Hon Khoai Island

On the summit of Hòn Khoai, a lighthouse stands in the wind, above a wild forest that grows on hills of granite. The island lies eighteen kilometers off the coast of Cà Mau, at the far southern end of the country. Three things belong together here: the forest, the lighthouse that has stood for about a century, and the traces of an uprising in winter.

The Hòn Khoai group has five islands. Hòn Khoai is the largest, and the others are Hòn Sao and Hòn Đồi Mồi. Then there are Hòn Tượng and Hòn Đá Lẻ. After the administrative changes of 2025, the group belongs to Đất Mũi commune in Cà Mau Province.

On the largest island, the highest point reaches 318 meters. The Department of Nature Conservation and Biodiversity records the area of the island as about 561 hectares, while the forest rangers of the island group record the forest at about 570 hectares. The soil is red and yellow feralit, which has formed on a bed of granite.

The forest has kept something of its wild character. By the department's count, it is home to 51 species of birds, 29 species of amphibians and reptiles, and 12 species of mammals. Among them are geckos, patterned monitor lizards, reticulated pythons and yellow-tailed lizards.

The island has carried many names across different periods, old ones and popular ones. Nguyễn dynasty land registers called it Đảo Vu. Ordinary people also called it Ba Tiêu Viên, Giáng Hương and Đảo Ngọt. Foreign sailing guides from the early 19th century wrote Pulo Obi.

There is also a story about fresh water. In the dry season, people from Tân Ân, Rạch Gốc and Rạch Tàu once crossed the sea to carry fresh water home from the island. When the French took the island, they at times stood in the way of people reaching that water. It is a small story, but it shows how long the island and the people of the coast have been tied together.

The lighthouse is the emblem of the island, standing at its summit. It was built under French rule and is tied to the role of shipping in the waters of the far south. Sources disagree about the year of construction. Some documents say 1939, and others say 1899. Either way, the lamp has shone for about a century, guiding ships through those waters.

The most important story in the island's history is tied to the lighthouse. On December 13, 1940, Phan Ngọc Hiển led the Hòn Khoai uprising. According to the Cà Mau newspaper, he had built a revolutionary base in the Tân Ân and Rạch Gốc areas, and on the island, before it began. December 13 was later chosen as the Revolutionary Tradition Day of Cà Mau Province. On April 27, 1990, the Ministry of Culture and Information recognized Hòn Khoai as a National Historic and Cultural Site.

Several services work on the island: the forest rangers, a border guard post, the lighthouse station and a radar station. The island is not an open destination. It is a place that is looked after and protected, and it is also a historic site.

From the top of the island, looking out to sea, the view is a rare one. It is wide, and it takes in the forest on its granite hills and the sea and islands at the end of the southern land. This is how Cà Mau looks out to sea. Not from a sandy beach or a resort, but from the wild summit of an island, with a lighthouse in the wind and a forest covering it in green.

What stays from Hòn Khoai is more than a photograph. It is the story of an island that has been tied to people of the sea since it was still called Đảo Ngọt, and one that saw the winter uprising of 1940.