Explore Ban Don Eco-Tourism Area

Hello hivers, how are you today?
Me and my close friends just had an interesting tour at Ban Don Ecotourism Area in Dak Lak province. Actually, Dak Lak province is my hometown, while I and my friends are living in Da Nang. Last week we went back to my hometown for my father's death anniversary. After my death anniversary, my friends wanted to discover more about my hometown, so I took them to visit Ban Don Ecotourism Area because I think it has typical culture and history of the place where I was born and raised.

Legend of Ban Don

According to the stone stele located at Ban Don Ecotourism Area, in the past, according to nomadic practices, the headman Y Thu K'Nul brought his tribe across the Serepok River to find land to establish a village. When he saw the oases dividing the Serepok river into 7 branches with fertile land where his villagers could live by fishing and hunting, Y Thu K'Nul decided to stop and establish a village on large and small oases forming an island village. In the local language, village means Ban, island means Don. So the name Ban Don was born from there. Y Thu K'Nul also made a great contribution to bringing Ban Don the famous hunting and taming of wild elephants. This profession not only makes Ban Don become the place with the largest herd of domestic elephants, but also creates a unique and rich cultural area of ​​Ede, JRai, M'Nong, Lao... Today, Ban Don is still being preserved and promoted on the legendary Central Highlands.

Behind the main gate is a painted itinerary that shows activities at Ban Don Ecotourism Area. It's really cute, isn't it?

Another cute painted map showing the attractions at Ban Don Ecotourism Area.

The Longhouse

Our first attraction was the longhouse, which is the longest house of the Ede people. The longhouse is a typical house architecture of the Ede people. Longhouses do not have a certain length, this is due to the regime of the Ede. When each daughter in the Ede family takes her husband home, the longhouse will be built an extra room, the Ede people live together for generations in the longhouse. The Ede are proud of their longhouse, the longer the house, the more daughters and nieces the owner has. From the outside, the longhouse is built in the shape of a dugout boat, the walls are tilted like the side of a boat, the pillars in the longhouse are like masts. It shows that the Ede people always remember their roots and ancestors who crossed the ocean from Indonesia to come to this land at the end of the 13th century.

Now, join me in the footsteps of a local guide to get to know this longhouse. To enter the longhouse, there are two stairs, female staircase and male staircase, don't go wrong stairs. The top of each staircase is curved like the bow of a boat. The female staircase is sculpted with a woman's breasts. The steps of these stairs are often odd numbers, usually 5, 7 or 9. On either side of the stairs, there are 2 copper pots to show the wealth of the owner.

Throughout the space of the longhouse, the Ede display many daily-use items such as gongs, jars, baskets, clothes, knives, machetes, ropes,...

This is the drum placed in the village elder's house. According to the guide, one side of it is made from the skin of a female buffalo, when tapped, the sound will be higher and more resonant to announce the good news. The other side of the drum is covered with male buffalo skin, when tapped, the sound will be lower to announce sad news or attacks of wild animals.

This is a display house, so a picture of the king of elephant hunting Y Thun K'Nul is hung here. In addition, the dugout boat is also placed in the middle of the house for display to show the life associated with the river of the Ede.

The first space in the house is the "living room", which in the local dialect is called the Op area. In this space, there will be K'pan chairs for guests to sit, a fire and wine jars. This is the space for the owner of the house to welcome guests and where guests can eat, drink and rest. Next is the "kitchen" area, called the Gar area. This is the cooking and living space in the Ede family. The Ede people always keep fire in this area because they believe it brings happiness and warmth to their families. And behind the kitchen space are the rooms of the couples in the family. These rooms are separated from each other by bamboo walls. As mentioned above, the number of these rooms depends on the number of married daughters and nieces in the family.

Today, we were considered as honored guests of the longhouse, so we were invited to try straw liquor (a local special fermented rice wine). I must say this wine is very strong. We were then greeted with a welcome dance to the house of the Ede. The Ede are very hospitable, so every time a guest comes to their house, they dance, play gongs and treat guests with the best things available. After that, we also had the opportunity to dance and sing with them. It was a really enjoyable experience.

Explore the surrounding area and take part in the fun games

After exploring the longhouse, we continued our journey by walking on wooden and bamboo suspension bridges to discover the natural beauty of Ban Don Ecotourism Area. Suspension bridges led us through the flooded forest of Ban Don. Walking on these suspension bridges is also an interesting experience.

This is a prayer tree, people come here and hang red cloth strips on the tree and pray for good things in life.

It can be said that the flora in Ban Don is very rich. Underwater forests and ancient trees create a wild beauty for this area. We felt so refreshed to go around exploring and breathing in the fresh air.

We caught a few local kids swimming and fishing in a tributary there. They seem very happy. There is also an area for folk games such as seesaws, swings, walking on chains, etc. We fell a few times but we all had a lot of fun. And one of the popular activities there is riding elephants to explore the surrounding area. We were also very excited for that activity, however when we got close to the elephant, looking into his eyes, we decided not to participate in that activity.

Visit the statue of the king of elephant hunting and the grave of the elephants Pak Ku and H'Panh

And our final destination was the statue of the king of elephant hunting and the grave of elephants, Pak Ku and H'Panh. According to the stele at Ban Don Ecotourism Area, the king of elephant hunting is Y Thu K'Nul. He is a M'Nong born in 1827 and died in 1937, at the age of 110. He was a man with great merit in exploring Ban Don and developing the profession of hunting and taming wild elephants with ropes made of buffalo skin. He caught hundreds of wild elephants (about 400) and was the richest and most powerful chief in the region. He once caught white elephants and gave them to King Bao Dai (Nguyen Dynasty - Vietnam) and King of Thailand. After that, he was treated well by the Thai king and conferred the title Khunsanup (king of elephant hunting). After his death, he passed the title of "king of elephant hunting" to his son-in-law Ama Kong, who caught 301 elephants. Ama Kong lived to be 103 years old and until he was 80 years old, he still had a child with a wife 50 years younger than him, so his remedy for kidney health later became a famous remedy to this day.

Next to the statue of the king of elephant hunting Y Thun K'Nul is the grave of two elephants Pak Ku and H'Panh. According to the guide, Pak Ku is a smart, healthy elephant and made a great contribution to helping elephant hunters catch and tame other elephants. Pak Ku has a very beautiful pair of tusks, that's why Pak Ku was noticed and killed by elephant thieves. Although Pak Ku managed to escape from the brutal elephant thieves and his tusks were not cut, he died due to 217 slashes, blinded eyes and multiple burns. Out of pity for Pak Ku, people later buried him and built a grave for him to worship. The remaining grave belongs to the elephant H'Panh. H'Panh is also an intelligent female elephant. Because of its friendliness, H'Panh is loved by everyone including locals and tourists. H'Panh was often assigned to lead survey teams of York Don National Park and used to act in films. Then H'Panh fell in love with a strong male elephant, Y Kham. Because of the love of H'Panh and Y Kham, their owner organized a wedding for them, which was the only elephant wedding ever. After the wedding, H'Panh and Y Kham were always together. However, in May 2010, H'Panh fell into the cellar of the cruel elephant bandits. After H'Panh's death, Y Kham was very sad and hid in the forest and has lived alone to this day. Because of pity for H'Panh, people built anothergrave next to the grave of the elephant Pak Ku.

I felt very happy because my friends were very satisfied with this tour. I hope that you like it too. Thank you for taking the time to read my post and have a nice day!

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