Before leaving Hoi An we'd finally found a detailed map of Vietnam and as Vun our guide had mentioned our itinerary the next day was very full we decided to take a look at it on the map. To cut a long story short – the itinerary we realised was intending for us to go north before going south and then from there it was a 6 1/2 hour drive after lunch. Too late to change much but we decided that from Pleiku, we would head straight south and fore-go the visit to reputedly the most beautiful lake in the highlands and an ethnic minority village.
Next morning we spoke with our guide, he looked a bit relieved by the change of plan. The drive was interesting at first, seeing all the rubber trees, pepper and coffee plantations, but the road was very busy, dusty and at times a bit bumpy and overtaking traffic coming towards us constantly forced us onto the dirt shoulder and if it wasn't us it was us pushing the bicycles and mopeds. Our driver was excellent but evenso it was wasn't a relaxing drive by any means.
For miles and miles along the route there are tables and chairs on the roadside with hanging hammocks, where drivers and passengers stop for a rest and a drink. We stopped at one for 15 mins and had a fresh coconut juice straight out of the coconut. The youngsters seemed quite interested by us, we wondered whether it was my blonde hair or just that they don't see as many tourists in the central highlands as elsewhere in Vietnam. It's quite easy to have a bit of banter wherever you go as every Vietnamese young and old seems to know the names of all the English football clubs and the players. These teenagers were drinking sugar-cane juice which is made by putting the sugar cane through a mangle several times to squeeze every drop. I would think it's their equivalent of Red Bull as they indicated by swizzling their fingers around their head that they were getting a big sugar rush. Our only other stop was a toilet stop at a petrol station which is the worst by far we’ve been to, probably ever. Oh well, all part of the experience.
On we went again and at last we arrived at our hotel on Lak Lake. After such a long journey the lake didn't at first seem hugely impressive. We couldn’t believe we’d driven all this way to a brown lake. We sat and downed a couple of beers quite rapidly, had a lovely lunch served by such friendly staff. We were just beginning to feel normal again when, suddenly there was lots of screaming, followed by lots of angry shouting and it was because a poor little boy had been bitten twice on the leg by a dog. Oh dear, what are we doing here? Keep reading though, this part of the trip does get loads better!
After lunch we clambered back in the car and Vun took us off through some lovely scenery including rice paddies, which for the first time on our trip were green and lush and so beautiful.
Apparently in this part of Vietnam they only have one rice growing season but it’s all year, so some parts of the fields are mud, some just planted and others just about ready to be harvested. He then took us to another lake which is actually a dam. This one was really beautiful. We stopped to watch a man repairing his dug out canoe with some glue from the trees and then walked on a little further. A man invited us to stop and have tea with him outside his small wooden house where he lives with his family. His wife scuttled about moving benches for us to sit on and pouring tea. Then he brought some glasses out, just for us and our guide and poured some delicious rice wine which he had made and tasted better than any sake we’d ever had and then they brought us some freshly roasted peanuts. He is from North Vietnam and Vun from the South. They commented how only 30 years ago they would have been enemies. It was such an honour to be sitting amongst their family and really quite humbling. They all seemed so content with their simple life in a wooden house with dirt floor and no electricity, living off the land and the lake and it suddenly made us feel rather guilty that we’d been so disgruntled earlier over a long drive. We stayed for about an hour and as each of his 3 children passed by we were introduced. As we were leaving they allowed us to take a picture of them all which they seemed to think was an honour when the honour was entirely ours. So in fact the second part of our day was so much better than the first.
Our hotel, Lak Resort is a simple but really nice hotel and the food great. You can stay either in a room or a traditional bamboo long house where they put the beds on the floor and you share it with however many other people. As it was quite hot we were really pleased we’d already decided to go for our ensuite , and at sunset we sat on our little wooden verandah with a cold beer looking across a lake which we are seeing through much more accepting eyes.
NEXT DAY
What a contrast to yesterday. After breakfast we drove about 10 minutes round the lake which this morning looks so beautiful and much more blue than brown. And there was our ride – a 40 year old female elephant with pretty spotted ears. We’d been on an elephant ride in Laos which took us across a river so we were expecting much the same, but this so wasn’t. We went right across the lake, at times the elephant was swimming and her trunk going to and fro beneath the water and surfacing every few minutes. We kept hoping she wasn’t a naughty girl and thinking we might like a shower. It was a blissful ride of about 30 or 40 minutes. So quiet and tranquil we could hardly believe we were enjoying such a wonderful experience. Once on the other side we walked (still on our elephant) through a couple of minority ethnic villages (Ede) where all the inhabitants are living in long houses. We were able to see their way of life close up. Some of the more wealthy were made of brick rather than bamboo, but that was pretty much the only difference – still no furniture inside and still a long house. There were people and animals all living in harmony. The cat and puppies, chickens and the piglets all running around together as if they’re the same species. There was an old man spreading something on the ground to dry. We weren’t sure what it was and apparently it was buffalo dung which they dry then put back onto the land as fertiliser. After our ride we dismounted from our new friend and bid her good bye, then gingerly clambered into a lovely dugout canoe for the return journey across the lake. It was such a special part of our trip.
Vun then took us into town Buon Ma Thuout (BMT) as we wanted to buy some coffee beans. We didn’t buy any but we were shown some called Weasel coffee – these are the coffee beans but only after the weasels have eaten them! Apparently the best coffee and very expensive. We should have bought some really. David wanted to make Moff a cup and then tell him afterwards what it was!! We stopped by the rice paddies as they were harvesting and we were able to go up close and see how it was done. Such hard work – they do it all by hand in the highlands. The harvested rice looks very like barley. It’s then thrashed to separate the rice from the stalk and dried for a couple of days, then they put it into a primitive threshing machine to remove the husks. Obviously in large areas of Vietnam it is all mechanised as otherwise I doubt they’d be able to sustain being the 2nd largest rice growing country in the world after Thailand. They’re also the second highest coffee producing country to Brazil.
Last stop before flying off to Ho Chi Minh or Saigon as everyone still refers to it, we visited the lovely Draysap waterfall. Apparently not as large as it was due to a hydroelectric plant upstream but beautiful all the same.
Some young boys were clambering over the rocks like monkeys then jumping into a quiet pool nearby. They were having such a good time and you realised they might be poor by European standards but the children in the countryside of Vietnam have a very happy and active childhood, especially as they only go to school for half a day and not all families require them to work on the land the other half.
Then off to BMT airport for a 50 min flight to Ho Chi Minh City.
Our post comments on this part of the itinerary:
What we should have done probably was flown from Danang to Buon Ma Thuot – we would have saved a long drive and a day. Also we learnt there was a flower festival in nearby Dalat during our time in the Highlands which we could have driven to from BMT and you can fly then from Dalat on to Ho Chi Minh City. We heard of one Asian Trails group who had been driven from Saigon to Lak Lake the same day as us which took 9 hrs! It would have taken 50 mins on a plane! 9 hours on those roads - OMG! So far Asian Trails have been brilliant in Laos and Vietnam so we put this one down to a blip and possibly their lack of knowledge in the Central Highlands but Vun the guide from Daklak Tourist agency who was subcontracted by Asian Trails was brilliant.
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