Roads less traveled Central Highlands

There are many great places that are neglected when tourists visit Vietnam.  Many are funneled to the coast and take a leisurely two weeks working themselves up the coastline.  By doing this many miss out on the incredible landscapes in the central highlands.  While I was exploring the “Crazy House,” a man named V approached me.  V is a freelance Easy Rider.  The job of Easy Riders is to take you around Dalat or further afield and show you more places off the beaten path.  As I learned on my trip the path is more treaded than I thought, you still could see and encounter a more rural and slower pace of life than the cities, but don’t be fooled that you are Christopher Columbus.  V approached me with a map and testimonials by his former passengers.  Although he spoke to me in an Americanized accent I learned that I was the first passenger of his to be from the States, again Americans and our lack of travel.  I signed up for a two-day excursion that would take me north along the former Ho Chi Minh trail.  This trail was the Vietcong’s supply route during the war, which the US was unable to destroy.  This trip was just as much about seeing the scenery as tracing the steps of American and Vietcong soldiers during the war period.  

The next day we started out early and made our way to a flower farm and a distillery that makes rice liquor.  The flower factory was nice but nothing special.  I began to notice that there were large groups of the Easy Riders dropping of their charges at these same places, these places are well traveled even if off the "path".   

On the other had the distillery was interesting because you got to see liquor being manufactured.  The distillery also doubled as a production plant for the most expensive type of coffee from Vietnam.  This is weasel coffee, like the Eritrean coffee, which was discovered, after goats had eaten it, this coffee is much the same.  

Domesticated weasels are feed coffee berries, which they readily enjoy and then precede to excrete.  These beans are then roasted and turned into expensive roasts.  After drinking my third cup of coffee in as many hours we were back on the bike heading to a waterfall named Elephant’s back.  This name supposedly comes from the way a rock looks with the water crashing onto it.   

The waterfall was nice but small and was terribly hard to access because no one has invested in the infrastructure around the viewing area, your are forced to channel your inner gymnast just to stay on two legs.  What is common on these Easy Rider trips is that the driver will let you off and he will establish a rendezvous point where you will meet in ten minutes.  This is what we decided to do when he dropped me off at a pagoda.

Pagodas at this point in my travels are usually not first on my list.  Many are newer in design and all share the same imagery. I was really happy that I went to this pagoda.  I was dropped off by V and continued on my own up the large staircase.  Instead of a quiet and lonely place the pagoda was alive with activity.  First you hear before you can see what is happening.  There is a large bell inside and a monk is banging the bell in a way as to let all of the vibrations cease before hitting the bell again.  It creates a relaxed feeling for introspection and good background music for lunch; I finished climbing the stairs and removed my shoes, which is customary.   

I crossed the floor of the main room filled with Buddhist statues in different positions of repose and spotted some people eating.  I went over to just see what they were eating, but once I stuck my head around the corner I was spotted by a group of older ladies who were at the head of the long group of people gathered on the floor.  Eating on the floor is very common in Vietnam and people do it in their homes more than sitting at a table. The ladies eagerly gestured to me to join them for a meal. I had to find a comfortable position to sit in for a good hour, I can’t cross my legs so I have to just extended my legs opposite the food.     

At the pagoda the food is always vegetarian, but this does not mean dull foods with tofu, quite the opposite.  The women immediately started to create a plate for me and continued to push food on me as if I had been on a hunger strike.  Mothers are mothers everywhere; it is an international sign of hospitality to do this.  In Asia you must never reject food that is offered to you, I was certainly not going to do it with the eyes of Buddha watching.  So I ate up.  The spread consisted of bitter melon soup with a light vegetable broth, tofu that had been dried and then deep fried, more bitter melon that was stir fired with morning glory and garlic and topped with peanuts and a stir fry of a tofu like substance with cabbage and wood ear mushrooms.  With a little soy sauce as your only condiment the meal was a study in simplicity.   

While I was eating the old ladies sitting next to me were bombarding me with questions, I knew the first couple, which were, “where are you from, how old are you, and are you married?”  After these questions my situational Vietnamese was not working so I went looking for V.  A translator in these situations is priceless and V really earned his keep.  It turns out once a year these women and their extended family get together and remember their ancestors.  This was a celebratory meal to remember those that are not with us.  Instead of just smiles and awkward silences I was able to talk with these woman and learn a little bit more about what they did and where they were from.  Most of these women were from the north of Vietnam.   In 1974-75 when the US was leaving, the Vietnamese government imported a lot of Northern Vietnamese to the south to populate many parts of the country.  This was a way to strengthen the position of their northern government locally and to pacify the locals who may have sided with the Americans.  You will find northerners in all places in the Vietnamese countryside.   

They did not come on their own volition but were placed there very deliberately.  The women were farmers and owned land about 25 kilometers away from the temple.  They of course wanted to know about he US, if we are happier there than in Vietnam, what did I like about Vietnam and was I looking for a wife?  After this question they called two of their kin over to ask if I thought they were marriage material.  The kindness of strangers and the unexpected that is around the corner is why I travel.  This exchange was such an unexpected surprise and turned out to be the highlight of the trip because it was not preplanned like the rest of my Easy Rider excursion.  

After the best free lunch I have had in Vietnam we got on the motorbike and left for Lak Lake.  The central highlands are populated with many different ethnic tribes that still speak their own languages.  Although the Vietnamese government has forcefully assimilated many of these groups they still retain some of their traditional habits.  On our ride to Lak Lake we went through the villages of the K’ho, H’mong, M’nong, and Ede minority villages.   

To my untrained eye it was hard to see the differences because many have stopped wearing traditional dress and have opted for modern clothes.  Really the only way to distinguish these groups is by hearing them speak, the languages are really distinct.  Around 5:30pm we reached Lak Lake, which is home to the Edu people.  In the past external forces have tried to disseminate propaganda in this region and weaken state control on these areas.  As recently as 2004 there have been protests against the Hanoi government.  This has made the minders from the government weary of foreigners and instead of being able to visit all of the villages around the lake travelers are confined to one village, which must be the most secure.  The Ede sleep in long wooden houses, a single room dwelling with minimal amenities.  The only options for a shower with water pressure and a meal was the one restaurant that catered to the Easy Rider guests.  We ate and showered here and enjoyed the incredible sunset, which satiated my appetite for a romantic Southeast Asian sunset.  

            The next morning I was awoken by the sounds of squealing pigs and children right under my head.  The floor is only made of thin boards so the sounds of the outside are the sounds indoors.  Most people in the countryside of Vietnam wakeup at 5:00 in the morning to beat the ghastly heat that lets loose around 11am.  I left my long house and walked to the restaurant to take a shower.  On a dirt isthmus cutting through two rice fields on either side of me were elephants preparing to ferry tourists across the lake on the napes of their necks.  The mornings and late afternoons in Southeast Asia are my favorites, when the country is drenched in golden light and has a majestic quality about it.  We got on the motorbike early and headed off to see a passion fruit plantation and to visit more waterfalls.   

Both were nice but not as nice as the pool/waterfall that we went to later.  I’m sorry but there are not photos of the pool or waterfall massage that I went to.  This area was way to treacherous to pull out a camera and attempt photos.  After consuming waterfall chilled passion fruits in an idyllic scene we went to a larger waterfall in the same reserve before heading into the main city of Buon Ma Thuot.    The city of Buon Ma Thuot is a non-descript city, which is mainly a distribution point for the massive amount of coffee produced in the region.   Thankfully V knew a couple of good places to take a food-obsessed guy like me.   

The first place we went to was a food that I have already discussed in this blog.  _______(name) this version was a bit different because they had a different dipping sauce that was peanut based and the addition of those crispy fried rice papers.  This is a food where you build your own adventure.  Take a bit of this and a bit of that and construct your own flavor profile.  These were a great snack after eating very little except passion fruits during the day.  After the light snack we headed back to the hotel to clean up and then go out to another restaurant that evening.  The type of restaurants with book like menus usually will only make a couple of dishes very well.  I don’t understand this theory of menu development but there are always some solid foods to choose from and that is fresh seafood.

For 5 dollars you can get a nice plate of still alive shrimp attached to wooden sticks and a personal charcoal grill in which to grill them on.  With the addition of a condiment of limejuice and salt mixed you have a perfect meal.  Washing this down with lots of Saigon beer only enhances the experience.  If you have great company then you really can’t go wrong.  I found all of this at the restaurant where V took me.  We were able to recruit a German lady to come with us because these restaurants are always better explored with a group so that you can eat more. Buon Ma Thuot is not a tourist destination so you are an oddity there.  When I proposed cheers to the table of young people next to ours it turned into a bunch of cheers and lots of silly questioned being asked to V.  

That evening I said my goodbyes to V because he was going to be leaving very early tomorrow and I was going to take buses all day to explore the rest of the Ho Chi Minh trail.  Taking an Easy Rider trip is a great idea if you want an insider to show you his country.  If you are realistic that you will not be going so far off the beaten path then you will be satisfied and have no complaints.  If you want a more adventuress tour you can rent or buy a motorbike and travel this same terrain yourself.  What you will miss out on is the opportunity to have a translator help you communicate with people remembering their ancestors.