Blogs from Kon Tum, Central Highlands, Vietnam, Asia - page 2

During the American War, considerable fighting took place in 3 provinces (Dak Lak, Kon Tum and Gia Lai) which I visited on this trip. In the spring of 1972, the area in and around Kon Tum province was devastated by hundreds of US B-52 raids during the course of a major battle. You may have heard about the Charlie Hill, which was the famous site of the battle in Dak Tô - Tân Cảnh. Kon Tum city is the capital of Kon Tum province. There are more than 10 ethnic minority groups in this province, for example, Bahnar, Jrai, Sedang, Rengao etc. A few years ago I met an American veteran, who used to work as a helicopter maintenance engineer in Kon Tum during the late 1960s. He shared with me his surprise when he went ... read more

Open tour bus versus local bus So I was ready to leave Hue, but instead of doing the same route everyone else seemed to be doing, that of the trip south to Na Trang, I decided to go to the Central Highlands. The hotel receptionist in Hue just couldn’t understand this and asked “why you not go to Nah Trang?” even saying that the Central Highlands were not nice! They are so obsessed with getting us foreign tourists on the open tour bus because they all get a commission for each hotel - that getting a “local” bus instead is not an option. Frustratingly, not one travel agency I visited was able to find out when buses ran from the local bus station. So I just had to get up early and make my way to ... read more

Being Chased by the Bacon You’re in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country and you’ve just reached the end of a dead end road; a man comes up to you and introduces himself as a traffic Police man. The Police in this country don’t follow the rules - they make them. You half don’t believe he’s a Police man due to his lack of obvious uniform and dodgy looking ID card, but know you’re in the wrong - you’re riding without a Vietnamese license, and you’ve a good idea what he wants to do - but nobody is around - what do you do? Making the correct response in that situation perhaps seems obvious sitting in your arm armchair reading this; you play ball and just hope it doesn’t end up costing too much. ... read more

Hi All, Another lot of free Internet time at our hotel in Hue so I thought, whilst Nat is frying, I would update you with a new post. We left Nha Trang aboard two Honda Federal motorbikes with our drivers Bang and Chu heading into the mountaineous region of the Central Highlands. This trip was brilliant, both of us pushed our envelopes out as it was a fair jump from the 20 minute honda trip we made in the Mekong, this was a four day three night trip on motorbikes, over the next four days we would cover somewhere in the region of 930KM so we were pretty nervous at the beginning, however the scenary in this part of Vietnam is absolutely beautiful and it must be seen to be believed, it was not all sunshine ... read more

Unsere Reise nach Kon Tum verlaeuft etwas anders als erwartet. Zuerst muessen wir von Hoi An morgens um 8 Uhr zurueck nach Da Nang und nehmen von dort den Bus nach Quy Nhon, noerdlich von Nha Trang, dem Badeort Vietnams. Den "Highway" 14 direkt nach Kon Tum koennen wir nicht nehmen, da der Bus ueber diese Strecke keine Touristen mitnimmt. Warum, das wollen/koennen sie uns an der Busstation nicht sagen. Wie immer, unhaltbar schlechtes Englisch bei allen Anwesenden. Da muss sich noch einiges dran aendern, wenn Vietnam mal wirklich touristisch erschlossen werden soll. Die Strasse verlaeuft in der Kuestenebene und einmal mehr sehen wir unbeschreiblich schoene Landschaften. Reisfelder, Palmen, alles in saftigem gruen, kleine Oertchen und eine Gott sei dank sehr gute Strasse. Nach vier recht angenehmen Stunden im Bus - trotz sehr gewagter Ueberholmanoever - ... read more