Kon Tum

Kon Tum is the capital town of Kon Tum Province in Vietnam. It is located inland in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam, near the borders with Laos and Cambodia. Kon Tum is a relaxed little town with few sights in their own right. What nevertheless puts it on the map of interesting places in Vietnam are the surrounding minority villages.

Kon Tum is on Highway 14, the inland-parallel to ever-congested Highway 1. In an relief effort to transfer traffic from that route to here, the road has been upgraded recently, so the place is now easily reached. Northbound to Da Nang it runs along the northern part of the famous Ho Chi Minh-Trail, winding through some of the roughest mountainous jungle terrain in the country.

There is the usual selection of hole-in-the-wall restaurants or streetside stalls, mainly on Tran Phu, around the market and on the road running parallel to the river.

On the northern parallel to Tran Phu, just a few house from the corner with Phan Dinh Phung, there is a small vegetarian restaurant. They serve excellent fake-meat with dishes described as tuna-fish, chicken, crab and the like.