Buon Ma Thuot
I am now traveling by myself in a deluxe 12-seater vehicle with my private guide (Mr. Vu) and driver (Mr. Ho) through the province of Dak Lak in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. I landed 2 days ago into the capital city of Buon Ma Thuot and am traveling South through large towns and small villages toward Lak Lake. Unfortunately, I caught a cold in HCMC which turned into chest congestion which has dampened my enthusiasm for traveling by myself but I am getting good support from Mr Vu. I am feeling better, tested negative for COVID (test kits here cost $0.75 each as compared to $15 in the U.S.), have no fever – but I don’t quite feel myself.
Buon Ma Thuot is a thriving city with many new stores selling stylish clothing and all the accoutrements of the 21st century. Except they do not carry state of the art hearing aids as I went to the largest hearing aid dispenser in town to try to replace my expensive hearing aids lost somewhere between my hotel in Saigon and landing here. It is a mystery but at least one that will be resolved upon returning home.
On the block of my small but good hotel there are stores selling motorbikes/scooters, plumbing fixtures, women’s pajamas, a drug store, a herbal supplement store, car rentals, a juice place, a Karaoke bar, and several small restaurants. At the end of the block are two stores with water filled bins out front, one selling different types of live and dead fish, and one selling nothing but different types of mollusks and snails, most of which I could not identify.
The main city market begins on the next block – a covered space filled with small individual stalls selling all types of food, clothing, shoes, and everything else one might need. On the outside street side are cages of chickens for sale, as well as tables with meat of various kinds being dismembered for sale (I didn’t look too closely) but can hear the chopping when I walk by.
This area of Vietnam is an extremely rich and fertile area. There is every kind of tropical fruit here and I see enticing piles in the market. It is the height of Durian season here, which ends in a few weeks. Buon Ma Thuot has a celebratory festival with a large sculptured Durian fruit in its center. Mr. Vu took his 2 daughters to visit it a few weeks ago – and he tells me there are 6 major varieties of Durian which all taste different and I hope he will show me some of them in the next few days. In the market near my hotel, I stop and watch a young woman on a scooter bargain with a durian seller for her choice piece of fruit. Each fruit when opened contains about 4-8 separate pods each around a pit. When I was in Hoi An I bought one pod which had been opened and sold in a plastic covered styrofoam plate at a cost of about $4. Here in Buon Ma Thuot, the whole durian costs $1.5 dollars. I eat 2 pieces and give the rest back to the seller who tries to return money to me but I thank her and return it to her.
Walking on the sidewalk here is very difficult — each store has its own piece of sidewalk for which it appears to be responsible. So much for strong central government control which certainly does not include maintenance of public walkways, at least in this province. Each piece of sidewalk, often made of a different material then its neighbor, ends with a small slab of slanted concrete going down to the roadway. There are no curbs in this part of town so the sidewalks are used for parking of motor scooters and cars. This thus requires pedestrians to squeeze between parked vehicles, maneuver around motorcycle handlebars, and often walk into the street to get anywhere at all, with cars and motorbikes whizzing by. There are at least now traffic lights and walk signs making it a little easier to cross the streets.
Exploring Buon Ma Thuot and its environs was going back awhile in time. We visited a Buddhist pagoda in town as well as a local village of the indigenous people, the Mnong, who retain their own language and are still a sizable local presence, considered shrewd and effective business people. In addition, there was a stop at the Cocoa/Chocolate factory, only 1 of 4 large processing plants in Vietnam, and a visit to a beautiful waterfall, at a location developed for the public by one of the owners of the country’s main brand and principal export, coffee.
I have not seen a single other European tourist in the last 2 days. This is definitely off the usual route for visitors. Mr Vu reported that this area was heavily bombed during the American War (as it is called here) as there were significant local troops stationed in the area. I just looked up the history on-line and it appears Mr. Vu downplayed the level of military fighting here. It was a strategic point for both sides with intensive ground combat, airstrikes and use of the defoliant Agent Orange. In fact, the Battle of Buon Me Thuot in March 1975 was considered a decisive moment in the war, leading to the evacuation of South Vietnamese troops from the area. Mr. Vu reported how as a child some of his friends were killed by unexploded ordnance which still is an issue in the area. The result was an exodus from the area, including immigration to the U.S. where a sizable population settled in San Jose.
Until the next episode.
