Great landscape in Moc Chau

If you have a chance to visit Moc Chau plateau (in Son La), you will be surprised by its stunning beauty.

Located at an altitude of 1,050 meters above the sea level, Moc Chau plateau is 80 kilometers in length and 25 kilometer in width. Also, it has 1,600 hectares of pasture.

Moc Chau is considered as the paradise of the northwest nature. There are many famous tourist destinations here. The climate is very cool. Coming here, tourists can relax and refresh during their trip.

Moc Chau is famous for historic relics such as Son Moc Huong cave, pine forest, Chien Vien pagoda, Dai Yem waterfall, and Phieng Luong mountain.

If you like discovering traditional culture, you can visit villages of Hmong people and Dao people.

The vestige - Gia Long waterfall

People who love discovering the Highlands mountains and forest should visit Dak Nong, one of provinces in the south of the Highlands. It has a lot of beautiful and imposing landscapes. The treasure of Dak Nong forest is waterfalls. One of them is Gia Long waterfall.

Located in Krong Ne district, Dak Nong province, Gia Long waterfall is very imposing. In order to go to the waterfall, you have to go through a forest.  You can listen to the songs of birds and the sound of waterfalls.

There are many kinds of hundred-year-old trees that are very tall and big in the forest.

Gia Long waterfall’s another name is Dray Sap Thuong waterfall. According to local people, they call the waterfall Gia Long because Gia Long King visited here to rest and he also gave the order to built a road leading to the waterfall.

In Gia Long waterfall, there is a tunnel connecting roads and chain bridges built by French. Now, the waterfall is an attractive ecotourism area. Coming here, you can not only contemplate fantastic scenery but also wander in mysterious old forests to discover marvellousness of the nature.

After visiting Gia Long waterfall, you can go 600 meters along Serepok river to come to a lake that has an area of about 100 square meters. It will be a very great pool for you.

Stilt houses scattered around Pa Phach 2 Hamlet in Moc Chau District in Son La Province

I had dreamt of visiting Moc Chau District in Son La Province with my friends one weekend to see its world-famous flowers and finally it came true.

We decided to take the late bus from My Dinh Station in Hanoi at 7:30 p.m. and when we finally arrived at Moc Chau at around 2 a.m., the town was still soundly sleeping and streets corners were quiet and peaceful in the mist and darkness.

We had booked in advance our accommodation at a stilt house in an eco-tourist area and arrived in the room in the chill of the mountainous region. Through the windows, we could barely see deeply winding trails in the distant mist.

After a short sleep, we were up at the crack of dawn to start our journey to Pa Phach hamlets. With five motorbikes hired at VND150,000 each, we were keen to conquer the rocky and tortuous roads which looked rather adventurous with a rocky mountain on one side and deep valley on the other.

We conquered our obvious fear and discovered that the nature we experienced would stay in our hearts forever.

Firstly, we looked to see an immense greenness of plum trees appearing before us. It looked like a green carpet, stretching into the horizon as it was studded with stilt houses of ethnic people. I thought about the ancient times, primitive times, magnificence, endless nature and romance of the trip in this moment.

Along the journey, we saw ethnic women with wooden packs on their backs in slow steps and austere faces. We could also not forget the kids’ glowing red cheeks as well as pigs tramping around.

We just moved, up and down through hills and took many photos between big groves of plum trees which combined together as domes in palaces amidst white radish farms and peach blossom flowers.

At noon, we stopped for lunch. I started to imagine the images of barbarians eating in the jungle in comic books or cartoons.

We moved on to Moc Chau tea plantation. We totally lost ourselves amidst the giant plateau that is green tea hills and grass covers for cattle.

We shouted for joy when seeing a white cabbage flowers. Cabbage flowers are small, fragile and swinging in the wind, they apparently touch a girls’ soul.

Time went by quickly and the sunset started to come on the plateau. We were now in a hurry to go to the hotel.

On the next day, we discovered Dai Yem Waterfall and a pine hill. Not very big or high, the waterfall is charming due to its gentle stream, glistening sunbeams over its spumes and by the many colorful wild flowers around it.

Passing the pine hill, we indulged in the romantic scenery with pine trees shaking in the wind and small lake reflecting the sun rays and our happy faces. The setting reminded us of Dalat.

Moc Chau is 190 kilometers from Hanoi. To get there, tourists can take a motorbike trip from Nguyen Trai Street in Hanoi then along National Road No.6. The roads are easy but travelers should choose a sunny day to be safe.