Kon Tum The Bahnar villages

More Central Highlands
Friendly KonTum

After a short bus ride from Pleiku we arrived in Kon Tum on the banks of the Dakbla river.  Kon Tum is known for it's closeness to 5 different Montegnard tribe villages and beautiful Highland countrysides.

(Mike's)  Another beautiful morning in the central highlands.  Had another great day yesterday.  After taking the "expensive" public bus from Pleiku to Kontum, which set us back 22,000 VND (Vietnamese dong) or $1.10 each, we made the 30 mile trip in 90 minutes over a bumpy main highway that is being rebuilt.  This two-lane highway is  only one of two that go from Saigon to Da Nang (i.e. Hwy 14)  The other being the coastal highway that extends all the way north to Ha Noi. Beautiful countryside along the way.

Dug out canoes on the Dakbla River

 (Mike's) By the time that we arrived at our hotel (very nice hotel & room for only $15 per nite), Stretch went for a nap in the room while I walked around the area close to the hotel.  About 4 blocks away, I found the closest of the 6 orphanages that are in the Kon Tum area, and set up a time for a tour when the English teacher is there.  

Mike with some of the kids at the Orphanage?

We took an afternoon walk along the multi-purpose (cows grazing, rice drying, boat parking and tourists gawking) promenades along side the river. We hadn't been walking 15 minutes when a couple of gals offered to walk with us and show us their Bahnar village. Mostly she wanted to practice her English and her friend wanted to stay texting..

Luc & Phien our new local guides.

Phien's village's Rong house and volleyball field

Drying rice on the road

We had a nice long chat with Phien and promised to meet Phien again the next day, now it was time for the night market and some dinner.

Always beautiful fruit and Bun Bo (beef soup) for dinner.

We started visiting a group of orphanages in the area. There are six all with the names Vinh Son. This morning we took a tour with Manh and he took us to 2 Bahnar villages and Vinh Son 5. 

The sister and Manh tell us about Vinh Son 5

80 children eat out of this kitchen

The big pots cook under this lean-to.

Seems the farther away from the bigger town we get the more desperate the needs of the orphanages. With only 2 toilets, one small kitchen for 80 kids, they definitely had some challenges. Unfortunately all the kids at Vinh Son 5 were at school for the morning, so we just chatted with the sister and was showed around.

                   The villages were all busy with something, even though most villagers were in the field harvesting coffee beans and rice.

Nearby in the village, grandma drying rice by the traditional
Bahnar style home.

the kids are always ready for a giggle.

Local Bahnar back-strap weaving.

Not too many gringos around these parts,
we got lots of attention

 babies carrying babies

this girl was trying to look us in the eye,
 very cool stilts 

 After a couple villages and lots of smiles we left Manh and his driver and met up with Phien and we bused to another village were her sister lives. We strolled around the village and gathered up our usual entourage of giggling kids.

Phien with her niece & nephew

Part of Mike's Entourage, this was the comedy part

This was Phien's sister's lean-to for 3 kids and husband,
the kitchen is covered by the clear tarp. They had been
in this home for 5 years and very soon to move into a
government home for the very poorest.

Their new house, only a shell, no utilities, no bathroom,
no kitchen, just 2 rooms, but dry.....

Imagine me telling a story? It was one way to disperse the kids

We encouraged Phien to continue studying and keep working on her English. Her English was incredible from singing English songs, coupling that with a great voice and a talent for tour guiding she would make a great singing tour guide..... After meeting Phien's Mother & Father (also working out picking coffee beans), we took a late night bus ride back to Kon Tum with most of Phien's family and a bus load of sugar cane.

The next morning it was off to meet at the first orphanage that Mike was invited to when the English instructor was there.  As it turned out, we were met with a bunch of little girls in fancy dresses and the orphanage was a girls school and Mike had been invited to a program to honor the teachers on Teacher's Day. They also invited a girl who spoke English so we would have an interpreter.  Pretty dang ole nice.

Quite the 8am welcome to the school.

Ready to dance....

May I have your attention....
I will sing for you

All the teachers in their uniforms

Our Interrupter Nhi on the right with her teacher friend.

After lunch we met with our faithful tour guide Phien and she took us to the Orphanage in her village, Vinh Son 2. Very nice facility with 180 kids, the supervisors were napping but the kids were excited to see us. Their English skills were very good and we chatted for a while.

Bahnar style prayer flags, woven out of bamboo.

Vinh Son 2, the kids wanted to take the photos with my camera

Chatty Chatty take my picture.

Thanks for picking the flowers out of the tree..

Besides assistance from the Catholic church, a group of American Vets who were stationed in the highlands also started an assistance program called Friends of Vinh Son Orphanages Vietnam (http://www.friendsofvso.org).

Mud room Kon Tum style.

More kids at Vinh Son 1

The kids were all great and happy to have someone to talk with it sure seemed they were pretty well adjusted to living with a bunch of other kids.

group break dancing with assist

Phien was great showing us around 

Killer coffee in the highlands

           









We finished up the day walking around Kon Tum with
 Phien & Luc. We drifted into I Love KonTum Coffee across the street from our hotel and met our interpreter from earlier (Nhi) and said goodbyes to all our wonderful guides (of course they already knew each other).
The next morning we took a car back to the Pleiku Airport and got there a little too early and noticed that where Mike was stationed during the war was staring right at us. Engineer Hill overlooked the Air Base and still did. In 1970 all vegetation was eliminated around the military facilities and now it was alot greener. We couldn't go up there today because it is still some sort of military facility. But just before our flight out of the highlands a little piece of his past showed up.

Engineer Hill over looking the billboards and airport.

Back to Da Nang after a enjoyable walk through the hilltribes of Pleiku and Kon Tum