Vietnam - Buon me thout

Sited 160km west of Ninh Hoa, BUON ME THUOT is chiefly of interest for its outlying minority Ede villages of Tour and Ban . The town itself is the western highlands' unofficial capital, and, during French colonial times, developed on the back of the coffee, tea, rubber and hardwood crops that grew so successfully in its fertile red soil; coffee is still the backbone of the local economy.

If you need to while away a few hours in town, try the Dak Lak Museum (Mon-Fri 7-11am & 1.30-4.30pm; $1), which comprises the History Museum on Le Duan, chronicling the struggles against both the French and the Americans, and the more interesting Ethnographic Museum , a little further down the road on the opposite side, (entrance on Nguyen Du) with its display of exhibits pertaining to local minority peoples, among them a scale model of an Ede longhouse, rice-wine jars, and instruments for taming elephants. You could also check out BUON KO SIER , an Ede community 2km beyond the Saigon Moi eating-house. Now effectively no more than a district of Buon Me Thuot, it's still a convenient way of witnessing a longhouse community going about its daily routines.

Buon Me Thuot's bus station (tel 050/852603) is 2km above town on Nguyen Chi Tranh; from here several air-con express buses ($3) depart daily to Nha Trang and to Ho Chi Minh ($5-6). The airport is a few kilometres back off the road towards Ninh Hoa: Vietnam Airlines (tel 050/855055), at 67 Nguyen Tat Thanh, has an airport shuttle to and from the city ($1.50). Dak Lak Tourist is at 3 Phan Chu Trinh (tel 050/852108) and Vietcombank, on Y-Jut, can change travellers' cheques, foreign currencies and advance cash on Visa, Mastercard and JCB cards. The cheapest beds in town are at Le Hong Phong's Hoang Gia (tel 050/852161; $5-10), which has passable rooms for the price, all en suite; or there are somewhat lacklustre rooms at Hai Ba Trung's Hong Kong (tel 050/852630; $5-15), but at least it's fairly quiet. The Agribank Hotel, at 111, Le Hong Phong (tel 050/857828; $20-25) has spacious doubles with TV and air-con. Pick of the crop is the smart Thang Loi (tel 050/857615; $25-40), across from the Victory Monument, whose well-equipped rooms include satellite TV; breakfast is inclusive.

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When it's time to eat , Saigon Moi, a no-frills roadside eating house on Hung Vuong, serves stuffed tofu and prawns as well as flavoursome com suon and excellent thit kho tau (slow-boiled pork and eggs). The Ninh Hoa on Ly Thuong Kiet is famed locally for its fine nem (spring rolls). Hai Ba Trung's Ngoc Lanh cooks tasty food from its simple menu, and beef dishes at Quan Bo Ne next door are popular. In the evenings, local males converge on Nguyen Duch Canh to consume platefuls of seafood and vast quantities of Tiger beer. Most of the restaurants along here are simply called Bia Lanh (cold beer), followed by the street number.

Exploring

  • Dak lake
    About 60km south of Buon Me Thuot, Highway 27 passes Dak Lake , a beautiful and peaceful spot that's amongst the top tourist destinations in Vietnam. Along the lake's shoreline, the ruined remains of Emperor Bao Dai's palace enjoys a prime spot; beyond this sits JUN VILLAGE , a thriving Mnong community, whose impressive longhouses have remained little unchanged. Dak Lak Tourist have a branch office here and a couple of longhouses (under $5), where it's possible to overnight; there is also a simple stilt restaurant built out on the lake, which offers magnificent views. You can also arrange to stay at a Jun longhouse in the village (around $5), partake in organised rice wine feasts ($60 per group), guided treks or elephant rides around the lake ($30 for two per hour); there are also dug-out canoe excursions ($10 per hour for two). Although Dak Lake is mostly geared towards organised tour groups, it's possible to arrive here independently, but you should ring ahead first: either by Honda om, or the twice daily local buses from Buon Me Thuot. Coming from either Buon Me Thuot or Da Lat, some sections of the route are as yet unsealed, something to bear in mind in the rainy season, when the road resembles porridge. For bookings and enquiries, contact the Dak Lak office (tel 050/886184) and ask for Miss Loan - French-speaking - or Mr Liem, who speaks English.
  • Dray Sap Falls The splendid Dray Sap Falls are accessed by heading southwest out of Buon Me Thuot along Doc Lap. Before them, 14km out of town, a track to the left of the road runs into serene TOUR VILLAGE , one of the biggest minority villages in the area, where four hundred Edes share fifteen stilted wooden longhouses and live very much as they have done for centuries, sustained by their maize, corn, peanut, cashew and sugarcane crops. Visitors are often invited to take tea with the village's headman , a French-speaking gentleman called Enor. While Tour's residents are more than happy to let you look inside their longhouses, a token gift is much appreciated - cigarettes, sweets, salt and stationery will all be well received. The Honda om return trip to Tour costs $3 but you'll need to double that to continue on to crescent-shaped Dray Sap Falls (7am-5pm), 20km from Buon Me Thuot. Almost 15m high and over 100m wide, the "waterfall of smoke" can be reached by clambering through bamboo groves and over rocks to the right of the pool formed by the falls.
  • Yok Don National Park
    Exit west out of Buon Me Thuot along Phan Boi Chau, and 37km later, you'll arrive at the entrance to Vietnam's largest wildlife reserve, the Yok Don National Park , whose 58,000 hectares lie nestled into the hinge of the Cambodian border and the Serepok River. Over sixty species of animals, including tigers, leopards and bears, and around two hundred types of birds, from peacocks to hornbills, populate Yok Don Park, but elephant rides are the park's main attraction ($20 an hour for two people). There are also one-day walking tours available and two-day, one-night ($180) safaris for two, the latter best in the dry season when wildlife is more visible. Longer tours penetrating deeper into the forest where animals still preside are also available. For enquiries, phone the park HQ (tel 050/789149) and ask for Mr Chuong or Mr Nghia.

    The three sub-hamlets that comprise the village of BAN DON lie 2km beyond Yok Don's park HQ on the bank of the crocodile-infested Serepok River. Khmer, Thai, Lao, Jarai and Mnong live in the vicinity, though it's the Ede who are in the majority. They adhere to a matriarchal social system, and build their houses on stilts. As you explore, you are bound to be welcomed in somewhere to share tea or rice wine ($5 a jar). If you get invited to a party, bear in mind that the women drink first, then the village elder, and finally the other guests.

    Ban Don Tourist Centre (tel 050/789119), in the centre of the village, organizes elephant rides and guided tours of Ban Don and surrounding areas ($14, plus $5 village entrance fee). Dak Lak Tourist also arranges tours here, but you could just as well hire a Honda om ($8-10) and guide ($5 for a half-day) from Buon Me Thuot. You can also reach Ban Don by getting a bus from Buon Me Thuot beside 200 Phan Boi Chau (7am & 2pm) to EA SUP . Both the Ban Don Tourist Centre and the Yok Don Park HQ can organize three-hour cultural programmes of Ede dance, music and wine ($60-80 per group) with the option of spending the night in a nearby longhouse (extra $5 per person); there's also accommodation available at both the Park HQ and the Ban Don Tourist Centre.

Vietnam

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