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Buon Ma Thuot
Buon Ma Thuot lies about 190 km inland from Nha Trang and around 200km north of Dalat. A large town in a coffee plantation area, it’s the provincial capital of Dak Lak province but its main interest for visitors are the natural surroundings and the thirty or so ethnic groups in the area. Dak Lak is warmer and more humid than Dalat, with a rainy season from April to November.
Ede Minority Hilltribe
The Ede tribe (or Rhode) make the trip to Buon ma Thuot worthwhile. The tribe is primarily matriarchal. The women own the property and after marriage the man must move in with the woman’s family whose house is extended to accommodate them. The houses of the Ede tribes are long (up to 30 m) and thin (4 m). Each time there is a wedding in the family, the houses is extended like carriages of a train. Each section can be closed off and has its own door and kitchen. The houses are also on stilts and under the house they store wood, food and even livestock.
The Ede tribe have a different ceremony for their dead from the Bahnar at Pleiku. They bury the deceased just below the surface of the ground so that the spirit can fly to the heavens. Around the grave they keep wooden carvings of elephant tusks and on four pillars built around the grave they have four birds to protect the dead. The Ede tribe practice animistic beliefs.
Hill tribe museum, Buon Ma Thuot
There is a very interesting Hill Tribe museum at No. 1 Doc Lap street. It shows some of the local equipment the Ede tribe use to hunt elephants. The museum also gives valuable information about the culture of the tribe.
Lak lake
Lak Lake is situated 50 km south of Buon Ma Thuot. To see the lake you must get a permit that costs USD 20 for a group of people. It is also possible to sleep in the Ede houses there. In this village, you can take an elephant ride for about three hours around the area.
Yok Don National Park, Buon Ma Thuot
Situated about 40 km from the city of Buon Ma Thuot in the Central Highlands, the Yok Don National Park is an ancient tropical forest that covers more than 100,000 hectares. The butterfly-shape park is divided by the Serepok River, providing a valuable food source for the wide variety of tropical flora and fauna species, including elephants.
At the entrance of the Yok Don Park’s tourist area, you can see large cement statues of elephants. Not long ago, five wild elephants were moved into this park from the Tanh Linh forest in central Vietnam.
Sharing a border with Cambodia on the west, the Yok Don National Park was established in 1992 and includes two forestry farms and the Yok Don natural forest. Vietnamese and foreign forestry researchers are seeking means to preserve the natural forests at Yok Don, which has a forest coverage of some 85 percent - the highest rate in Vietnam''s Central Highlands.
Most recently, scientists from BirdLife International and the Vietnam Ecological and Biological Natural Resource Institute discovered a red-headed crane at Yok Don. The bird is listed as an endangered specie that usually migrates to Vietnam's Mekong Delta from Cambodia and southern Laos. Another critically endangered bird, the Ibis was also discovered by scientists during their bio-diversity survey. The Ibis was thought to be extinct in Vietnam since it was last seen in 1931 by a French environmentalist.
Given its rich natural resources, the Yok Don National Park is defined by the Vietnamese Government as one of two zones under the Bio-diversity Comprehensive Plan of Action. It will become the most sustainable natural reserve in Vietnam.
Ede Minority Hilltribe
The Ede tribe (or Rhode) make the trip to Buon ma Thuot worthwhile. The tribe is primarily matriarchal. The women own the property and after marriage the man must move in with the woman’s family whose house is extended to accommodate them. The houses of the Ede tribes are long (up to 30 m) and thin (4 m). Each time there is a wedding in the family, the houses is extended like carriages of a train. Each section can be closed off and has its own door and kitchen. The houses are also on stilts and under the house they store wood, food and even livestock.
The Ede tribe have a different ceremony for their dead from the Bahnar at Pleiku. They bury the deceased just below the surface of the ground so that the spirit can fly to the heavens. Around the grave they keep wooden carvings of elephant tusks and on four pillars built around the grave they have four birds to protect the dead. The Ede tribe practice animistic beliefs.
Hill tribe museum, Buon Ma Thuot
There is a very interesting Hill Tribe museum at No. 1 Doc Lap street. It shows some of the local equipment the Ede tribe use to hunt elephants. The museum also gives valuable information about the culture of the tribe.
Lak lake
Lak Lake is situated 50 km south of Buon Ma Thuot. To see the lake you must get a permit that costs USD 20 for a group of people. It is also possible to sleep in the Ede houses there. In this village, you can take an elephant ride for about three hours around the area.
Yok Don National Park, Buon Ma Thuot
Situated about 40 km from the city of Buon Ma Thuot in the Central Highlands, the Yok Don National Park is an ancient tropical forest that covers more than 100,000 hectares. The butterfly-shape park is divided by the Serepok River, providing a valuable food source for the wide variety of tropical flora and fauna species, including elephants.
At the entrance of the Yok Don Park’s tourist area, you can see large cement statues of elephants. Not long ago, five wild elephants were moved into this park from the Tanh Linh forest in central Vietnam.
Sharing a border with Cambodia on the west, the Yok Don National Park was established in 1992 and includes two forestry farms and the Yok Don natural forest. Vietnamese and foreign forestry researchers are seeking means to preserve the natural forests at Yok Don, which has a forest coverage of some 85 percent - the highest rate in Vietnam''s Central Highlands.
Most recently, scientists from BirdLife International and the Vietnam Ecological and Biological Natural Resource Institute discovered a red-headed crane at Yok Don. The bird is listed as an endangered specie that usually migrates to Vietnam's Mekong Delta from Cambodia and southern Laos. Another critically endangered bird, the Ibis was also discovered by scientists during their bio-diversity survey. The Ibis was thought to be extinct in Vietnam since it was last seen in 1931 by a French environmentalist.
Given its rich natural resources, the Yok Don National Park is defined by the Vietnamese Government as one of two zones under the Bio-diversity Comprehensive Plan of Action. It will become the most sustainable natural reserve in Vietnam.