The Mysterious Central Highland of Vietnam has been so intriguing to the traveler community. Unfortunately or not, this area is located off-the-tourist track, to the western area of Vietnam.
Traveling to the Central Highland may take easily a few days from the traveler’s time budget and requires certain level of adventure travel interests from the traveler. This is because the local conditions are not that luxurious, but very basic and adventurous.
Thankfully the rewards for these adventures are enormous as the wild and fresh scenery combined with the warm hospitality from the local ethnic hosts. You’ll stay with local hosts who live in longhouses or gather in tall houses. We’ll share the hypnotizing dance accompanied by local exotically-drunk rice wine. What’s left from our travellers’ memories has been indescribable. The Mysterious Central Highland has always surpassed our adventure travelers’ expectations!
The tour price includes:
English speaking guide as on the tour itinerary
Transportation as on the itinerary
Air tickets for Saigon – Buon Ma Thuot/ Pleiku – Saigon
Accommodation as on the itinerary
The tour price excludes:
Insurance of any types
Drinks, laundry, phone bills or others not clearly mentioned as included
THE MYSTERIOUS CENTRAL HIGHLANDS
Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City - Buon Ma Thuot (VN 338: 1020 – 1120) - Lak Lake (L/D)
In the morning, you are be met by our tour guide and transferred to the Saigon Tan Son Nhat Airport for the flight to Buon Ma Thuot. On arrival, we’ll meet our driver and travel by road to Lak Lake, 55 km to the south. Our lunch is served at a village longhouse.
After lunch we’ll explore the area of the Lak Lake. We’ll tour the Jun Village and enjoy a 45-minute elephant ride around the fresh Lak Lake and past the thatched wooden houses as the villagers go about their daily life. Then we continue our wild adventure on the breathtaking Lak Lake by pirogue, the traditional dug-out tree-trunk used by the local fishermen.
In the evening, we’ll enjoy an atmospheric dinner at a longhouse and sample the notoriously strong local spirit, a kind of rice wine drunk from a communal jar through bamboo straws. Tonight, accommodation is basic with a mattress on the floor of a village longhouse.
Day 2: Lak Lake - Buon Ma Thuot – Dektu (B,L,D)
Breakfast at the long house.
We bid farewell to our hosts and leave Jun Village for the 5-hour road trip to Pleiku, 250km to the north. There is plenty to see either side of the road as Highway 14 passes by coffee, tea and mulberry plantations. The Buon Ma Thuot area is the coffee capital of Vietnam and it is possible to stop at a plantation for a closer look. There are also many villages worth visiting along the route belonging to the Jarai, Ede and Bahnar minorities.
Arriving at the Bahnar village of Dektu late in the afternoon and after a simple dinner there is an opportunity to get wild with some more rice wine sessions with the hosts. Accommodation is basic, on a mattress on the floor of a village longhouse.
Day 3: Dektu – Pleiku - Ho Chi Minh City (VN 343: 1530 – 1640) (B)
Breakfast at the longhouse.
We travel to different villages inhabited by various ethnic minorities then enjoy free time relaxing. In the afternoon, we’ll get our gears and bid farewell to our hosts to travel to Pleiku Airport for the flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Meet our driver and car on arrival at the airport and travel to the hotel. End of service.
