture.

 

On the last day I looked out my bedroom window and saw some poor chaps boat had sank (see the picture) They were trying to fix it or rescue stuff from it, I felt sorry for the man but watching it killed an hour or so.

 

Sinking boat

Below are a couple of videos I took when on the Island, onw is on the back of a bike and the other is up the big hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TET Holiday, Vietnam

I've now finished work until a week on Friday because of the Vietnamese holiday of TET. Tomorrow I am taking a night busy to Rach Gia on the south west coast of Vietnam where I will take a ferry to a place called 'Bamboo Island' where I will be for the next 6 days. Its supposed to be very remote (no internet access) whith not much to do except relax. I shall get some photos for the blog when I'm back.

 

As its TET they sell lots and lots of flowers in the park. I went and looked at some today and they were very nice. It did present a good opportunity for taking pictures with people getting them home on bikes so below is a load of photos I took this morning for people carrying stuff on bikes.

Tall flowers on the back of a bike

 

Flower delivery man

Traditional bike threesome with flowers

No room on the bike so this box is on the womans head

 

Check out this guy - paper for the office??

 







Nearly time for TET

I'm well back into the swing of working. I've got lots of classes at my school and I'm busy. At the end of this week however is the Vietnamese holiday of TET which is a bit like their Christmas where they also celebrate the Chinese new year. This means my school will be closed to 6 days!!!!

 

My school logo viewed from our teachers room balcony

 

During this time I'm going to a very small Vietnamese Island to the south west of Vietnam. There won't be much to do except relax. I'm going with some Vietnamese people and not may western people have been to this Island. I'm also told I maybe the first Englishman to visit the Island.... I'm not sure if this is true though.

 

The post office, a nice building and also a tourist attraction

 

I'll try and get a picture of the Island. I looked on google maps but it doesn't even show it on there so it must be pretty remote.