• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1327 0

them, constituted one of the American War’s major combat theatres. It was an NVA (North Vietnamese Army) attack on Plei Ku, in February 1965, that elicited the “Rolling Thunder” campaign (see "Operation Rolling Thunder"); the war’s first conventional battle of any size was fought in the Ia Drang Valley, southwest of Plei Ku, eight months later. Hundreds of Americans died at Ia Drang, but many times more Communists perished, spurring America to claim victory by dint of a higher body count. A decade later, in March 1975, Plei Ku was abandoned when NVA troops overran Buon Ma Thuot. As the South’s commanding officers flew by helicopter to safety, 200,000 Southern soldiers and civilians were left to make their own way down to the coast, hounded at every step by NVA shells.

So little of the town was left standing by the last days of the war that a near-total reconstruction was required. The 1980s reincarnation that you’ll see, stacked up the side of a gentle slope, lacks any charm. Indeed, you’d be hard-pushed to find any real reason for spending time here, as you need a permit and guide to visit the few minority villages that are open to foreigners, and there’s little to see in any case. If you’re keen to explore minority villages without a government chaperone, it makes sense to push on 50km north, just an hour’s journey, to Kon Tum, where there are fewer restrictions.

Barring an early morning stroll along central, east–west Tran Phu, where hawkers sell aubergines, shallots, parsnips and garlic, and into the adjacent town market, there’s little to do in Plei Ku. Should you get stalled by the weather, you could check out the two museums in town, though they are not always open. The Ho Chi Minh Museum (Mon–Fri 7.30–11am & 1–5pm; free), to the north of the town centre at 1 Phan Dinh Phuong, features swords, crossbows, bamboo xylophones, a weaving loom and a pair of Uncle Ho’s sandals, but no English signs. The Gia Lai Museum (Mon–Fri 7.30–11am & 1–5pm; small admission fee), at 28 Quang Trung, is a little better, with a gong and rice-wine jar collection in one gallery and, in another, replicas of a Bahnar grave and longhouse are displayed.

This far north in the highlands, the Jarai and, to a lesser extent, the Bahnar outnumber the E De, though many of them have been assimilated into mainstream Vietnamese culture. Also, Plei Ku’s tourist board, Gia Lai Tourist, is notoriously defensive of the region’s few remaining traditional settlements and doesn’t approve of individuals making forays into the wilds, insisting that you should always be with a licensed guide when visiting villages. If you try to by-pass this regulation and just turn up in villages, you’ll get little cooperation from the locals, who receive a cut from the fees for “official” visitors.

The central highlands | Through the highlands | Plei Ku and around |

Practicalities

Plei Ku’s airport (059/382 5097) lies 7km northeast of the city, from where taxis (about 60,000đ) and xe om (about 40,000đ) make the journey to the centre; Vietnam Airlines, at 55 Quang Trung (Mon–Sat; 059/382 4680), can arrange onward flight reservations. From Plei Ku’s long-distance bus station, below the three-way crossroads 600m southeast of the centre, it’s a short xe om ride into the city along Hung Vuong, Plei Ku’s southern limit, from which its main roads shoot north.

The Vietcombank at 62 Phan Boi Chau can change traveller’s cheques and has an ATM. Gia Lai Tourist (059/387 4571, www.gialaitourist.com) is inside the Hung Vuong Hotel at 215 Hung Vuong, and can provide information as well as arrange expensive, tailor-made trekking and battlefield tours and overnight stays in minority villages. Internet access is available at many places in town, including the shop at 80 Nguyen Van Troi.

The central highlands | Through the highlands | Plei Ku and around | Practicalities |

Accommodation

Accommodation in Plei Ku is decidedly uninspiring. The HAGL Hotel, about half a kilometre east of the town centre at 1 Phu Dong (059/371 8459, www.hagl.com.vn; US$31–50), is the most comfortable: