Our first stop was to explore a minority village close to where we had been staying. The villagers, having originally lived in the jungle, build their houses on stilts as a protection against wild animals. Unlike most other villages, there were almost no women to be seen - they were out working in the forest. In this matriarchal village, the men stay home to cook, clean and look after the kids. The reason, according to my guide, is that women are seen as more powerful because they can control the size of the community with their ability to give birth.
A while later, we passed this ruined church:
As you might imagine, it was bombed during the Vietnam war - hundreds of women and children who were praying there at the time died in the bombing - and the government decided to leave the ruins as a memorial.
We also visited a rice noodle factory. Interestingly enough, the noodles produced here looked completely different from those that I had seen made in the Mekong Delta, and the production process was different, too. The noodles today were made from 100% rice. A machine made the dough into a thin band about 20 cm wide. The band was then cut in wide strips, filled with mushrooms and sometimes meat, and then folded over. The resulting creation is called Banh Cuon, and is eaten - preferably for breakfast - with fried shallots, chili, and fish sauce. Very tasty!
In the afternoon, we had a nature destination waiting for us: the Dray Sap and Gia Long waterfalls. We went to bathe in one of the falls...
... then got back on the motorbike to ride along this narrow jungle path...
... and finally stopped again to see another waterfall from a distance.
A little ride later, we arrived in Buon Ma Thuot, the capital of Vietnam's central highlands. In the war, it was the first southern city to be liberated by the Viet Cong, and as such has even more war memorials than the average Vietnamese city ;-)
