Landscape Of Hon Son Island, Kien Giang, Vietnam Editorial Photo

Hon Son Island is one of those places I knew I was going to love before I’d even set foot on it. Lying in the Gulf of Thailand, just over an hour’s boat ride from Rach Gia in the Mekong Delta, Hon Son means ‘Mountain Island’. Rising from the calm, blue sea, giant boulders dot the palm-studded lower slopes as they ascend steeply to several jungle-covered peaks. It’s a rugged yet green and exceptionally beautiful isle. You only have to look at a map to see that Hon Son is close to the Platonic ideal of a tropical island. It’s a gem. My advice is to go right now, because development is likely to be on the horizon, and when it comes it will change the island very quickly indeed. Even now, I get the feeling I should have visited 2-3 years earlier, in order to have seen Hon Son at its very best. Even so, Hon Son is still an off the beaten track destination – very few foreign travellers visit – and there is no doubting the island’s beauty, charm, allure, and huge tourist potential.