Kon Tum (Central Highlands - part 2)

Wooden church in Kon Tum city
The mass finished at 9am on Sunday
morning (6/12) and people were
 leaving the church.

During the American War, considerable fighting took place in 3 provinces (Dak Lak, Kon Tum and Gia Lai) which I visited on this trip. In the spring of 1972, the area in and around Kon Tum province was devastated by hundreds of US B-52 raids during the course of a major battle. You may have heard about the Charlie Hill, which was the famous site of the battle in Dak Tô - Tân Cảnh. Kon Tum city is the capital of Kon Tum province. There are more than 10 ethnic minority groups in this province, for example, Bahnar, Jrai, Sedang, Rengao etc.

A few years ago I met an American veteran, who used to work as a helicopter maintenance engineer in Kon Tum during the late 1960s. He shared with me his surprise when he went back to the area in the 1990s, ie 30 years after the war. The area has incredibly changed in comparison with the war time. At that moment I thought I would like to see Kon Tum one day.

Kon Tum city, Kon Tum province - 5 & 6 December 2009

Inside the wooden church

We left Buôn Mê Thuột city at 12:30am and traveled 250km by
mini bus to Kon Tum city. I expected we would go by high quality bus same as in other cities of Vietnam, but I had no choice in this case. It took us 4 and a half hours to travel on this route. This is the trip that I don't think you would like to do. The 16 seater mini bus stopped anytime on the way to pick up more guests and they would allow as many people as they liked. To cover the lost time, the driver often drives very fast. Imagine our mini bus was passing by a big truck, while in front of us another mini bus was coming from opposite direction. Our driver could find his way in the end, but we felt like we were relieved as we still survived. Fortunately, there were not many guests that day, so we still had comfortable seats. Ticket is so cheap, VND 80,000 (US$4.5) per person for traveling 250km. Our mini bus was going up and down many slopes. There were many hills in this region before the Highway No. 14 was built. Along the way we saw rubber, coffee, pepper and tea trees.