To Nung sea lake

---

To Nung Sea Lake tourism

Located at an altitude of about 1,000 meters, the Sea Lake (is in Pleiku city, Gia Lai province) is considered as “the eye of Pleiku” by composer Nguyen Cuong. Sea Lake has a strange allure to visitors that hardly miss when visiting Gia Lai.

Sea Lake is far from the center of Pleiku city (Gia Lai province) about 7 kilometers. From Pleiku to Kontum along Highway 14, then turn right at Km7 milestone is on the Sea Lake.

Sea Lake is not only a landscape but also a source of providing seafood for the community of ethnic minorities living around the lake and surrounding areas. This is also a water-supply lake for the use of residents as well as the irrigation of city regions.

Sea Lake was built into an indigenous tourism product long time ago but it’s still wild. It may be a charming that attracts tourists to arrive in Gia Lai.

Sea Lake is an oval crater which stopped working tens of millions of years ago. Looking from the sky, the lake is like a giant eye of Tay Nguyen. Coming here, travellers certainly are surprised at the beauty of lake’s crystal water as a big mirror.

The lake perharps is called as “the sea” because of its area. Sea Lake is named Ea Nueng or T'Nung depends on the way each minority calls. However, the meaning of both names are commonly “ the sea on the mountain”. The lake surface is calm but sometimes the waves are up by hurricane. Taking a boat to catch fish in Sea Lake, fishermen have to face with “large wind waves” as at sea. Today, natives have already used motor boats, wooden boats to take visitors to travel around the lake’s surface. The water of the lake is clear strangely. At noon, the lake seems to absorb the heat in exchange for the cool air. Visiting the lake, visitors often have a refreshing, pleasant feeling.

It’s intersting to sit among natives and hear Sea Lake’s stories by res flames for tourists. The natives often have words of mouth about a sad story . In the past, Sea Lake region was a densely populated village . They lived happily, in harmony with each other . One year, animalsare fed and cropsare cultavated by villagers that are all dead . They though the God was angry with them, thus, they held a ceremony . In the village , there is a white pig as big as a buffalo . It was captured from the forest , ate only white sand taken at stream. When the ceremony finished, the villagers had big dinner, a earthquake suddenly occured violently. The earth craeked and pushed all of them into a abyss , drowned everything in the flowwaters. Typically, people usually borrow a sad tale of love story to explain the exist of the rivers and streams. However, Sea Lake is particularty a terrible accident.




According to the local people, the natural source of fish is plentiful on the lake. Therefore, there is a lot of hunting-fish birds. In the lake, there are many big fishes that each is dozens of kilograms in weight.

If visitors have time to observe all day, the amazing spectacle of Sea Lake will be viewed. The color of the water in Sea Lake changes according to the periods of the day that are blue sapphires color, deep blue color and ultramarine violet color in the morning, at noon and in the afternoon respectively. When the sun sets behind the ranges of mountains, the final rays of sunshine reflect on the lake’s surface which creates a beautiful purple. In the cold days, it is poetic to see the layers of smog on the lake. It’s Sea Lake! The lake seems to be the eye of a girl with full of emotions hidden behind the lush green leaves of the jungle. Therefore, Songwriter Nguyen Cuong exclaimed: " ... my heart want to burst. Do not dare look into your eyes – eyes of Pleiku- the full Sea Lake! ... " . In spite of severe droughts in Tay Nguyen, Sea Lake is still full of water. When the rainy season comes, the stream pours that doesn’t make the lake be overflowed. People feel that the bottom of the lake connects to the sea " swallow " all of this water.

---