Ethnic Villages

We hoped to visit some minority villages around here, supposedly one of the largest groups in Vietnam live in this area. They still do, but nowadays they look and dress like people everywhere unless you head off 3 hours into the mountains on foot. The Bahnar villages just on the outside of town are a friendly mix of children and animals, the kids all ask "where are you going?" and the animals just wander aimlessly around. Turns out that asking where one is going is the traditional greeting of the Bahnar, rather like the litteral translation of "ca va?", in Cantonese if we remember correctly the greeting was "have you eaten yet?" (or maybe that's just Hainan Island).

Seminary

Saying that we did see the typical stilt buildings, not to stay above water but to house the buffalo, pigs and chickens. The traditional meeting house is a large triangular shaped thatched building (see photos), but we didn't get a look in. We also saw the buffalo in training to pull a cart, it's quite violent the way they whip the animal with a bamboo stick, but they must have thick skin since it didnn't even flinch. As a side note the older ladies often chew on some betel leaves which stains their teeth (all 2 of them) a bright orange colour which often dribles down their chins - no idea what the effect of this leaf is other than the colour though.

Dom's Playground

The town itself has a number of churches and one is a seminary tied with a hill tribe museum. Our free tour of the museum with Thao, where she spoke to us in Vietnamien was interesting since you could still play the musical instruments, air pipes, xylophone and elephant skin drum (one side covered by male skin and the other the female). However mostly the museum covers the religious history of the region and that from a Christian point of view. The only other thing of note was cafe Eva, it has a fantastic garden for drinking or eating, we spoke with the owner/artist/interior designer about the town, the war and Vietnam in general. He has turned old bomb shells into peace symbols and has several wooden carvings in the tranquil garden.

Family Garden

Family Bahnar

Meeting House

Trees in the Wind

Buffalo Training

Living Under the House