Dak Lak Province is in Central Highland in 400 - 800m high above sea, 183km from Nha Trang, 180km from Pleiku, 352km from Ho Chi Minh City, 200km from Dalat, and 1,390km from  Hanoi. Buon Ma Thuot Airport is 10km from the city centre. There are daily flights from Danang and Ho Chi Minh City. Annual average temperature is 24ºC. There are beautiful and famous waterfalls and primitive forests. Traditional culture of Dak Lak is very plentiful and really attractive, especially historians, culturists, phonetics.

++Ban Don Village

Location: Don Village is located northwest of Buon Ma Thuot in Krong Na Commune, Buon Don District, Dak LakProvince close to the Cambodian border, approximately 42km from Buon Ma Thuot.
Characteristics: Don Village is well known as the native land of elephant hunters and trainers throughout Southeast Asia.
Don Village has been famous for its Kru, powerful elephant tribe leaders, for a long time, and is well known in IndiaFrance for its elephant. Y Pui, a 102-year-old man (1883-1985) who tamed over 450 elephants, spent part of his life as King Bao Dai’s Mahout. Elephant training and hunting has been passed down through generations. It takes 67 months to domesticate a wild elephant. and In the last few years, tourists have been more eager to visit Don Village, the elephants’ home in Dak Lak. Their main interest in being to admire the animals and to understand their delicate situation Surveys are now being conducted throughout the country to evaluate the elephant situation and to better organizes protection projects.

++ Elephant Race Festival

Time: Around the third lunar month.
Place: Don Village, Buon Don District, Dak Lak Province.
Characteristics: Reflection of the martial spirit of the M’Nong people in particular and the Central Highlands people in general.
Participators: M’Nong.

The Elephant Race Festival takes place in springtime, normally in the third lunar month. In preparation for the festive day, people take their elephants to places where they can eat their fill. Apart from grass their food also includes bananas, papayas, sugar canes, corns, sweet potatoes. The elephants are free from hard work to preserve their strength.
On the big day, elephants from different villages gather at Don Village. People from near and far in their best and colourful costumes flock to the festival. The racing ground is 500m long and wide enough for ten elephants to stand simultaneously.
After a salvo of tu va (horns made into musical instruments), the elephant handlers called nai take their elephants to the ground, standing in a row at the starting point. The leading elephant stands in front, whirling his trunk and nodding his head in greeting the spectators. Atop each elephant there are two handlers in traditional costumes for generals. The tu va signals the start of the race and the elephants rush forwards amidst the resounding cry of the spectators.
The first handler uses an iron stick called kreo in M’Nong language to speed the elephant. The second handler beats the elephant with a wooden hammer called koc to ensure its speed and to keep it in the right line. Upon seeing the first elephant dashing to the destination the spectators shout boisterously amidst the echoing sound of drums and gongs.
The winning elephant is given a laurel wreath. Like its owner, the elephant expresses its happiness and enjoy the sugar canes and bananas from the festivalgoers. After this race, the elephants participate in the competition of swimming across the Serepok River, of tug-of-wars, or throwing balls and playing football.
Coming to this Elephant Race Festival , tourists have a chance to indulge in the boisterous atmosphere of the festival, of the echo of gongs and the spectacular performances of the elephants from the Central Highlands forest.
When the race comes to an end, the competing elephants bring back the atmosphere of the festival to their villages. Upon returning to their village, they receive warm welcome from the villagers. Very often the elephants from DonVillage win the prizes as the village has a tradition of training and tending elephants.
The elephant race constitutes a big festival in the Central Highlands. It reflects the martial spirit of the M’Nong people, an ethnic group famous for their bravery in wild elephant hunting. The magnificent landscape of the Central Highlands further stresses the grandiose characters of this traditional festival.

++ Bay Nhanh Waterfall

Location: Located in N’Drech Village in Ea Huar Commune, Buon Don District, Dak Lak Province.
Characteristics: Bay Nhanh Waterfall is a magnificent landscape, and an ecological tourist site in Dak Lak.

Running here, the Serepok River meets a big stone and is divided into seven small streams, forming six islets, hence its name Bay Nhanh (Seven-branch) Waterfall. From a distance, Bay Nhanh Waterfall resembles a huge hand with seven fingers opening among rapids. At the source of the waterfall, which is 500m wide, water flows gently and quietly all year around.

Ban Don Ecology Tourist Limited Company has just invested in building houses with thatch roofs at the nice beach here. This is also an ideal place for piragua racing as the water surface here is calm and transparent. Every afternoon, looking at the other side visitors will see herds of peacocks dancing. It is really pleasant to the eyes.

The widest of the waterfall is about 2km. The first branch is covered by a row of old fig trees. The second, third, and fourth branches form a big cascade. It is an excellent place for visitors to take a bath or photographs. The fifth branch has a cobble beach like the one in Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa Province). The sixth branch consists of six nice, wide, flat sandbanks and an area of 2ha for growing industrial and fruit crops. At the seventh branch, visitors come to the primitive forest, which are abundant with many precious woods and animals under the management of YokDonNational Park.

Coming to Bay Nhanh Waterfall, visitors will see rows of old fig trees. The Ban Don Ecology Tourist Limited Company has built a 200m long bamboo bridge snaking through the roots of old fig trees for tourists relaxing and drinking can

The Ban Don Ecology Tourist Limited Company has just invested VND 1 billion in building one long house, one rong alcohol under the canopy of fig trees, surrounded by the murmur of the stream. house of the Xe Dang people, three long houses of the E De people, one curved-roof house of the M’Nong people, one house on stilts of the Ba Na people, and some other facilities in service of tourists.

Coming to Bay Nhanh Waterfall, visitors not only enjoy the natural landscape of this ecological site but also visit YokDon National Park to listen to stories about elephant hunting and taming, or go boating, and ride elephant for sightseeing tours in the forests and across the Serepok River, or stay overnight in a house on stilts and enjoy gong performance of the M’Nong people. Coming here visitors also have a chance to taste such specialties as bamboo-tube rice, banana leaf-wrapped rice, roasted chicken with pomelo leaves, mixture of yellow-ant with green cabbage dish, hemibagrus with giang leaves soup. Visitors can also buy souvenirs such as brocade bag, wooden handicraft, and backpacks of ethnic minorities.

++ Chu Yang Sin National Park

Location: It lies on the border of Lak and Krong Bong districts, 60km southeast of Buon Ma Thuot City.
Characteristics: Chu Yang Sin National Park hides many interesting things. Its unique and diverse natural resources attract both tourists and researchers. 

Chu Yang Sin Mountain range consists of many mountain peaks, of which the 2,422m Chu Yang Sin peak is the highest one in Dak Lak. The Chu Yang Sin National Park covers 59,667ha, with tropical climate of High Mountain. The topography has many slopes, facilitating varieties of forests with diversified flora and fauna, of which 44 species are rare and precious animals listed on Vietnam’s Red Book such as big halcyons, great hornbills, and white headed hornbills.

If you are an adventurer or a researcher, come to Chu Yang Sin National Park to explore and discover the secrets of this land.

Travel Guides in 67cities and Provinces of Vietnam:

Hanoi|Hochiminh(Saigon)|Halong|Hue|Hoian|Haiphong|Catba|Hoabinh|Caobang|laocai|Maichau|
Sapa|Sonla|Dienbienphu|Thainguyen|Phutho|Babe-Backan|Hagiang|langson|Bacninh|Hatay|
Haiduong|NinhBinh|Thaibinh|Quangninh|DongHoi|QuangBinh|Quangtri|Phuyen|Phutho|Thanhhoa|
Nghean|Hatinh|Danang|Taynguyen|Kontum|Gialai|Daknong|Daklak|Dalat|BinhDinh|Nhatrang|
PhanThiet|Muine|Vungtau|KienGiang|Phuquoc|Tayninh|Vinhlong|Travinh|Dongthap|Tiengiang|
Angiang|Cantho|Bentre|Camau|