Getting out of our hotel was a joy after a terrible night only lightened by the consumption of whisky. We are getting heartily sick to death of this tour. We paid an exorbitant rate and have been scammed badly – everyday seems to bring yet another nasty surprise which is such a pity. Vietnam is trying to build itself as a prime tourist destination in South East Asia but when people are confronted with such poor service and when you tell them they just don’t care then I cannot see this area becoming a place that any foreigner would want to visit.


Headed out of Pleiku and went to see the famous Sea Lake which is actually a huge
volcanic crater surrounded by lovely scenic countryside. Just for a moment I
could forget about all the bad things that have been happening and enjoy the
magnificent view.

It was then back in the car for a relatively short drive to our next destination – Kontum.

Kon Tum is the capital town of Kon Tum Province with a population of
about 450,000. It is located inland near the borders with Laos and Cambodia. After the People’s Army of Vietnam invaded South Vietnam on March 30, 1972 during the Easter Offensive, two divisions attempted to capture Kon Tum, but failed. In March 1975, however, Kon Tum was overrun during the Ho Chi Minh Campaign and large numbers of refugees were forced to flee east to the south central coast.Kon Tum has several vestiges of the French colonial period, as well as several tribal villages directly in the suburbs of the Vietnamese-reconstructed town.

Among the town's landmarks, there is a Roman Catholic wooden church on discrete stilts and a large French-built seminary which hosts a small museum on local hill tribes. French missionary presence in Kon Tum traces back to 1851.The church built about 100 years ago is a blend of local and western architecture and was a delight except for the HUGE psychedelic Christmas display attached to the front. Definitely NOT the right time to visit if you are wanting to admire it in its natural state.....and yet we were charged a holiday surcharge for this!!! Attached to the church is one of several orphanages in Kontum and we got to visit this one which houses about 200 children. It was a sad, depressing sight – old decrepit building surrounded by concrete. None of the children we saw seemed happy and we didn’t see anyone looking after them. Considered giving a donation but to be honest I feared our money would be spent on things other than the care of the children.

In direct contrast we visited the Bishops house which was a rather large looking, well maintained mansion surrounded by beautiful gardens. Our guide told us that the people like to look after the Bishop and volunteer to keep the grounds looking so lovely. All I could think of was that it would be better if they looked after the poor orphans.

Then off to Bana Village which houses one of the first minority groups in the Central Highlands. We walked along the iron suspension bridge and admired the scenic views from this. Then off to see the Rong House. This is a large communal house – there is one in each village – where the community meets and holds traditional ceremonies. We wandered through the village watching the locals going about their business – children off to school, people gardening, carrying goods for sale in town etc etc


After lunch we visited the old Kontum Prison which has very little of the original building intact and is really just a display of memorabilia other than the graves of the people who died in a revolution against the French in the early 1900s.

Booked into yet another sub-standard hotel where again we had to inspect rooms before a suitable one was offered and could only think that this was the last night we would have to
put up with this. Again we were left to our own devices to try and find dinner. OMG if I wanted to try and organise everything myself I would not have paid for the services of a tour company and in fact I could have done it all myself for a fraction of the cost and got better service had I known what we were actually getting for our money. At least I can warn others so they do not make the same mistake when visiting this area.


Looking forward to getting to Hoi An tomorrow after we see some well known sites from the war.
Bye for now. xx