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Region: Central Highlands> Province: Kon Tum>Location: Kon Tum
Kon Tum sights and attractions
An organised trips around Kon Tum - Roll your own
Description
There's a limited amount of sight-seeing you can do on your own just by walking around Kon Tum, with or without a guide -- mostly it's all about the vestiges of the French colonial period. There's the Wooden Church with its adjacent rong house (you'll see a lot of those), the Seminary with its hill tribe museum, and the cave church. All of this falls soundly under the category of, 'if you have nothing better to do.'
A 'war tour' can be arranged to visit Skull Hill, some Vietnamese war cemeteries, and continue to a monument in Dak To where some tanks are on display beside a victory monument -- there's an abandoned American airstrip nearby that features some over-grown foxholes. But the trick to touring Kon Tum is to focus on visiting the nearby tribal villages, or better yet, booking a longer trek to some of the seldom-visited, beautifully remote villages in the surrounding area. For more information on getting the most from a Kon Tum tour, see our upcoming feature, "Getting the Most from a Kon Tum Tour."
Dong Phung Massage - Relax!
Description
We ran across so many dodgy massage parlours in Kon Tum, we set out to find the real deal, and were rewarded for our efforts. This new, beautifully designed place on the edge of town offers wet and dry saunas, a soothing eucalyptus Jacuzzi bath, and a 45-minute massage for only 60,000VND. VIP rooms are also available where you can get all these services in a private room. You'll be expected to tip the masseuse at least 50,000 VND however, but not in cash -- you write out a receipt, pay at the register, and the tips are split among the staff. Vietnamese women don't patronize such places, but western gals are more than welcome. Men can expect, even at a classy joint like this, to be offered 'additional services' off the books.
Dong Phung Massage, 63 Dao Duy Tu, Kon Tum. T: (060) 240 357
Jarai Cemetary - Well worth a look
Description
There are several Jarai cemeteries in the area -- the one we visited was 16km from town, after crossing the Dakbla River bridge. The Jarai have an interesting and very practical way of undertaking ancestor worship. The spirits of the recently deceased should be honored with a feast day and, perhaps, the sacrifice of a bull, but the resources to really pull this off aren't always on hand at the time of death. So, they promise the departed a sacrifice and a party at some later date -- perhaps a year, or five years, or ten years in the future, depending on how long they think it'll take to get to pull everything together.
The dead are buried in rough wooden huts -- though more recent version may be of concrete -- which are adorned with statues carved from single logs that attempt to represent what the occupant saw in life -- soldiers are a visible theme -- French, American, north and south Vietnamese, along with peasant women, and figures cowering in postures of grief.
Up until the festival, food is brought regularly to the grave to keep the spirit from getting restless. But once the contract is fulfilled and the celebration is complete, it is believed that the soul departs and the gravesite belongs to another world. The skull of the sacrificed animal is mounted on a pole in front of the tomb, and it is then left to decay, untouched and untended.
To the living, the cemetery constitutes an ever-present reminder of the transitory nature of existence, and a reassurance that in death, their soul will be cared for and their spirit honored. These cemeteries are very hard to find on your own, and the experience is greatly enhanced by hiring a good guide and asking lots of questions.
Travellers to Cambodia can see similar cemetaries near Ban Lung in Rattanakiri province.
Other Tribal Villages - Loads to see and experience
Description
With so many villages in the immediate area, you can 'roll your own' tour based on what interests you, and with some advanced planning, there are many more things to do and see than we were able to cover on our visit. Options include an afternoon trip to Khon'ngor Village, 7km outside town, to watch 'the cows come home' by swimming across the Dakbla River. Not very exciting, but to spice things up, ask your guide about the traditional 'love huts' used by married couples to get away from it all -- it's sometimes possible to even book one for a night.
We also took a trip to Kon Tum Ko Pang Village, where the Bahnar people still weave traditional baskets and, on our visit, we were serenaded by an 89-year old man on a rather extraordinary contraption, called a kleng klong, which is exactly the kind of xylophone Dr. Suess was always trying to draw.
An evening option, if you can jump onto a tour group that is already being treated to a performance, is to head to Kon Tum Ka Tu, west of the suspension bridge, (or, any of several other villages) where the locals don traditional dress, play traditional percussion instruments, and dance around the fire -- you'll be invited to join in, but the dance steps are not that tricky. The ritual is accompanied by drinking rice wine through long bamboo straws from large jugs filled with rice husks to sweeten the brew. Attending a performance will usually entail an additional contribution to the 'village fund.' After the dance, the party moves into the rong house, where you'll be plied to snacks and potent rice whisky. By the end of the evening, you'll be glad your guide is there to drive you back to your hotel. If he's still sober. Otherwise, home-stays are available.
Diem Cao 601 (Skull Hill) - War history
Description
Seventeen km from Kon Tum along the road to Dak To is monument by the side of the road. It's known as 'Skull Hill' because of the large number of human remains unearthed here after the war. Skull Hill was the south's last line of defence before it was broken by North Vietnamese forces in 1975, following the withdrawal of American troops. There isn't much to see here, but there is a cemetery for North Vietnamese killed in action nearby.
An interesting historical note is that those who died fighting for the South were buried in a separate cemetery -- untended and uncelebrated -- if they were buried at all. This practice, on the part of the government, means that soldiers from the same village were buried in separate places, depending on which side they fought for. But according to traditional Vietnamese beliefs, the souls of the departed can have a powerful influence on the future of a village. Their burials must be handled scrupulously, and their graves visited regularly to appease the departed spirits and appeal for blessings. Burying them in separate cemeteries is an insult to the dead, and a lot more travel time for the living. So, locals have erected a small, concrete shrine across the road from Skull Hill, invoking, in Chinese characters, an ancient name for Vietnam which applies to both north and south. It is at once a spiritual touchstone, and a political protest. And it's also a big ugly block of concrete that no one seems to be taking care of.
Dak To Victory Monument, Charlie Hill - Little to see but historically important
Description
The town of Dak To, 47 kilometres from Kon Tum, features a monument to the critical North Vietnamese victory on nearby Charlie Hill. The hill itself is difficult to access, and, in any case, there's nothing there to see. But two North Vietnamese tanks were salvaged whole from the battle remnants -- one Chinese and one Russian-made -- and mounted on either side of the monument in town.
The Russian tank is said to have made a long, torturous journey from Hanoi via the Ho Chi Min trail, through eastern Laos. They disguised the tank by packing the top with soil and live foliage, so it would blend in when surveillance planes flew over doing reconnaissance. The Russian-made tank took the South Vietnamese base completely by surprise and wrought so much damage the Southern army command offered a reward to the soldier who destroyed it. Some soldier apparently succeeded, incinerating the tank and the five soldiers inside. But, he was on the losing side of the war, and his name is lost to history, while the five dead North Vietnamese soldiers are still honoured to this day in a popular song,
American Airstrip and Foxholes - Now used to dry manioc
Description
The victory monument in Dak To is at a fork in the road, and if you take the left fork, the road leads, six kilometres on, to an airstrip used by the Americans during the war. It's tricky to find on your own, but if you're up for it, you can try asking locals for 'tham san bay' (Vietnamese for 'airstrip') which has a chance of getting your point across. When you get there, you'll find two long, concrete airstrips that are now being used to dry manioc in preparation for use as chicken feed. Beyond the airstrip are some fortifications -- mounds of bull-dozed dirt that still have foxholes dug into them.