On the south side of Lak Lake is Jun village, where M’Nong people live (M’Nongs are one of the ethnic minority people of the area). We decided to stay in the village for the night. We had hoped to stay with a local family but that is not how it works here. You stay in the village, in the same kind of house as the locals, but in your own house. This is set up for tourists and we could feel it. Being low season, we were the only ones there, which is not a bad thing, but still we didn’t get to mix with the population much.
We could hear the kids play soccer or ride bikes outside in the evening, so it was semi-authentic, but It didn’t come close to our experiences in Ba Be Lake (January this year)or Mai Chau (In August last year).
In the morning (today) we took a boat ride on the lake, it was beautiful. 
I had 4 Vietnamese coffees today, and I’m buzzing. BMT is not amazing, but right next to it is the cutest little village, where we walked around and took pictures, as we do. 
The people in the village were all out and about, walking around and chatting with the neighbours. I think we said “hello!” back to approximately 200 “helloooo!” thrown our way.
We could hear the kids play soccer or ride bikes outside in the evening, so it was semi-authentic, but It didn’t come close to our experiences in Ba Be Lake (January this year)or Mai Chau (In August last year).
In the morning (today) we took a boat ride on the lake, it was beautiful.
This guy was either washing or drowning an elephant. Not sure which, as he kept pushing the elephant under.
Even though the village’s main attraction is an elephant ride around (and IN) the lake, we didn’t want to do that. In always seems incredibly sad to see elephants enslaved to take tourists on their back all day long, every day. Dan did it in Thailand and has kept a very bitter memory of it.
We hit the road again around 10 am but this time we didn’t go very far. We stopped 50 kms away, in the city of Buon Mat Thuot, the coffee capital of Vietnam.
Even though the village’s main attraction is an elephant ride around (and IN) the lake, we didn’t want to do that. In always seems incredibly sad to see elephants enslaved to take tourists on their back all day long, every day. Dan did it in Thailand and has kept a very bitter memory of it.We hit the road again around 10 am but this time we didn’t go very far. We stopped 50 kms away, in the city of Buon Mat Thuot, the coffee capital of Vietnam.
I had 4 Vietnamese coffees today, and I’m buzzing. BMT is not amazing, but right next to it is the cutest little village, where we walked around and took pictures, as we do. The people in the village were all out and about, walking around and chatting with the neighbours. I think we said “hello!” back to approximately 200 “helloooo!” thrown our way. Dan, the local star:
We’re staying in a small hotel in BMT. Tomorrow we'll be on the road from 6.00 am.
We’re staying in a small hotel in BMT. Tomorrow we'll be on the road from 6.00 am.We'll be deep in the Highlands and on the Ho Chi Minh trail from tomorrow and for the next few days. It probably won’t be easy to get an Internet connection, so we’ll be back on the blog after that.
Looks like you guys are having a great time! And I like the new blog design, very nice.
ReplyDeletep.s. Dan, I posted a video on my blog the other day in which you have a pretty awesome cameo toward the end. It's the post called "2 years in Sydney." Check it out!