As I shared in a few post before, we lived in Pleiku for 1 year before lockdown time. This place was no longer an accommodation but a home based for us. Since it is so difficult now to move around, we have not had a chance to visit this city for a while. So let's walk through our memories in Chu Dang Ya of Pleiku and explore our area with us.
Where is Chu Dang Ya?
Chu Dang Ya is a small town or I could say a village that is 10km from Pleiku city center. Most of people living here is from the ethnic community of Ja-rai. Lots of local thought we were weird for staying there since local Kinh people really just live in the city center. All around Chu Dang Ya is cover by endless mountain and coffee farm (Pleiku coffee is one of the best kind in Vietnam if you don't know).
You will not have the access to too much stuffs here so whenever we need to buy something, we had to drive all the way to the city. But it is actually not that far because it is just a straight path. The nature here is beautiful and the community here is just so different that we found it was interesting to be around them.
Kids and mom were going to school. Seeing this always makes me feel so wild about Vietnamese, they really could just make everything works for them. And if you live in Chu Dang Ya area, this is the picture of every day in life.
Most of tourists might heard about Chu Dang Ya for the dead volcano. It is around 20km from the city center. Some people call it the "wild ginger" of Pleiku because it looks like one from the top.
If you come to Chu Dang Ya on October or December, you will see the the yellow color of flowers everywhere around Chu Dang Ya mountain. That must be the best time of the year to visit Pleiku City in general too since the weather is so cool and comfortable. The summer is the driest season ever in this highland town and you should really prepare yourself for sweating all the time. But it is really not too bad with the beautiful nature here, you could see the green color everywhere you go so it would not be that bad of an idea to travel in hot weather time.
What did we do here?
I truly believe that to find the real life of a place, you have to go deep to the traditional and conservative area. I would not lie but admit that we did not have an easy time of living in Chu Dang Ya but it forced us to learn more about the culture. It is just so different from the other side of the town and unique to compare to all places we have been in Vietnam, even though every community has their own heritage.
We went trekking a lot around this area when we first moved here, there are just so much things to explore as outsiders. It is really rare not to see a farmer on the road and we did recognized that they drive back and forth all day to work. You might meet the same people a few times in a day. Lots of kids work on the farm with their parents too and some of them just carry their little siblings, walking around for fun.
This smoke is for real, his "buffalo" is beyond loud
You will caught this kids here at least 2 times a day, lunch and late afternoon. And if you wonder what they're doing, I have the answer for it.
There is one thing that i still never understand is what these kids are doing what they are doing for? They come to this little pond everyday to clean the plastic bottle. First of all they will put sand inside those bottle and shake it for a while with a bit of water. I guess that how they clean the inside part creatively. The second step is filling the bottle with pond's water and sake it over and over again. They brought at least 10 bottles and they are not going home until they finish them all. We usually came here at the same time everyday to observe them for hours.
I tried to ask them the reason for doing that but the answer is just to clean it, what the purpose of it for? They do not know, me neither. Maybe to save dishwashing liquid?
The funniest part as I consider is listening to their family stories. They said their sisters all got married from young age like 15 or 16 year-old. So I asked them what is their plan? (I know they're little kids but it is entertaining to know their answers). They will said that they might only can go to school for few more year until they are old enough to get out of the house (by marrying someone).
Sometimes if you stay here long enough, some old grandma will show up to take shower here. I guess it is for saving water bill then? But they barely speak Vietnamese so I could not talk to them at all but using body language to communicate.
You might think that this little monkey is trying to steal some fruits but he was not. He climb up the tree to take his sandal after his friend thew his sandal on the tree.
HUH?
Yeah that was Chu Dang Ya in our eyes, not just a dead volcano that you come to hike or take picture and go. To us, Chu Dang Ya is home.
Thank you for your time of reading and support!