Vietnam
Ly Son Island
A volcanic island quilted in garlic fields stretching toward basalt cliffs and the sea.
The garlic fields hit you first — rows of green shoots quilting the volcanic soil in every direction, their sharp scent carrying on the wind. Then the coastline drops away: black basalt columns, collapsed craters filled with turquoise water, and a sea that stretches unbroken to the Paracel Islands.
Ly Son is a volcanic island twenty-five kilometres off Quang Ngai Province, formed by eruptions that left behind columnar basalt cliffs, crater beaches, and iron-rich red soil. The island produces most of Vietnam's garlic crop, grown in volcanic soil mixed with sand that gives it a distinctive sharp flavour found nowhere else. Hang Cau beach sits inside a collapsed volcanic crater, walled on three sides by black basalt. The annual boat-racing festival honours the Hoang Sa Flotilla, historical Vietnamese expeditions sent to claim sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly Islands. An Vinh village contains Cham-era archaeological sites, and the island's temples commemorate the flotilla sailors who never returned.
Solo
A volcanic island small enough to circuit on a motorbike in a morning, with crater beaches, garlic fields, and a maritime history that runs deeper than any resort island.
Couple
Sunset from the basalt cliffs, sea urchin porridge at the harbour, and the strange beauty of an island that smells of garlic and ocean salt.
- Volcanic basalt cliffs drop into turquoise water from an island that produces most of Vietnam's garlic crop.
- Hang Cau beach sits inside a collapsed volcanic crater, walled on three sides by black columnar basalt.
- The annual boat-racing festival honours the Hoang Sa flotilla who sailed to claim the Paracel Islands centuries ago.
- Seaweed and garlic salads unique to this island use varieties grown nowhere else in the country.
Garlic salad tossed with fresh seaweed, sharply aromatic and deeply briny.
Sea urchin porridge eaten at the harbour as the fishing fleet returns.
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