Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [149]
The central highlands | Through the highlands | Kon Tum and the minority villages | Practicalities |
Eating and drinking
There are several eating options along Nguyen Hué: the Hiep Thanh, at no. 129, specializes in chicken dishes but also serves up good sautéed beef and tasty soups. The Dakbla, at no. 168, is very popular with foreign visitors, offering a range of Vietnamese and Western dishes, as well as selling a selection of ethnic souvenirs. Next to the Indochine Hotel on Bach Dang, the huge Indochine Canteen can be a bit daunting when it’s empty, but serves a wide range of Vietnamese dishes in a prime riverfront location. The place to savour the excellent local coffee is the Eva Café, 1 Phan Chu Trinh, run by a local sculptor, whose work is also displayed here; the three-storey café has been built to resemble a stilthouse, and its surrounding garden yields fountains, wooden sculptures of distorted faces and a waterfall trickling down the back wall.
The central highlands | Through the highlands | Kon Tum and the minority villages |
Around Kon Tum
There are dozens of Bahnar villages encircling Kon Tum. As most are free from the official restrictions that hang over Plei Ku, you’re at liberty to explore this area at will, although for overnight stays it’s best to check first with the local tourist office. West of Le Loi, the village of PLEI TONGHIA, just a kilometre away, and KON HONGO, a few kilometers further, are inhabited by members of the Rongao, one of the smaller minority groups in the region. Women are often busy weaving in the shade of their simple, wooden huts, ox carts trundle along the dusty road, and children splash about in the Dakbla River.
About 5km to the east of town is the most frequently visited of Bahnar villages, KON KOTU. Though now linked to Kon Tum by a surfaced road, it makes a pleasant walk to go there by country paths (contact the local tourist office for details) and it’s possible to overnight in the village rong. To get there by road, follow Tran Hung Dao east out of town for a couple of kilometres until you reach a suspension bridge over the river at KON KLOR. On the right here is a very impressive rong with attractive patterning along the peak of the roof. A couple of hundred metres beyond the bridge, turn left and follow the road to Kon Kotu. Most of the dwellings here are made of bamboo and secured with rattan string, although some houses now are made of timber and sport tiled or aluminium roofs, and the schoolhouse is built of brick. However, it’s the village’s immaculate rong that commands the most attention. No nails were used in the construction of the bamboo walls, floor, and the impossibly tall thatch roof of this lofty communal hall. It also doubles as an occasional overnight stop for local trekking tours organized by Kon Tum Tourist.
There are plenty of other villages of interest on the road northeast to KON PLONG, the only town of any size between Kon Tum and the coast at Quang Ngai. About 36km from Kon Tum, there’s a Sodra village on the left, while a kilometre further on the right is a Jolong village with a very different type of rong, without the towering roof favoured by other groups. Beyond Kon Plong, Highway 24 climbs up to the Mang Den Pass at 1200 metres, where there is a lovely stand of pine trees. This is also the starting point for one of the many treks organized by Kon Tum Tourist in the area.
About 17km southwest of Kon Tum is the village of Ya Chim, where there are a few Jarai cemeteries that can be visited, though it’s best to go with a guide from Kon Tum Tourist as they are tricky to find. Wooden posts, some of them carved in the form of mourning figures, surround the graves and personal possessions such as a bicycle or TV are placed inside. The graves are carefully