Vietnam's Binh Dinh is a narrow
province set between Gia Lai province on the highlands and the South China Sea. If you are planning on heading into the
Central Highlands, this is an ideal place to head west with Route 19 heading
west to Pleiku from Binh Dinh's provincial capital of Qui Nhon.
Qui Nhon is a
medium-sized town that counts fishing as its mainstay and not surprisingly, the
seafood here is excellent. Approaching Qui Nhon from the south on Highway 1A,
it looks like a beautiful, quaint little beachside town. From the north, the
approach is congested with honking cars, belching fumes past and endless line
of ugly storefronts. The truth of Qui Nhon is, not surprisingly, in between.
The surrounds can be beautiful, but the town is set up more as a commercial
centre than a tourist destination.
If you want to relax at a
peaceful site when coming to Quy Nhon city, you should travel to Ghenh Rang
hill. You are able to enjoy everything, visit the poet Han Mac Tu’s tomb and
Quy Hoa leper camp with pleasure.
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Ghenh Rang is about 3 kilometers
far from the centre of Quy Nhon. There is a Queen Beach,
a unique beach with numerous smooth stones as eggs with different sizes
together, so it called Bai Trung (Egg site). It is called Queen’s Beach, where
once Nam Phuong’ Empress bathed.
If you want to relax at a
peaceful site when coming to Quy Nhon city, you should travel to Ghenh Rang
hill. You are able to enjoy everything, visit the poet Han Mac Tu’s tomb and
Quy Hoa leper camp with pleasure.
Ghenh Rang is about 3
kilometers far from the centre of Quy Nhon. There is a Queen Beach,
a unique beach with numerous smooth stones as eggs with different sizes
together, so it called Bai Trung (Egg site). It is called Queen’s Beach, where
once Nam Phuong’ Empress bathed.
The site also offers a
panorama of the city which is located along a beautiful prolonged coast.
Above the Queen beach is the resting place of famous
poet Han Mac Tu. There is a shop nearby, where you could read his typical poems
and know more about his life. The shop owner called Dzu Kha often carves the
poems on fir-made pieces with his “fire” pen.
Besides the Ghenh Rang
site is Quy Hoa, "valley of peace", a spot to visit tourist
attractions with fantastic scenery, beautiful beaches, and the green
casuarina-tree. Going into the center of Quy Hoa, you'll find hundreds of
houses of the patient built over 80 years ago, every house has a different
architecture but all seems rustic and casual.
Visiting Ghenh
Rang, you will bath in the sea, go fishing, and enjoy seafood at the
restaurants. Coming here on September 22 or November 11, when birth and death
anniversaries of Han Mac Tu are held, you will have a chance to sip at
mouthfuls of wine, recite Han Mac Tu’s poems and recall his life and career.
From genh ranh hill, along the road leading to the highway, about 3 km you will
to the Quy
Hoa leper camp is located under a peaceful valley next to the beach. Tourists
who travel along the national highway No.1D could see the camp which looks like
a beautiful village. Instead of calling it Quy Hoa National Leprosy
Dermatology Hospital,
many said this is Quy Hoa village.
The
village was set up in 1929 when a French Catholic priest Paul Maheu came here
and built a camp for lepers who were kept away from the society at that time.
It
became a home for the lepers since then. After Paul Maheu had passed away, the
camp was devastated by a storm in 1932. Soeur Charles Antoine and the others
rebuilt the houses and saved the lepers.
The village has a very beautiful landscape. Perhaps those who built it wanted
to offer the lepers hopes to continue living. The precincts of the village are
very spacious and full of trees.
Alongside the treatment area for the lepers coming from 11 central and Central
Highlands provinces, it sees many small houses where the lepers have lived for
years. Many people who are not lepers are also living here as they are the
lepers’ children. The more people live here, the more houses are built. A village
has gradually formed.
Coming here, tourists could feel a friendly atmosphere. It looks like a luxury
resort. 40 statues of different famous doctors were built within the precincts
of the village.
Also, at the leper camp, there is a room dedicated to the poet Han Mac Tu who
was once cured here. His room is now become a destination for the poetry lovers
to visit whenever they come to Binh Dinh.
At the northern side of the hill was the first tomb of Han Mac Tu before it was
disinterred for reburial on the Thi Nhan hill located at Ghenh Rang.
Unlike other tourism sites, the Quy Hoa village is very quiet, even when
hundreds of tourists come here. Visiting Quy Hoa in the morning or afternoon,
tourists could enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. Relaxing on the hammocks which
are often hung between two casuarina trees near the beach, they will forget all
burdens of their life.
From Quy
Nhon City,
going along the national highway No.1A in the north to intersection with
Highway No.19 then turning left and heading towards Tay Son another 5km you
will see Ham Ho- a charming land located in the heart of wild and mysterious Kut River.
Tourists can choice walking tour or water tour
to penetrate into Ham Ho. If travel by land, the tourists could take an
enjoyable horse-drawn carriage tour through the road whose one side leans
against the river and the other leans against the mountain. It takes 0.5 km for
tourists to travel by water. Sitting on the boat bobbing gently on small branch
of the river, the tourists will be taken to deeply inside Ham Ho.
You choose water tour.
Locals’s boat takes you calmly down a branch of Kut River
through wild brushwoods along stream’s edge. It’s branches hung down and
reflect in clear stream. Surroundings covers by green trees with fresh and
quiet atmosphere that you can hear the animated sound of wild birds singing as
well as sound of bamboo pole cleaving the water to shove off the boat.
Occasionally, the stream of sunshine beams impetuously down tender leaves when
the boat suddenly pass a small waterfalls or gentle rock. A peaceful and quiet
feeling in the wild and clean landscape surrounds us.
At the end of the
stream, the Ham Ho appears wonderfully as a giant rockery in the middle of
nature. It surrounds by grandiose mountain and forests. High mountains cover by
primeval forests. Surface of the water is quietly but sounds melodiously as
bending the curving.
You leave the boat and begin passing through dangerous and narrow roads. The
narrowest section is even hard for one person worming. The high and dangerous
cliffs also challenge the tourists as they could only cling on a peak cliff or
tottery edge to climb up. A strong impression you will feel when looking down
beneath where the stream begins slopping downward and bending urgently to
create waterfalls. The locals call each sections with roughly names but deep
impressions such as Hon Trao (Overflow Mountain), Hon Vo Ruou (Wine Jar
Mountain), Da Dung (Vertical Stone), Thac Ca Bay (Fly Fish Falls), Cua sanh-Cua
Tu (Life and Death Door), Vuc Sac (Gaudy Abyss), Dinh Suong Mu (Fog Peak), Hon
Ba (Lady Mountain), Da Chay (Burn Rock)...
Upstream the source of river, slope is higher. The stream falls roaring and
fiercely. In flood season, water flowing from Da Hang to Ham Ho streams down
deep caves throwing dazzling white foam. In the dry season, in clear sky days,
morning sunlight darts its beams down granite blocks creating multicolored
blocks twinkling on blue wave.
Climbing over Hon Da Thanh, the tourists could see a section of Ham Ho from the
height in oder to experience clearly the
imposing beauty of this natural lanscape.
Ham Ho formerly was a guerilla base of Tay Son insurgent army, Can Vuong
movement of Mai Xuan Thuong and also of revolutionary force in Tay Son
southwest in the anti-American resistance war. Coming here, the tourists not
only take pleasure in miraculous nature but also take chance reviewing a
magnanimous time of history.
Standing in the middle of Ham Ho, set your soul free with blue sky, green of
mountains, spring and trees, we will feel the Central’s muggy summer becoming
peaceful and calmly.
Try a visit to this beautiful coastal city to see
the hidden beauty of this place lightly.
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