2 Best Sights in Side Trips from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Con Dao's oldest prison, Phu Hai was built by the French in 1862. It is now a grisly monument to the appalling conditions in the prisons, with mannequins in some of the chambers providing a potent visual representation of the lives of the prisoners. The church inside the prison complex was never used. Guided tours of this and the other prisons on Con Dao can be arranged at the Con Dao Museum next door with one day's notice.

A delegation of United States congressmen discovered the cramped tiger cages during an official visit to Con Dao in 1970, departing from their planned tour to follow a map drawn by a former prisoner. Photographs of the inhumane conditions were published in Life magazine in July 1970 and the international uproar that followed led to 180 men and 300 women being transferred from the cages to other prisons (or, in some cases, to psychiatric institutions). Mannequins rather than people now display the terrible conditions of the cages, which were hidden between a cluster of three prisons: Phu Tuong; Phu Son; and Phu Tho. Entry is through Phu Tuong Prison, built by the French in 1940. Guided tours of Phu Tuong and the other prisons on Con Dao can be arranged at the Con Dao Museum with one day's notice.