How many shades of green?

Another day, another motorbike. I rode through Kon Tum town and was soon on quiet rural roads. The countryside was lovely. I especially liked this view across a valley. How many shades of green are there? I then turned onto a road that ran north over some hills. The landscape was mostly farmland and quite a few rubber plantations with occasional villages. The road brought me to Dak To, a town which was a focal point for fighting during the Vietnam war.

The extra is a former US airstrip. It’s surrounded by fields and is used by locals to dry produces (but not today). The whole area had lots of agent orange dropped on it so the hills nearby are either bare or have bushes and scrub on them but no forests. The effects of the contamination continue today. In Dak To town there’s a big ‘victory monument’ marking how the fall of Dak To was the start of the final defeat of the south. The road south from Dak To to Kon Tum which I drove back on was the road taken by thousands of displaced people (a lot from Vietnam’s different ethnic minorities) fleeing the advancing North Vietnamese army.


I stopped on the edge of Dak To at a street stall to get a drink but saw that they were cooking very small Banh Xeo (Vietnamese pancakes). I asked for one and a group of three women with two children invited me to join them instead and insisted on giving me two of their pancakes. One spoke as much English as I speak Vietnamese so we were able to have a limited conversation. The Banh Xeo were delicious!