Central Highlands - Pleiku to Buon Ma Thuot then onto Lac Lake

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The road from Peliku to Buon Ma Thuot is proliferated with some spectacular scenery owing to the very fertile landscape created by the volcano. Here the locals grow all kinds – pepper, coffee, kosava, rice, bananas, dragon fruit and green papaya. On the way down Quang and I pulled over at a trucker’s rest stop (not the kind you get in the States!). This was a sleepy road side restaurant with hammocks and a few make shift tables. We chilled out here for a few hours while the family’s pet cat and puppy played chase around the hammocks. The pup actually hopped into the hammock with me for an hour while I had a snooze!

After lunch we stopped off at a few places where the locals were using clay to make bricks the traditional way with wood fuelled ovens. There was also a village that had been established after the war to breathe life back into the surrounding area owing to some pretty extensive bombing by the Americans. All that remained was an old bombed out church that I managed to snap a quick photo of as we passed by on the bike. It was a leisurely afternoon as the ride down was a long one so I just sat back and relaxed.

One of the things I loved most about Viet Nam was how friendly the people were in the Central Highlands. Unaccustomed to foreigners, people would wave and say hello everywhere. Sometimes as we drove through a village, children would run out of their houses into the street to catch a glimpse. I remember the night in Pleiku when Quang and I were walking home. A group of children were playing just outside a tailors. The eldest girl, who must only have been 6 or 7 waved and shouted hello. Her younger brother was next, cashing in on the action. They took it in turns to wave and shout hello louder each time as I continued to walk away down the street, all the time turning to wave and shout hello back. Their shouts could be heard around the corner vying for the last piece of attention. A daft game I know, but one that characterises people in these parts of Viet Nam, they may not speak English and live just above the poverty line in places, but they are warm and friendly and want nothing more than to say hello.

Buon Ma Thuot seemed to have a bit more about it than Pleiku, at least in the area we stayed. Quang had decided we should splash out a little more and stay in a 3 star hotel, although it was still only $10 a night. The hotel was well furnished and had a great view of the small valley out from the hotel restaurant. My lasting impression of Buon Ma Thuot was how green it was. It almost seemed like it was a city in a forest when I woke up in the morning and saw the view.

The night we arrived in Buon Ma Thuot Quang took me out down the road to a small road-side restaurant. On the way there we passed a number of cafes, small bars, pool halls and small shops, which was a marked improvement on the previous lay-overs. We nestled in at a table and Quang ordered us a large fish hot pot with some rice and plenty of beer – a whole bucket in fact, which was intended for me. The waitress there was about my age and her family owned the restaurant and all the children worked there, even her 12 year old sister. Quang thought this a great opportunity for me to practise some of the Vietnamese he had taught me, much to his amusement. I spoke to the waitress aking her ho she was, how old and if she was single. I then asked her if she was free later for a drink (although I didn’t know what this meant at the time!). Her mother found this hilarious and muscled in on the conversation offering up her daughter as a worthy bride to be. It seemed like a recurrence of the previous night’s pre-marriage ceremony and almost ended that way when the mother gave Quang her daughters phone number, just in case I came back the next day!

After dinner we took a walk down into the city centre where there was large traffic island with a war memorial on it (actually a large tank). We continued on through the streets, past the bustling night market amidst stares and waves of hello before taking the circuit back round to the hotel.

Back in the hotel there were a couple of easy riders also there in the lobby with an Australian couple who were doing a similar trip to me, but in reverse. They were all singing as the Australian guy had brought a guitar. Quang and I were invited over and it turned out that they were playing a drinking game as well and we were encouraged to join in. There were a number of large cooked prawns on a plate, in full shell with their heads still on laid on a bed of thinly sliced cucumber. The prawns had been cooked in some very hot spices and the trick was to eat as many prawns as you could, in full, head and all, before you couldn’t take any more. The cucumber was taken after each prawn to cool your mouth (although only ever so slightly). I managed about three, although the thought of eating prawn shell and head was more of a put-off than the spice. I played a few rounds before thanking the guys and taking myself off to bed.

From Buon Ma Thuot the next day (without Vietnamese waitress in tow) the destination was a Vietnamese lakeside tourist spot called Lac Lak. Here the last Emperor, Bao Dai, had a holiday retreat up in a villa (the King’s villa) on the top of a hillside. The road to Lac Lak was probably the most enjoyable just because of the changing landscape. As you leave the sprawling agriculture from Buon Ma Thuot you enter to a National Park with windy mountain roads before dropping into the valley where the lake is. On the way down we stopped off at a couple of places for a few drinks – Sugar Cane, which is awesome and some locally grown coffee. Quang and I had a few games of Vietnamese billards (Quang kicked my ass) and we chatted to the locals about their life in the fields and how things were (apparently quite good!).

As we descended the mountains into the valley where Lac Lake was, the views were amazing. Either side of the road were lush rice paddies being tended too by local villages. At their fringes the mountains rose up, covered with a carpet of thick green. Further on the lake imposed itself on the landscape, the view of which is best from the top of the Kings villa where you can see for miles around the whole valley. Lac Lak itself was fairly quiet and relaxed. Being off-season there were no tourists so I pretty much had the place to myself.

In the early afternoon we wandered over to a minority village down by the lakeside where they were offering elephant rides. Before my turn was up I took a walk around the village down to the lakeside. My main memory of this place is how many wild animals they had just roaming the streets – dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, ducks – all vying for territory over one another. I watched a couple of dogs chase some chickens and then the pigs chase the dogs. All the locals were out fishing and hunting so I wandered back to the elephant ride place got a cup of green tea and waited my turn.

I’d never been on an elephant before so I figured why not, but I was a bit dubious as to how well these elephants were actually treated (plus it was massively over-priced). The experience was a little strange as it seemed like it was the same elephant doing the same trip over and over (which is quite cruel) and the ride was damn uncomfortable. The ‘chair’ if you can call it that, which I had to sit on was made of metal and wood and was strapped to the elephants back, with its back being protected by some kind of dried and softened hide. It was bloody small too and I kept banging my knees on the metal frame and found myself jostling for a decent position most of the way. I was on the elephant for about half an hour as it trotted down the road past some small rice paddies and then into the trees by the lake. Most of the time however was spent swimming through the lake, which is a very weird feeling, with water sloshing all around your feet.

In the evening back at the lake resort I grabbed a table on the balcony and read for a little bit, watching the sun set on the lake before having dinner with Quang. We bumped into a few other foreigners there doing Easy Rider trips North (a few Germans and some Dutch guys). It turned out that it was one of the German guys birthday’s so there was nothing else for it than to play drinking games and get shitfaced. A few of the staff joined in with us and we managed to drink the bar dry before retiring for the night ready for the long drive to Nha Trang the next day.

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Photos

Raining Cats and Dogs
We pulled over at a rest stop for an early lunch to avoid the rain and these guys were play fighting.

Room with a View
The view from my hotel in Buon Ma Thuot.

Bricking It
Stopped off at a brick making factory on the way to Lak Lake. this place used electricity to cook the bricks, but plenty of others still use wood as fuel.

Pepper
Yum.