Kon Tum - Central Highlands Vietnam

In my neighborhood there lives a family that overtimme have become my friends. One day I received a message, asking if I wanted to join them to Nancy’s hometown (the mum of the family). We discussed the trip face to face in the evening. They were going to take a night bus to get there. Her little sister was going to get married and therefore they were planning to stay in her hometown for a week. I asked if it was possible for me to come back earlier because I had some things scheduled which didn’t allow me to stay for the wedding which was at the end of the week. After a few seconds of thinking I said ‘’yess, I do want to join’’.

The sleeper bus departed from Da Nang around 9 PM. A taxi took us to the bus station where I hopped on my first sleeper bus. Everyone had their own little cabin, where you could lay down, charge your phone, watch something on the television. I was surprised that I could fully lay down without my feet touching the end wall of the cabin. After writing some things on my laptop I decided to try and sleep. I would sleep a little and wake up occasionally, however overall, I think it wasn’t too bad and I had the feeling we arrived to Nancy’s hometown sooner than expected. The trip took around 6 hours, so we arrived between 3 am and 4 am.

my cabin inside the nightbus

When we got out of the bus, it was cold outside. The family had told me before that the weather is similar to Da Lat, sunny during the day and cold during the night. Lola! look at the stars… ‘’Nancy said’’. Wow, the sky was full of bright stars, unlike Da Nang where I normally can only spot a few, here there were countless stars.
When we all arrived at Nancy’s home, we all ate a little bit of porridge and then tried to sleep a little. It was hard to sleep because it was 4 am and around that time the roosters start making noise, Cock-a-doodle-doo!!! Now, I know I’m in the countryside for sure.

That day I went for a walk around the village. On the way I saw many allotments and I also noticed some trees that had rubber around them, rubber trees. I had never seen those kinds of trees before. Later, I gained the knowledge that these trees were planted by the French to produce rubber and still until this day the trees that they had planted are producing rubber. The trees were organized in rows. When I first saw them, it was strange to see well organized lines of trees. Later on, I also discovered that Nancy’s Dad has a piece of land with rubber trees and some coffee trees as well. Nancy’s husband ringed my phone, time to come back from my walk to eat some lunch.

butterfly

The family was always encouraging me to eat more and more and they never wanted me to help clean the dishes. Until the last day where I forced them to let me help to clean the dishes, by taking the spot where they would sit to clean the dishes before anyone of them could.
At the house there was a cheeky family member, a Frenchie. He would always, sit next to us when we were having meals. When lucky we would give him a little bit of food. He loved to hop on the motorbike whenever he had the change. Once he was on there was no way to get him off.

Kon tum province is very close to Laos. The next day Nancy’s husband took me to the border. Unfortunately, we could not cross it.. When we looked at google maps it was shocking to see the difference. On the border side of Laos, you could see there was heaps of greenery and jungle, unlike Vietnam’s border side. At Vietnam’s side most of the land was used for agriculture; many trees were cut and continue to be cut.

6 km to Laos border

During my last day in Nancy’s hometown, we went to Kon tum city. The trip was about 60 km. On the way we stopped to drink something and there was a cute surprise, a puppy! A puppy chewing on a bone.

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resting spot on the way to Kon Tum city

In Kon Tum city there were many churches to visit, all with their own unique style, one church was a black colored wooden church designed by the French.

Holy Mary made out of wood

This beautiful path leads to another church located in Kon Tum city

It was almost time for me to take the bus back to Da Nang. The family really wanted me to stay longer to experience the wedding and Chip (Nancy’s daughter) didn’t want me to go either, but it was time for me to say goodbye and go back to Da Nang.

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Coffee trees

Rubber trees

Jackfruit