Kon Tum
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Kon Tum is a small provincial town in the far north of the central highlands, on a river that runs the wrong way. It holds two things worth the journey, and almost nobody makes it.
The first is a cathedral built out of trees. The second is what stands in the villages around it.
Is Kon Tum worth the journey?
For a second trip to Vietnam, yes. For a first one, no, and that is a recommendation rather than a warning. Nothing here competes with Hoi An or the bay, and the province is empty because it never has.
What it offers instead is a highland town where the tourism is incidental. A timber cathedral, Bahnar villages within a few kilometres, and a river of sandbanks and fishing boats running through the middle of it.
What is the wooden cathedral?
The one building people travel for. French missionaries built it between 1913 and 1918 and framed the whole thing in timber. The proportions are a Bahnar communal house rather than a European church: dark ironwood, a tiled roof, a spire, a rose window over the door.
The cathedral is still a working parish church, entry costs nothing, and the seminary a few streets away holds a small ethnographic collection of highland tools and textiles.
The colonial architecture guide covers what the French built elsewhere. This is the outlier in it: a colonial building that borrowed its shape from the people it was built among.
What is in the villages?
Rong houses, and daily life. The Bahnar communal house is a stilted hall with a thatched roof several times the height of the walls, used for meetings and ceremonies, and villages around Kon Tum still build and maintain them.
Kon K'Tu, about 6 km east along the Dak Bla river, is the village most visitors reach. It has a rong house, a church, weaving in the yards and a suspension bridge. It is a working village rather than a display, so ask before photographing anyone, as the etiquette guide sets out.
The textiles guide covers the brocade woven here and how to tell it from the printed version.
What is the river doing?
Running west. The Dak Bla flows against the direction almost every other river in Vietnam takes to the sea, which local stories explain and geography explains better. It gives the town its shape: sandbanks, bamboo bridges in the dry season, a wide brown channel in the wet.
Walking the riverbank at either end of the day is most of what the town itself offers.
Fly to Pleiku, or drive the highlands?
Fly to Pleiku, about 50 km south, and take a car for the last hour. Overland, Kon Tum sits five to six hours from Buon Ma Thuot. From Hoi An or Da Nang it is roughly seven over the mountains.
Kon Tum has no railway in the province and no airport in the town. The central highlands route treats Kon Tum as its northern end, which is the way most people who come here arrive.
How long does it need?
One night, two with a village. The town is a morning, Kon K'Tu is an afternoon, and a second village the next day is for people who came for exactly this.
Rooms are cheap and plain, and the accommodation guide tiers hold here at the bottom end. Nothing in town needs booking ahead outside Tet.
When are the village roads usable?
November to April. The dry half of the highland year gives warm days, cool nights and usable village roads. The wet season from May to October brings afternoon rain that turns those roads to red mud.
The town sits at about 500 m, so it is warm all year rather than cool like Da Lat. The month-by-month guide sets the highlands against the coasts, which run on their own calendars.
FAQ
Is Kon Tum worth visiting?
For the wooden cathedral, the Bahnar villages and the emptiness, yes. It is a small provincial town in the central highlands with two genuine sights and almost no foreign visitors, and it suits a second trip rather than a first.
What is the wooden church in Kon Tum?
A cathedral built by French missionaries between 1913 and 1918, framed entirely in timber in the proportions of a Bahnar communal house rather than a European church. It is dark ironwood with a tiled roof, and it is the reason most people come.
What is a rong house?
The communal house of the Bahnar and other highland groups: a stilted hall with an enormously tall thatched roof, used for meetings, ceremonies and disputes. Several villages around Kon Tum still keep one, and Kon K'Tu is the usual one to visit.
How do you get to Kon Tum?
By air to Pleiku, about 50 km south, then a car or a bus. Overland it is roughly five to six hours from Buon Ma Thuot and seven from Hoi An or Da Nang. There is no railway and no airport in the province itself.
How long do you need?
One night, two if you want a village properly. The town takes a morning, a village takes an afternoon, and there is not a third day of sights here — which is the honest reason it stays quiet.
When should you go?
November to April, the dry half of the highland year. The wet season from May to October brings heavy afternoon rain that turns the village roads to red mud, and the town itself is warm all year at about 500 m.
Is Kon Tum a good stop between the coast and the highlands?
It is the northern end of the central highlands route from Da Lat through Buon Ma Thuot, and the road east to Hoi An and Da Nang takes about seven hours. That makes it a stop on a long drive rather than a destination in itself.