Rong house of Bahnar people
The remote central highlands contain some of Vietnam’s best kept secrets, visitors willing to get off the beaten path will discover pristine lakes and rivers, vast swathes of old-growth jungle, and isolated ethnic minority villages.
Volcanic Red earth, dark green forests and glittering lakes make this one of Vietnam’s most beautiful and mysterious religions. Along with wild elephants, the area is home to monkeys, tigers, and the endangered Javanese Rhino.
The natives of Ban Don Village, 55km North-West of BuonMaThuot, have long been famous for their elephants-hunting skill, even today, villagers trap and train wild elephants, which are used for transportation and agricultural work and ridden in races and festivals.
Traditional dance of the Bahnar-KonTum
Paying a visit to Kontum can you see the imposing NgokLung waterfalls, the gentle and dreamy Poco river, experience how to cross rattan suspension bridges to villages. A great opportunity to discover the buffalo-stabbing festival with sounds of gongs and traditional musical instruments which symbolize for Bahnar, Sedang, Rongao and Jarai minority groups.
Besides, KonTum has been well-known for great historical relics, including KonTum and Dakglei prisons, the Dakto former battlefield, Tumorong, Charlie hill and the legendary HCM trail.
Hassle-free with fresh air, beautiful wooden church and seminary, primitive Bahnar villages in town which makes KonTum become a new destination for all travelers.
T'nung Volcanic lake - Pleiku
Elephants of Ban Don
At Lak Lake -50 km south of BuonMaThuot, you will enjoy elephant riding, overnight on stilt house of the Mnong tribe, drink their traditional wines and , listen to their mighty music.
Dambri falls
Getting there & away:
DaLat is about 300 km north of Saigon. Take 6 hours by bus following highway 20.
From DaLat you can take highway 27 connect to BuonMaThuot, crossing through the
beautiful tropical forest with several mountain passes and hill tribes villages.
It takes you 8 hours from DaLat to BuonMaThuot, but most of travellers break the
trip in Lak lake, stay overnight on stilt house of the Mnong tribe, riding
elephant or enjoy the gong musics of the local tribe.
Pleiku and Kontum can be accessed from BuonMaThuot (highway 14) or QuiNhon
(highway 19). Kontum is the most primitive town in Central highland. If you have
short time. A trip from Saigon to DaLat, down to NhaTrang beach for few days,
then continue highway 1 up north to QuiNhon, turn left to Pleiku and KonTum for
few more days. From Kontum you can take an adventure trip on HoChiMinh trail to
PhuocSon and DaNang or coming down the jungle to QuangNgai town on highway
1.
Cat Tien national park
Lagerstroemia Ovalfolia (BangLang)
Flora:
There are approximately 75 orders, 162 families, and 1,610 species. Cat Tien
park is mainly dominated by the species such as Dipterocarpaceae, Fabaceae,
particularly Afzelia xylocarpa, Dalbergia bariensis etc....
The vegetation types in the park include: evergreen forests, semi deciduous forests, wood and bamboo forests and wetlands.
Fauna:
Cat Tien park includes 105 mammal species, 348 bird species, 133
freshwater fish species, 79 reptile species, 41 amphibian species, 439
butterflies species and thousands of other insect species.
There are 51 rare and endangered species in Cat Tien registered in Vietnam
Data Red Book.
The Java Rhinoceros is one of the most critically endangered animals in the world. There are only two small populations: one in Ujung Kulon (Java, Indonesia) and the other in Cat Tien park where 7 to 8 individuals exist. Some other rare species which are also at risk of extinction such as: Siamese Crocodile, Orange-necked partridge, Elephant, Indo-Chinese Tiger, Gaur etc....
With
total length of 90km of DongNai river bordering the park, many natural
rapids, a complicated network of wetlands, and tropical rain forests, Cat
Tien National Park is composed of many wonderful landscapes and magnificent
sceneries.
Some more details at
http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/~sdwyer/CatTien.html