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From Buon Don, Sré Pok River flows backward in western direction through Cambodia, pours in the Sea Lake and follows the downstream to Eastern Sea through Vietnam’s Cuu Long River. Coming to the upper of this river, tourists will have chance to hear the magical-ish stories in the middle of the nature and the wild… Buon Don District is located about 42 kilometers distant from Buon Ma Thuot in northen west direction. It’s covered by mature accumulative forests and is the homeland of hunting down and domesticating wild elephants. Buon Don is the connecting place of Ede, Gia Rai and M’Nong minority group’s cultures; it particularly is the residence for a part of Laotians. A while back, after conquering and pacifying the highlands, at the beginning of 1899, French colonialists established Dak Lak province to be self-ruling, placing the headquarter in Ban Don (it was called Ban Don because there were many Laotians); it was moved to Buon Ma Thuot 5 years later. Apart from famous tourist destinations like Yok Don national forest, Dak Min River, Cu Min mature forest, royal tombs of Khunsunop – the elephant hunting king, chain-bridge across Sré Pok River… Buon Don has amazed many tourists with an ancient house on stilts hidden between the high trees which spread along Sré Pok River, Ban Don. From Buon Don, Sré Pok River flows backward in western direction through Cambodia Bun Dong is the 6th generation’s maternal grandchild (matriarchy) of Khunsunop – the elephant hunting king. His great grandfather moved to Vietnam at the age of 18, started hunting elephants at the age of 24 and when he hunted down 18 elephants, he started to build his house. The house was finished constructing on February 19th, 1885, after 16 months executing the work. To build the house, his great grandfather had to mobilize18 elephants to exploit and pull the wood, 14 professional building workers among which Tha Vi Vong Kham – a Laotian sculptor was the

“Spathe rice with salted peanut” was originally a very simple dish of Vietnam farmers. It was permanently present at the meals of farmers, hired harvesters or at the school bags of old generations of students. Areca tree – a country inspiration, has supplied immaculate white spathes. These spathes have two layers of sheaths. The outer sheath is light blue, turning into dark green afterwards; the inner sheath is supple and has ivory-white color. These unique structures along with the gentle fragrance make it perfect to wrap rice up. Areca spathes are smooth but hard to be torn, covering neatly a ball of cooked rice. When wrapping them up, areca spathes fragrance mixed the smell of rice, creating a stunning flavor. Salted peanut is a common food; it makes austere meals become tastier. My mother used to wake up in early morning, kindling a fire to roast peanuts. With her hands rhythmically turning over and over, the peanuts crackle, making up a sweet smell. Not to mention that, when the peanuts get ripen, my mother smashes them; the smell spreads out to all corners of the house. A ball of white cooked rice lying in the spathes, rice steam sparkly remains in each of them. Taking a small pinch of rice, dipping in the salted peanut, gradually chewing and experiencing the sweet country flavor with the buttery taste of salted peanut, altogether makes a significant taste on my tongue. Like this, spathe rice gets in full; salted peanut gets dried; farmers planting rice, students passing examinations. Nowadays, life more or less has been changed; the old kids have left the small towns, moving to big cities. To those who live far from home, spathe rice with salted peanut – the plain simple dish reminds them of the country flavor, the memories

In the central highland of A Luoi (Thua Thien – Hue), the harvesting and agriculture work are usually finished in the middle of winter. This is the time when mountain villages (Paco people) celebrate their very important event: Aza Tet (or “New rice” Tet).