You may not know, the song “the baby elephant in Ban Don” talks about a real tourist destination in Dak Lak, which is Ban Don, also known as Buon Don, a peaceful village located on the river. Serepok. Buon Don tourism is a journey to discover the green forest in the Central Highlands and an extremely interesting elephant riding experience!
Join Compass Vietnam Travelers to visit Buon Don and discover something interesting here. The article will bring you useful information about Buon Don tourism , where, what to play and what to note when going …
Come on, let’s go back to Buon Don to visit the legendary ‘baby elephant in Ban Don’!
1. An introduction to Buon Don tourism
Buon Don also has another very dear name that is Ban Don. Explaining its name, the Ede and M’nong people explained that Buon Don means “island village”, a village built on a floating island of the legendary Serepok river. Thanks to this river, Buon Don has become a place of trading, exchanging and trading goods between indigenous people with Laos and Cambodia, so this place has quite a developed economy.
Nowadays, Ban Don becomes a big district of Dak Lak, and Ban Don is a tourist attraction located in Krong Na commune, Buon Don district, about 40 kilometers northwest of Buon Ma Thuot city center.
Ban Don is a famous tourist destination of Dak Lak
Buon Don tourism is one of the unforgettable experiences to come to Dak Lak, because there are many interesting things waiting for you to discover.
Buon Don is also the land of elephants in the Central Highlands, where elephants are tamed and offers a unique type of ecotourism. People still tell each other about the elephant king Khun Yu Nop – a talented chief who has a knack for hunting and taming wild elephants, who has been instrumental in developing elephant raising in Buon Don.
Buon Don – the land of elephants in the Central Highlands
Possessing a unique natural landscape, along with many interesting things in culture, beliefs and cuisine, Buon Don has long been one of the most famous tourist destinations in Dak Lak , attracting a large number of tourists. at home and abroad to visit, have fun, explore.
2. Discover Buon Don tourism with many interesting things
Buon Don tourism has many beautiful landscapes hiding interesting things, if you are a lover of nature, you can experience the suspension bridge over the Serepok river, admire the Trohbu landscape garden with beautiful flowers, admire the seven-branch waterfall, or conquer Yok Don National Park.
If you are interested in exploring culture and history, you can learn about the ethnic identity of the villages in the village, visit the typical communal house architecture of the Central Highlands, immerse yourself in the cultural space of gong. gong.
And an extremely interesting activity that you definitely do not miss is to see the elephants in the Central Highlands, experience elephant riding through the Serepok river.
Do not forget to enjoy Buon Don cuisine with delicious dishes too!
Check in Buon Don suspension bridge
Buon Don suspension bridge across the Serepok river, nearly a kilometer long, is firmly attached from bamboo, but some reinforced iron cables to be sure. The unique feature of this bridge is that it is attached to an ancient tree with a wide canopy covering a part of the suspension bridge, and below is the tree roots that create many fancy shapes.
To get into Ban Don, visitors will cross this suspension bridge, walk barefoot on cool bamboo pipes, experience the feeling of shaking, swaying while being a little worried and extremely excited.
Experience the feeling of wobbly shaking when passing Buon Don suspension bridge
Not only a bridge for people to move into the village, but Buon Don suspension bridge is also a very special place to check in in Dak Lak .
Standing from this side of the bridge, looking at the long suspension bridge with forests interwoven on both sides, makes you feel like this is the path leading into the deep forest world with so many interesting things waiting for you.
Experience Ban Don elephant ride
Referring to Buon Don tourism , people immediately think of the giant but very gentle and friendly elephants in the Central Highlands, and visitors cannot miss the experience of “playing” with these elephants. .
You need to buy an elephant ticket to experience the service
You can watch the huge elephants at a very close distance. Buying a bag of sugar cane or a bunch of green bananas can be checked in virtual live with the elephants.
Elephant riding to tour around the village or exploring the national forest of Yok Don, or crossing the Serepok river are all unforgettable experiences.
Experience Ban Don elephant riding across the Serepok river
However, in recent years, the elephants in Ban Don are quite old because they serve a lot of tourism, as well as under the strict training of the elephants, so many visitors instead of choosing to ride an elephant choose to watch, feeding elephants and taking pictures to check in with elephants.
Take pictures to check in with the elephants
Explore the communal houses in the Central Highlands and Buon Don culture
The communal house in the Central Highlands is not only a typical living style of the Central Highlands people, but also preserves the cultural, spiritual and identity values of the people here.
The characteristic of the communal house is a very long, wide and high roof, seen from a distance like an ax reaching straight up to the sky full of horizontal and strong porch. There are communal houses that are so large that they can accommodate the entire village, so the communal house is often used as a place for meetings, collective activities when community activities take place, or as a reception place for guests. when visiting.
Discover the communal house – cultural symbol of the Central Highlands
Inside the communal houses in Buon Don there are also exhibits and documents about the culture, customs and lifestyle of the people.
In addition, if you visit Buon Don on the occasion of festivals, visitors can also enjoy the unique Central Highlands gong performance, immersing in vibrant collective dances.
Visit the tomb of King Khun Yu Nop Elephant
Coming to Ban Don, you will be sure to be told by the village elders about the glorious victory of the Elephant King Khun Yu Nop, who became a legend of the whole region thanks to his talent in hunting and taming wild elephants.
In Don village, there are still two relics of the Elephant King, the ancient house on stilts and the tomb of Vui Elephant. The Elephant King Tomb is built in a fairly simple cubic motif, decorated with lotus buds at the top and four corners, decorated with a statue of the tomb – one of the cultural symbols of the Central Highlands .
Visit the Elephant King Khun Yu Nop’s tomb
Visit the landscape garden of Trohbu
In Ede language, Trohbư means “snakehead fish valley”, this is one of the beautiful gardens and a favorite destination for many young people, located in Ea Nuol commune, Buon Don district.
Trohbu landscape garden has a lot of precious plants and plants, especially the beautiful forest orchids. And carefully arranged and arranged, Trohbu has many unique virtual live check-in places that will definitely make you want to take pictures until you burn. When traveling to Buon Don, do not miss this wonderful destination!
Check in virtual living at Trohbu landscape garden
Explore Yok Don National Park
Yok Don is one of the largest special-use forests in our country, located in 7 communes, 3 districts and 2 provinces, Dak Lak and Dak Nong, and from Buon Don you can explore a part of Yok Don National Park. Pedestal.
Yok Don National Park is famous for preserving elephants and dipterocarp forest ecosystem, in addition, it is also one of the important biodiversity conservation areas of the Central Highlands.
Experience the trekking experience of Yok Don National Park
You can experience trekking to explore Yok Don forest, conquer the top of the mountain, see firsthand rare species of trees and animals. Or you can choose to cycle under the green forest canopy, canoeing canoe on the Serepok stream.
Admire the beautiful Seven Branch Waterfall
One of the beautiful natural “specialties” of Buon Don is the Bay Branch waterfall, located in Ea Huar commune. It is called Bay Trach Waterfall because the Serepok River flowing through Buon Don meets large rocky rapids and is divided into seven small branches.
A segment of the Seven Branch Falls
Standing down from above, Seven Branch Waterfall looks like a giant hand spread out, the palm of the hand is the top of the waterfall up to 500 meters wide. You can also watch the rocky rapids with a variety of unique and fancy shapes. This is also one of the unique tourist attractions that attracts many tourists to visit.
3. Buon Don tourism to enjoy mountain and forest cuisine
Coming to Buon Don, in addition to exploring the natural beauty and having fun, do not forget to stop at restaurants to enjoy the specialties of the mountains. These delicacies Dak Lak will surely make you infatuated for that view!
Some of the most delicious dishes such as Ban Don grilled chicken served with lam rice, roasted chicken in the garden, grilled to the nose, meat is chewy, firm, sweet, eaten with sweet and sticky rice. Take a sip of the soup from the forest vegetable hot pot, the vegetables are mixed together for an unforgettable taste.
Ban Don grilled chicken specialty served with rice
In addition, specialties such as goby fish with galangal, sour soup with rice flakes are also extremely delicious.
Do not forget to enjoy A Ma Cong wine – a precious wine of Buon Don, the name of the wine is named after a legend living in the region of health and robustness.
A Ma Cong wine – a precious wine of Buon Don
4. Buon Don tourism need to pay attention to?
How to move to Buon Don
Only about 40 kilometers from Buon Me Thuot, quite close distance, moving to Buon Don is quite easy.
From the city center you can rent a motorbike to drive to Buon Don, about 1-2 hours to arrive. Vi vu on the red basalt soil road, watching the majestic wild mountains, listening to the singing of wild birds, somewhere is the sound of streams, the sound of waterfalls coming back, seeing how peaceful life is.
Or you can catch bus route number 15 Buon Ma Thuot – Buon Don, take about an hour to get to Buon Don suspension bridge tourist area, ticket price is 20,000 VND / way.
Staying in Buon Don
Traveling to Buon Don, tourists often choose to stay overnight at stilt houses or homestays here, in general, accommodation services in Buon Don are quite developed. The price ranges from 200 – 400.00 VND / night.
Accommodation services at stilt houses and homestays in Ban Don are quite developed
Staying at Buon Don stilt house is also one of unforgettable experiences, when night falls, listening to the sound of mountains and forests, the sound of insects squealing, feels extremely peaceful.