Post:Son Nguyen
Join the festival with firelight and gong sound
Gongs are intangible cultural heritage of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands. Gongs are closely associated with the lives of the Central Highlands people, the voice of the spirit, the human soul, to express joys and sorrows in life, in their daily work and activities. Gongs are often performed on occasions: Gong Festival (held annually, not regularly in 5 provinces of Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong); Elephant Racing Festival in Buon Don (usually held in March of odd years in Buon Don - Buon Ma Thuot); Central Highlands Spring Festival: lasting from January to March in the Central Highlands villages.
Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival is held in Buon Ma Thuot city of Dak Lak province. This is a big festival in the Central Highlands to honor the coffee tree, the tree that has brought prosperity and wealth to this highland. During this festival, you will have the opportunity to taste many delicious coffees of the Central Highlands.
Visit Ako Dhong Village
Ako Dhong or Co Thon, Ma Rin village is an Ede village located at the end of Tran Nhat Duat street - Buon Ma Thuot city. This is a large village with a long history and retains many traditional values. Currently, this is an attractive tourist destination of the city. Coming to the village, you will understand more about the life of the people of the Central Highlands, which is sunny and windy all year round and lives in the typical mountain and forest atmosphere.
Elephant riding in Buon Don
Riding an elephant through YokDon National Park, or rowing a dugout canoe on Dak Min Lake is a special experience. The wooden houses, the eyes of the ethnic people, herds of cows and goats leisurely, the melancholy Serepok River... will not make your trip to Dak Lak a waste.
Conquering the Indochina junction
Bo Y border gate, where “a rooster crows and all three countries can hear it” is a place you should not miss if you have the opportunity to visit this land. Being the border junction between Vietnam – Laos – Cambodia, this is an important national territorial landmark.
Central Highlands - flower seasons
Since the beginning of January, the entire Central Highlands has transformed itself in the color of the rubber forests. The economic tree of this land, which has been stretching and producing white sap for nine months, is now in a period of rest to regain strength. The rubber season does not produce latex, there are no new cuts on the tree trunk, no hot white sap flows around the trunk. The rubber tree sheds its leaves, shakes off its fatigue for the last time of the year, and burns its remnants into brilliant yellow and red on the branches, before leaving itself to the mother earth.
By March, the beautiful coffee flower fields begin to bloom. Each season usually blooms 2-3 times until the end of spring. The flowers bloom quickly and then fade quickly, in just a few days the flower carpets turn into pretty fruit buds on the branches. This is also the time of year that attracts the most tourists to Buon Ma Thuot.
Enjoy a cup of fragrant Ban Me coffee
Nowhere can you enjoy good coffee like sitting in the Central Highlands. Perhaps because sitting in the space of the red basalt land in the sun and wind, in the wonderful atmosphere of this land, a cup of coffee brewed from the coffee of this land is truly rich. The most attractive to tourists are usually the shops with the Central Highlands style such as Po Lang, Hong Valley, Da Xanh, Chuong Da...
Wine, spicy mountain yeast
Going to the Central Highlands without drinking Ruou Can is like not having been to the Central Highlands. But what is more interesting is discovering how each ethnic group makes and enjoys Ruou Can. Ruou Can in the Central Highlands is an indispensable drink in festivals. In addition to drinking in ceremonies, people also invite each other when having fun, when meeting friends after a long time.
To have a delicious jar of wine, one has to do a lot of work such as preparing yeast, earthenware jars, wine making materials... They usually make their own yeast. People use a type of plant (leaves, bark, roots) dried, then pounded into powder, mixed with rice flour, add a little water and wrap it into a large bowl-sized ball, leave it to ferment until it turns white moldy.
The way of drinking depends entirely on the form of the ritual. If it is a worship ceremony, people usually use one pipe, then take turns smoking, from old to young, from women to men, continuously. The first person to drink cannot put down the pipe until someone else replaces him. This has the meaning of a family, a lineage from one generation to the next. In the case of drinking for fun, when old friends meet, then many pipes can be used at the same time.
The thing to avoid while drinking is breaking the jar or the pipe. Because that is considered to bring bad luck. Especially, do not let go of the pipe until someone replaces it. Going to the Central Highlands, especially at the beginning of the year, you will witness groups of people bustling to the festival, you will hear the sound of gongs echoing throughout the fields and you will certainly enjoy the sweet, spicy flavor of the wine of the Central Highlands mountains and forests.
Delicious leaf salad
If you ever come to the mountainous town in the North Central Highlands (Kon Tum), we invite you and the mountain people to enjoy the Central Highlands specialty leaf salad. Leaf salad is selected from more than 40 different types of leaves, many of which are very familiar but there are also types that must be sought from the Central Highlands forests.
A "forest" of leaves with all kinds from familiar to strange such as Indian laurel leaves, ginseng, ruby, apricot, mustard greens, guava, ginseng, fig, lolot leaves, myrtle, plantain, fish mint, sawtooth dogwood, cinnamon, basil, boat soil... Each kind has a different medicinal effect. Take these leaves and roll them into a funnel shape to put food in. Dishes served with the leaves include pork belly, fried shrimp, thinly sliced pork skin mixed with fried sticky rice flour.
The dipping sauce is made from fermented rice wine, reduced in cooking oil, mixed with duck eggs to form a thick dipping sauce. Whole pepper, salt, green chili, and onions are indispensable spices. Sandwich all kinds of leaves, add meat, shrimp, pork skin, and spices and eat them all at once. The more you chew, the easier it is to recognize the many flavors: acrid, sweet, sour, and fatty of meat and shrimp.
After each meal, drink a sip of wine soaked for a long time from the roots of the ginseng tree. Finally, a pot of snakehead fish porridge, hot to eat to fill the stomach is the best. According to many people in the mountain town, eating a lot of leaf salad is very good, because most of them are medicinal leaves with medicinal properties. People with cardiovascular diseases, digestive diseases... can cure their diseases by eating them.
Conquer the majestic waterfalls
There are countless beautiful waterfalls in the Central Highlands. Yaly waterfall located in Ya Tang commune, Sa Thay district, Kon Tum province is a beautiful waterfall on the Se San river. The waterfall has an ideal location with many large lakes and oases. Due to the spectacular scenery and ideal natural conditions, Yaly waterfall has been chosen as the starting point for many tours in the Central Highlands tourism program.
Thuy Tien WaterfallAbout 7km from Tam Giang town, Krong Nang district, Dak Lak. The waterfall has many steps, the water falls down creating white foam. The waterfall consists of three floors with many rocks stacked on top of each other. The first floor has a low slope with easy steps up and down, the water flows smoothly, the waterfall is small. The second floor is wide with many stone steps, there are places where the water flows rapidly, creating white foam in an area, creating shallow pools, an ideal place for tourists to soak. The third floor, the water falls straight down from above, creating quite deep pools and then blending into the gentle flow in the middle of the forest.
Dieu Thanh WaterfallLocated on the Dak Tit stream, crossing Nhan Co and Quang Tan communes, Dak R' Lap district, Dak Nong. Dieu Thanh waterfall consists of a large waterfall pouring down from a height of about 30m and many small waterfalls. The waterfall roars day and night like an epic song of the old forest.
Three-tiered Waterfallbelongs to Dak Glong district, Dak Nong, about 8km from Gia Nghia provincial capital to Buon Ma Thuot. This waterfall is an interesting picnic spot in the south of Dak Lak. It is called Three-Tier Waterfall because this waterfall has to flow through three levels to reach the stream below. The waterfall levels are connected to each other with a height of about 40m. The stream is quite wide, along the banks there are many ancient trees and a flat, open space very suitable for camping to enjoy the pleasure of relaxing in the middle of nature.
In addition, Dak Nong and Dak Lak share three majestic waterfalls, famous for Dray Sap, Dray Nur and Gia Long. Around Dray Sap waterfall (Dak Nong), there is still a cool natural forest, filled with the sound of birds chirping. Resting by the waterfall, you will hear the locals tell the love story of the beautiful H'Mi and freely admire the mountain scenery, listen to the waterfall roar and smoke billowing around you. About 3 km from Dray Sap is Gia Long waterfall, also in Dak Nong province. The road through the forest here can be considered one of the most beautiful roads in the country with lush green forest on both sides and vines covering the precious wood trunks. Gia Long waterfall lies quite quietly in the middle of the old forest. Here there is a nude bathing lake of hundreds of square meters with clear water flowing from the mountain stream.
Dambri Waterfall of Bao Loc, Lam Dong in K'Ho language means waiting. The waterfall is associated with a beautiful legend about the faithful heart of a young woman for the man she loves. This is the highest waterfall in Lam Dong with a height of over 40m, creating 2 majestic high and low flows. There are three ways to conquer the waterfall: walking about 138 stairs, taking the elevator or experiencing the thrill of the 1,650m long slide.
More information
Time:
In the Central Highlands, the rainy season and the dry season are clearly separated. The rainy season usually lasts from May to October. During this season, the roads are difficult to travel, especially on dirt roads. For tourists, it is not a suitable season to travel.
For most people, the dry season, especially the first months of the year, when the sun is not too harsh and the air is not too dry, is the right time for a short trip to the Central Highlands.
Vehicle:
Buon Ma Thuot is about 350km from Ho Chi Minh City. If you go by car, it takes about 7-8 hours, by plane about 1 hour. From Ho Chi Minh City, you can go to Buon Ma Thuot by road or air. Currently, there are Vietnam Airlines flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to Buon Ma Thuot, Pleiku and Da Lat (Lien Khuong airport).
Hotel:
- Thien Ma Hotel, 50 - 52 - 54 Hai Ba Trung Street. Tel: 050.3853963/3850397
- Dam San Hotel, 212 - 214 Nguyen Cong Tru Street. Tel: 050.3851234/3850123
- Thang Loi Hotel, No. 1 Phan Chu Trinh. Tel: 050.3857615
- Cao Nguyen Hotel, 65 Phan Chu Trinh. Tel: 050.3855960
- Nam Nguyen Hotel, 30 Tran Quang Khai. Tel: 050.3.955 255
Food and drink (in Buon Ma Thuot):
- Huong Vi Viet Culinary Garden – 135 Nguyen Tri Phuong: beautiful, airy space, delicious food, reasonable prices, enthusiastic service. At this restaurant, you should order grilled wild game, steamed chicken with fish sauce, grilled swordfish with green pepper, grilled suckling pig with grilled pork belly.
- Bon Trieu Garden Restaurant – No Trang Gu Street: this restaurant is smaller than the one mentioned above, also very pretty, but the prices are a bit expensive, the delicious dishes are braised banana dishes.
- Dak Me Canteen Restaurant – Ngo Quyen Street: delicious food, reasonable prices, enthusiastic service
- Tuan Dat Restaurant – Tran Nhat Duat Street: quite a luxurious restaurant. The restaurant has delicious grilled spare ribs.
Other information:
The Central Highlands has many long-standing and unique customs and practices of the ethnic groups. The New Year festivals alone are enough to attract tourists for months, from one region to another, from December of the previous year to February and March of the following lunar year.
The Central Highlands has many steep mountain roads. When traveling, visitors should bring low, soft shoes with many spikes for firm grip when climbing. When climbing, you should wear 2 pairs of socks, 1 thin, sweat-absorbent type inside and 1 pair of long socks outside to cover the pants to avoid mosquitoes. Using 2 pairs of socks will reduce the friction between the shoes and the feet, avoiding blisters on the feet. Visitors should also choose clothes that are sweat-absorbent and comfortable to move in.
