Exploring Khe Kem waterfall

We had an interesting experience in Dien Chau while following fishermen in Dien Ngoc commune to the sea to catch fish. Now we continue our journey to another district in the West of Nghe An. Our destination is Con Cuong district. We follow the national road no. 7 and travel across or along the Lam River – the river depicted in the poetry of local people in the Central Region of Vietnam.

Lam literally means “blue” but the river in the flood season turns red because of alluvial deposits. After travelling for nearly 3 hours, we reach the town of Con Cuong. The town is small but more crowded than we expected. We plan to stay here at the end of our journey. We pass many villages of local ethnic people to reach the commune center where we’ll start our walk to the waterfall. We see clusters of green bamboos, villages and small fields surrounded by streams. Truly simple beauty!

Our decision to take a walk isn’t wrong but it’s hard for us to reach the final destination by 9 am. Hai, a local young guy, give us a lift to the waterfall. Maybe, he lives somewhere nearby. The path leading to Kem waterfall isn’t challenging. It is at the side of Pu Mat National Park. The sun climbs higher in the sky. And we reach the destination as planned thanks to Hai’s help. Many young people come here for their weekend picnic. Youngsters often know much about wild places like this.

People kill chickens in such a special way. As the stall owner tells us, they don’t cut the chicken’s throat but drown it in the stream. The chicken will taste better if killed that way. People put seasoning inside the chicken and this takes a lot of time. We really want to see how local people kill a chicken for food but the cool waterfall seems to lure us. We decide to go to the waterfall.

Khe Kem waterfall is about 200m away from here. It looks like a thin strip of silk in the green of Phu Mat National Park. The temperature of 35 degree Celsius of the Central Region seems to be absent here.  Water of the waterfall comes down from high mountains in Phu Mat. It’s said that hundreds of flowers can be found on the top and along the waterfall. Tourists seem to get lost in a flower forest here.

We’re advised against climbing up the waterfall because it rained heavily this morning and the rock up there is so slippery. There are also many forest leeches. We don’t bring necessary climbing equipment. The temperature out there is always above 30 degree Celsius but here, it’s just 20 degree Celsius. So, this is a nice place for a summer retreat in Nghe An. Bathing is the best way to enjoy the coolness of the water. We enjoy the fresh air and have our body massaged by strong dew jets.

Hai, the local guy, promises to take us to the top of the waterfall some day so that we can admire the beauty of the forest and the mountain, go to Khe Bu valley or climb Pu Loong Mountain, a high mountain in Pu Mat National Park. The scenery is beautiful. The place where we’ll cook lunch is about 1km from the waterfall. We bring the firewood, the chicken, some potatoes, some ears of corn and the two knives with us.

Our destination is wide rock area by the stream. Duy Anh and I grill some ears of corn and potatoes grilling the chicken while Hai is grilling the chicken. It seems that the chicken was grilled for too long. But it still looks good as we’re hungry. Beer soaked in cool water, bamboo glasses, grilled chicken. It’s one of the best meals that we’ve ever had. Hai puts out the fire. We learn many things from enthusiastic local people after journeys to the forest like this. 

Source: VTC10 - NETVIET