The last couple of weeks we've been blessed once again to have a friend visiting us from the States. Kimberly--a friend of Joelle's since their days in New Zealand--came for ten days to see what life is like in Vietnam. After a few days seeing the sights around Quy Nhon, we decided to take a few days and explore somewhere else. Steven had to be around to teach so we couldn't go too far; looking at a map we saw Kontum--a province in the highlands on the Lao border, a bit north and west of Quy Nhon. The guidebooks described Kontum as kind of a remote, end-of-the-road, out-of-the-way sort of place. In other words, just where we wanted to be.
A three and a half hour bus ride took us from Quy Nhon through low plains and rice fields before climbing steeply up winding mountain roads into the hilly plateau of Vietnam's central highlands. A tourist trap Kontum is not, and our first impression of the city was a bit underwhelming. It has the feel of a place that is entirely under construction--roads ripped up, machinery moving to and fro. The surrounding countryside was pretty, but not as striking as the territory further south around Dalat.
However, the big draw to Kontum isn't the tourist amenities (of which there are none) or the scenery but the ease with which you can visit ethnic villages and interact with the people. In other parts of Vietnam where we've seen ethnic minority folks it's always had a bit of an artificial, circus sideshow sort of quality to it--the main purpose of some of the villages we've been in has seemed to be selling souvenirs to foreigners. Not so in Kontum. Just on the edge of town are three or four different villages, and a few kilometers out are many more. The province has around 700 villages, if I remember my numbers correctly. Though some of the villages have modern brick buildings, a lot of the people live in stilt houses with walls made of mud and straw. Their cows camp out downstairs. Everyone was extremely friendly--the kids in particular--and no one tried to sell us anything.We had a guide for one of our days out in the country and then just walked and biked the rest of the time. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...
