Day 26 - no karaoke last night!! A lazy get up for breakfast as we had nothing planned for the day but the entertainment started straight away right in front of us. The neighbouring hotel's owner was out the front of her place shouting at a guy who had just come to shore on his small boat. This went on for a good 5 minutes but we had no idea what it was about. Then the guy sat on a contraption outside her hotel that he used to reel a massive fishing net in. There was another bloke sitting just in front of us doing the same and together they both hauled this massive net into shore. This went in for about an hour and lots of tourists seemed to come from nowhere to take loads of photos. Whether the hotel owner was angry about his boat or the fact he was netting we're not sure. Anyway, after a lot of hard work the net was in and they collected their catch in a couple of water butts. Didn't seem to be a lot of fish for such a large net and the effort they went to. Whilst all this was going in we were trying to decide whether to explore another part of the island or just chill out at the each for the day. After a lot of debate we decided we would get a half day taxi and go and see the other side of the island and also the old prison which now a museum.
We headed over to Sao beach to see what it was like, some say its amazing and one of the best beaches in the world, others say it's dirty and full of litter. Arriving at the beach after a long bumpy ride on some dirt tracks, it was a little bit of both. Lots of litter and debris that had been washed up but also a stunning location set in a beautiful part of the island. We had a wander from one end to the other and then settled on a couple of sun loungers before taking a dip in the sea. Dried off and went for a spot of lunch right on the beach before heading back to the taxi. Jumping in we said to the driver Coconut Prison please to which he reacted like he knew exactly what we'd said so we set off. Back down the bumpy access road and onto the 'main' road, if you can call it that and we turned right. Our map seemed to suggest the prison was left but thought the taxi driver must know best. After about 10 minute of heading in what we thought was the wrong direction it was time to challenge the driver. Pulling over a strange conversation occurred with lots of pointing at the map with him repeating over and over again the word "hotel" and us repeating "no....prison" with the associated point at the map. Eventually he called someone, passed me the phone and whoever it was spoke half decent English so I conveyed where we wanted to go and then him onto the driver. "Ah, prison" said the driver, "yes" with a thumbs up was the response. Back we went down the bumpy road from whence we came an he pulled up to the prison. This was a prison first set up by the French and then later used by Americans where North Vietnamese prisoners would have been held during the war. It was quite gruesome as they had life size models depicting some of the torture techniques carried out, I won't describe them as they were horrific but one was they would have two blocks of wood, one on the persons front, one on the back and these were bolted together and tightened until they were nearly crushed.
Leaving the prison we headed back to the hotel which was an easier conversation and met with a laugh from the driver. Had a bit of a sit in the sun and read our books before getting ready to head up the beach for sunset and dinner. Settling in a place for a beer to watch the sunset for an hour whilst trying to decide where to go for dinner. Some loud music started up from next door which was the same as the music from the first night so we were hoping it wouldn't be loud tonight. When we heard it in night one it must have been blooming loud as we are quite a way away from the karaoke bar. After a bit of deliberation, we strolled along the beach scoping out how many people were eating in each of the 4 options. Ended up back at the place we ate on the first night as the other 3 only had a smattering of people. Strolled back along the beach back to the hotel and sat on the sun loungers reading our books with our head torches. People in the restaurant must have thought we were mad. We fly to Can Tho tomorrow on the mainland so only a couple of hours of beach time left in the morning.