Gia Lai has K50 waterfall, Bien Ho, hundred-year-old pine trees and many delicious dishes, suitable to experience in October and November when wild sunflowers begin to bloom.
Gia Lai is a highland province located in the northern Central Highlands with the capital being Pleiku city. This is a place with many beautiful natural landscapes, majestic K50 waterfall, Tonle Sap Lake, hundred-year-old pine trees and many delicious dishes. 48-hour journey to explore Gia Lai as suggested by Ms. Ngoc Diep, Head of the Tourism Management Department of the Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and a group of tourists from Ho Chi Minh City.
Day 1
Morning
Have breakfast in Pleiku city with Gia Lai dry pho (also known as two-bowl pho) for prices from 30,000 VND to 55,000 VND. This is considered one of the typical dishes of the mountain town. Hong dry pho and Ngoc Son pho are the two most famous two-bowl pho chains in Pleiku, with many stores in the city.
Pleiku is as famous for coffee as Buon Ma Thuot. So, enjoy coffee after breakfast. The cafes in the city are all spacious and beautiful. You can choose Omely, Maya, Cuoi Acoustic, Java Coffee, Pleiku ancient shop, V7 Coffee.
After breakfast, depart for Kon Chu Rang (K’Bang district, about 150 km east of Pleiku city center) to explore K50 waterfall. In recent years, K50 has emerged as a “must conquer” waterfall. This place is likened to a “princess” hidden among the mountains and forests of the Central Highlands because of its pure beauty.
“Coming to Gia Lai without going to K50 waterfall is considered an incomplete journey,” Ms. Diep said, adding that in the past, the road to K50 waterfall was very difficult to travel because you had to cross the forest. Now there is a concrete road, motorbikes can go near the waterfall, so traveling is easier, but it is still mainly a forest road. K50 waterfall is located in the Kon Chu Rang nature reserve, so visitors need to go through the management board.
Also according to Ms. Diep, the height of the waterfall is 50 m so it is called K50 waterfall. In addition, the waterfall is also called En because behind the water is a cave where many swallows live. K50 waterfall is like a sparkling silver silk strip amidst the green of the vast mountains and forests. Visitors walk on a dirt road for about 15 minutes to reach the foot of the waterfall. Because traveling through the forest, you need to be equipped with long-sleeved clothes, high socks and walking sticks to avoid insects, snakes and centipedes.
After checking in and exploring K50 waterfall, visitors have lunch in the forest with food prepared in advance by the conservation area management board or bring their own.
Evening
On the way back to the city, visitors will pass through Stôr resistance village and Mo Hra village, typical and meaningful villages for the people of the Central Highlands.
The resistance village is about 70 km from Pleiku City, where hero Nup was born and raised. Here, Mr. Nup launched and led the people to stand up to fight the French. Stor village and hero Nup have become symbols of “The country stands up”.
Mo Hra Dream Village has rich cultural features of the Ba Na people. This place is now a community tourism model that attracts many tourists. Tourists have dinner and enjoy performances of gongs and T’rung instruments by the fire. Popular and familiar dishes of the villagers include bamboo-tube rice, bitter eggplant with cassava leaves, grilled stream fish, and grilled chicken.
Stay overnight at the 3-star Tre Xanh hotel right in the city center, priced at 650,000 VND per night. In Pleiku, there is a 4-star Hoang Anh Gia Lai hotel with room prices ranging from more than 1 million VND per night and many motels and homestays at affordable prices.
Day 2
Morning and noon
For breakfast on the second day, visitors can choose dishes such as beef vermicelli and crab vermicelli. Rotten crab vermicelli (crab sauce vermicelli) is another Gia Lai specialty besides two-bowl pho. The dish, as the name suggests, has crab as the main ingredient. The reason crab vermicelli has a strong smell is due to the process of fermenting crab water. The bowl of vermicelli is rich and high quality. When eating, you no longer feel the strong smell like when diners enter the restaurant.
Beautiful and famous destinations in the city such as Bien Ho tourist area (To Nung lake), hundred-year-old pine trees, tea hills (Te Ho Beach), and Buu Minh pagoda will be the next itinerary of the second day in Pleiku. . These destinations are relatively close to each other so visitors can go in the morning.
“Tea Lake Beach” is more than 1,000 hectares wide. The tea hills here date back to the 1920s when the French began to clear the highlands to grow tea because the climate here was cool. This is also the first tea hill in the Central Highlands.
The hundred-year-old pine tree next to the tea hill is about 1 km long, planted in 1917 with 101 roots. This is a place that is always crowded with tourists and young people coming to take photos. “Note, don’t come here late at noon, because then the light shines above your head and is no longer beautiful, your photos will be less sparkling, without oblique rays of sunlight,” said Mr. Minh, a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City. HCM, sharing experiences.
Along the pine trees are a few mobile cafes based on old, redecorated cars, creating a quite relaxing scene for visitors to rest.
Another option for those who like to exercise is to climb Chu Dang Ya crater in Chu Dang Ya commune, Chu Pah district, about 30 km from Pleiku center. From Tonle Sap Lake, go about 20 km further to reach it. If you go during the season from October to November, you will see bright yellow wild sunflowers blooming along the way up the mountain. Be sure to prepare drinking water and wear flat shoes because it is quite hot and there is no shade. There are many motorbike taxis below, so visitors only have to walk a short distance to the top.
Lunch at Plei Teng grilled chicken, Tan Son area. Tourists sit and eat in cool stilt houses, with music from the Central Highlands, with grilled chicken that is hot and crispy, golden brown, and has firm meat, along with bamboo-tube rice, dipped in sesame salt. A full meal costs less than 200,000 VND per person.
Evening
Return to Pleiku City, visit Dai Doan Ket Square, also known as the big square, with a 12-hectare campus. In the center of the square is the statue of President Ho Chi Minh made of bronze. The statue has a height of 10.8 m, weighs 16 tons, stands on a concrete pedestal covered with blue stone 4.5 m high. This is a place where many locals and tourists come to check-in when coming to the mountain town of Pleiku. The square campus is spacious and airy, but due to lack of shade, it is only suitable if arriving after 5:00 p.m.
In the evening, visitors can enjoy local cuisine or regional delicacies at restaurants such as Hoang Gia Garden, Huu Sao culinary village, Ngoc Lam restaurant, Pho Bien restaurant, Nha Toi restaurant. In addition, there are also some snacks such as grilled meat vermicelli, shrimp pancakes, banh beo, fried sticky rice, grilled banana sweet soup, and black sticky rice yogurt with prices of only a few tens of thousands.
($1=24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)