Falls

This morning I hired a motorbike to drive out to a waterfall. I decided to not be too ambitious about the distance I went in case it started raining by lunchtime so my plan was for a half day trip. The road out of Buon Ma Thuot was busy but I soon turned onto a quieter rural road. The waterfall is very popular with Vietnamese families going for picnics at the weekend so it was quite busy.

Although it’s raining, in another few months there’ll likely be more water going over the falls (although a nearby dam regulates how much flows down the river). But they still seemed pretty powerful. A few people, like this couple, ventured out into the water to take photos and some kids were splashing around. Most people though were picnicking and some had barbecues and were cooking meat. One group of teenagers were spit roasting a whole chicken. It looked like it would be a very long wait until they could eat it!


I left the waterfall when it started to get really cloudy and decided to see if I could get to the dam, a couple of km away, on my way back. I drove along a road overlooking the dam but there was a secured and guarded gate stopping any traffic going near it. I started back and saw that there was another road that went along the reservoir. I checked google maps and I could get back to the main road via that route so I kept driving. There were thousands of butterflies flying around next to and across the road. Mostly they were small and a light greenish-yellow colour but some were bigger and much brighter colours. I did my best not to hit any but several flew directly into me. The road was paved but with lots of potholes. It was hilly too. A fun road to drive with good views across the reservoir. For the first half I only saw one other motorbike but then there were more villages. Eventually the road joined a busier road that took me back to the highway into Buon Ma Thuot.


I had a late lunch when I got back and then went to the ethnographic museum. It had an interesting display on the history of the region and its strategic importance during the Vietnam war. There was also an area with information about the indigenous peoples and minority groups living in the area, presented in a way which completely ignored the repression some of the minority groups experienced from the government. The history section mentioned the crushing of the FULRO group without any context or explanation about what it was. You’d have to know already that it was made up of ethnic minorities rebelling against their treatment (including loss of land to a state sponsored relocation programme whereby majority Kinh people were moved into the region) by first the South Vietnamese government and then the Communist government. But then the government doesn’t want any scrutiny about its treatment of people. The Central Highlands used to be very difficult to visit because of this but it seems to have got easier recently. 

It didn't rain until about 9pm so my worries about being soaked on the bike again didn't materialise.