MONTAGNARD AFTERNOON
A year after the above invitation, I returned to Dak Nong, this time with the intention of exploring this land for its true and pristine beauty, not just for the impressive pieces like the bauxite project in a province that was re-established more than 20 years ago. This time, Dak Mil welcomed me with an unusually heavy rain at the beginning of the dry season.
It turns out that Dak Mil looks very different during the day. The gray of a rainy afternoon on the border makes this place resemble the familiarity of the Central Highlands mountain towns like Mang Den or Da Lat. Under the thin veil of water, the red color of the basalt soil is even brighter, like the bright yellow of the wild sunflowers at the end of the season.
After following Google Maps and “calling relatives”, we finally arrived at our friend’s house. It was a stilt house built in the style of the Highlanders - the name of the indigenous people who have lived in the M’nong plateau for thousands of years, similar to the mountain people or highlanders.
Montagnard - the house on stilts of the Montagnard people - is the name of the house given by its owner, filled with the material of the M'Nong and Ede people with living utensils, patterns, decoration styles... creating a very Montagnard space.
The coldness of that seemingly endless rainy afternoon fermented an interesting coffee. Let the drops of water drip on the tin roof or rustle through the leaves, the warm aroma of the coffees gradually enhanced through different brewing methods.
The story also flares up with the excitement that caffeine brings, about this Dak Mil land from ancient times to the present day, about the explorer Henri Maitre and the book "The Forest of the Montagnards" researching the mountainous region of the Central Highlands of Vietnam...
If represented by color, Dak Mil would be a red dot of clay, the color of red basalt soil and also the main color of this land. Dak Mil is located near the Krong No volcanic geological park, so it has a fertile red basalt plateau terrain. Volcanoes from millions of years ago erupted and then went out, letting wind and water transform the magma into this precious, nutritious soil.
Thanks to that, Dak Mil landscape looks very desolate, but not desolate. Because here, countless pepper and cashew plantations flourish on the red basalt soil, bringing a huge source of long-term industrial crops to the people. Not only pepper and cashew are suitable for the soil, but also rubber, tea, coffee, macadamia, cocoa, durian, avocado... also love the soil here.
The high terrain in the South and low terrain in the North (from 900m to 400m) of Dak Mil has made this place a transitional area between the two climate sub-regions of Dak Lak and Dak Nong with the characteristics of a sub-equatorial tropical monsoon climate with two distinct seasons in a year: rainy season and dry season.
In terms of hydrology, Dak Mil has a dense stream system, becoming the first water source of the two majestic Serepok and Dong Nai rivers. This explains why Dak Mil has the word Dak (water - in the local language) in its name, similar to Dak Lak or Dak Nong.
WEST LAKE ON THE PLATEAU
While rambling about the land, water and strange stories of the land next to the Cambodian border, the owner of the coffee shop asked a question: "Do you know that in Dak Mil there is also a West Lake like in Hanoi? Of course, the West Lake here is only 1/5 the size of the West Lake in the North?"
We were quite surprised by this information, because lakes are everywhere, but West Lake is really strange. We thought that there were only 2 West Lakes in this world, one in Hangzhou (China) and one in Hanoi. So, we could not contain our curiosity, we had to go see what Dak Mil West Lake was like?
This lake is not named West Lake because it is located to the west of the capital like West Lake in Hanoi and Hangzhou. The lake was not naturally created like in Hangzhou, nor was it dug out by a golden buffalo looking for a black copper mother like the legend of West Lake in Hanoi.
This semi-artificial lake is simply called West Lake because it was dug by the West, meaning that the French colonial government dug this lake in the 1940s with the aim of turning small streams of water flowing from the cracks of the Nam Gle volcano in this area into a lake to regulate the landscape and store water for various uses.
The lake was dug by the West, so it is called West Lake, but it must be admitted that West Lake is a highlight that creates the poetic beauty of Dak Mil town, like the "eye" of Bien Ho in the mountain town of Pleiku or Xuan Huong Lake in Da Lat. With a circumference of about 10km, and a water surface area of 108ha, West Lake is an abundant source of water for the coffee plantations around it.
This is not a random project. Since the beginning of the plan to dig the lake, the French calculated that this would be a water source for growing coffee, a plant they brought here in the 1940s. Dak Mil has become the coffee center of Dak Nong province with more than 20,000 hectares.
It is worth noting that Dak Nong is the third largest coffee growing region in Vietnam with 130 thousand hectares, with a total output of about 350 thousand tons per year. However, what Dak Mil coffee aims for is not quantity but high quality to “sell at a high price” as the owner of the house concluded.
Back to the story of West Lake. The lake also has another name, Dak Mil volcanic lake. The small underground streams that the French gathered to form West Lake flow from the Nam Gle crater, located in the volcanic system of Dak Nong global geopark, which UNESCO recognized and mapped in 2023.
The volcanic lake is numbered 23 on the “Symphony of New Waves” discovery route in this global geopark. If we use aerial photography equipment, we will see that Dak Mil’s West Lake has the arc of a real volcanic crater, but only a partial angle.
Although West Lake in Dak Mil does not have as many myths and legends as the two real West Lakes, the ancient volcanic origin has given this West Lake its own mysterious and attractive beauty. The lake is truly a precious gem, a drop of water that cools Dak Mil in the dry season covered with red dust!
The cool water of West Lake also nurtures a unique and very famous specialty in Dak Mil, which is the West Lake goby fish. This fish is raised in natural conditions and reproduces quite quickly. The fish meat is soft and smooth, not fishy, and can be processed into many delicious dishes, such as braised goby fish in a clay pot.
The goby fish is marinated with spices, including the indispensable black pepper grown here, then put into a clay pot and simmered over low heat until the water dries up, then turned off the stove. That kind of fish eaten with hot rice on a cold rainy day like this is truly divine, nothing can compare.
Just that alone is enough to make the hearts and stomachs of travelers who have a glimpse of Dak Mil linger!
