Hòn Khoai island – the pearl of the cape

The island lies in Eastern Sea in the Southwest in Tân An commune, Ngọc Hiển district, Cà Mau province, 18km from inland. It’s an island of 5 islets: hòn Khoai, hòn Tượng, hòn Sao, hòn Đồi Mồi and hòn Đá Lẻ, lying closely to make a natural wonder. The island still remains untapped and tranquil. It’s deemed as the pearl of the cape and it’s an ideal eco-tourism area for tourists domestically and internationally.

The island looks like a potato from a far but it’s legendarily said that on the island there are different potato species and they grow well in rainy season and the mainlanders come to harvest as donations by the nature. Along the spiral slopes, wading streams and crossing forests. We can see green grassland in layers, the old trees symbolize hundreds-year-old region historically.

Visitors to Hòn Khoai island are able to see the radar-station and the light-house in the light-house system of Cần Giờ, Phú Quốc and Côn Đảo sea. Hòn Khoai light-house was first built by the French in Việt Nam water-territory in the early 20 century and it was recognized as a national relic in 1994. Not only as a landscape of Cà Mau, Hòn Khoai is a historic place to remember the resounding victory of teacher Phan Ngọc Hiển who fought courageously with the locals against the French aggressors in 1940.

Hòn Khoai is also rich in legends about national founders, the venue of beautiful landscape, especially a very clear stream with diverse fauna and flora, attractive to visitors. In old forests and in the mountain there are also squirrels, pythons and 20 bird species.

It’ very interesting for the tourists to have a meal in the forest where one can hear the murmuring of streams the singing of birds, where they can try local products: sea-shells, shrimps... and romantically sing the traditional songs like vọng cổ or tân cổ or the folksongs of the fisherpeople. Besides rich fauna and flora or precious wood: trắc, sến, sao, dâu... there are fruit-trees: mango, banana, jack-fruit... or the climbing plants on old trees.

Sea-weeds on the seacoast mountains are very good herbal medicine. Hòn Khoai is said to be a store of medicinal herbs: huyết rồng, kỳ hương, phục linh, thiên niên kiện, rán bay, thần thông, cát lồi, nấm linh chi...

Hòn Khoai is said to be the donation, the god-send by nature to the people of Minh Hải in particular and all Vietnamese in general, the green-clean-and-beautiful environment. With a calm sea-port, a convenient airport, beautiful nature, Hòn Khoai is a destination, good for health-care service, for writers and musicians and poets, a nice sightseeing for the tourists.

There are 2 – 3 helicopters daily to bring tourists to Hòn Khoai, to see the natural beauty, to try sea-products. Hòn Khoai is pivotal for tourism development in Minh Hải.

                                                                          THU THẢO