asianatravelmate

New routes and destinations, innovative travel concepts and activity orientations.

Asiana Travel Mate constantly explores new routes and destinations and the possibilities for innovative approaches, concepts and activities that add unique dimensions to the intrepid traveler's experience. These pioneering tours address the overused theme of being "same, same but different" to genuinely provide a difference; to take the traveler off the beaten track, both in geographical and experiential terms.

The itineraries include "secrets" that are unlikely to be found, written in any depth, in travel guide books or logistically facilitated by mainstream operators. Pioneering tours may be mutually planned and developed or customized to focus on the traveler's personal interest or professional orientation. We are always open to suggestions or recommendations from travelers who wish to go beyond the common tour offerings.

Travelogue ~ Con Dao Archipelago ~ A Lonely Outpost

I am afloat in a wobbly basket off the Con Dao Archipelago, isolated mottled specks in the South China Sea, some 180 km east from the Vietnamese coast. Otherwise called a coracle, it is a round, woven bamboo boat, the underside covered in pitch. Rowing from our boat over the reef to land at Bay Canh island, I see the colonial era lighthouse perched 212 meters atop its highest peak. I huff up the concrete pathway stopping to marvel at the rock-face, vegetation and vantage views of this awesome oceanic outpost. At the top, a French colonial building complemented the lighthouse tower, with thick walls, huge arched doors and windows opening out to a long, wide corridor all around. Inside, a spacious aisle, between rooms on both sides, led to the spiral staircase and up into the beacon tower. There, I looked at the French engineering inscriptions and trademarks of 1887, embossed onto the rotation machinery, although a modern rotating beacon is now in operation.

It was stormy that night, the wind howled, bending the supple branches of Frangipani trees beyond the huge, arched windows. The lighthouse beacon swept the night sky at rotation intervals of 10 seconds, its 3 beams apparently visible from 31 nautical miles away, surely a boon to wave tossed, lonely seafarers on nights such as this. I had been offered the privilege of staying the night although only rudimentary bedding was available since the lighthouse had yet to be prepared to accommodate overnight visitors.

It dawned a pastel blue with the horizon stretching forever and the breeze faintly scented with the sweetness of Frangipani flowers. A few fishing boats like miniatures in the bay far below huddled together, seemingly a little tattered in the aftermath of the storm. Then, at ebb tide in the late morning, I went down to wade in the reef flat, startling little crabs and fish. I have never seen as many Giant Clams all in one little bay. Embedded in the reef with opened lids, their brilliant azure mantles swayed gently in the shallows. Strange looking Starfish and Sea Cucumbers vacuumed microscopic organic detritus in the scattered pools of the receding tide.


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