Waiting for the golden flower festival on the million-year-old volcano

"Go up the mountain to find the cave of yellow flowers"

When the flower season comes, the entire Chu Dang Ya volcanic region seems to be lit up by a thousand brilliant suns.

The dry season is also the most beautiful season of the year in Gia Lai plateau. **Photo: Bi Ly**

Three adjacent funnel-shaped craters are like fossilized memories of time. In that general picture, wild sunflowers not only decorate the mountainside, but also bloom into fences around sweet potato and coffee fields, on the trails of the Jrai people who go up the mountain to cultivate.

Looking down from the slope, the whole mountain seems to be embroidered with shimmering golden threads, amidst the green carpet of fields, amidst the red basalt soil, creating a primitive and majestic beauty.

Tourists enjoy taking pictures with the first wild sunflowers of the season on the volcano. **Photo: Hoang Ngoc**

The flower season also begins appointments. Tourists come to Chu Dang Ya not only to see the flowers, but also to find an encounter with pristine nature.

Ms. Truong Thi Phuong Nga - Director of Gia Lai Ecotourism Company led a group of more than 100 tourists from Ho Chi Minh City to visit the volcano. She said: "From mid-October onwards, we led a number of groups to admire Chu Dang Ya. The wild sunflower season is like weaving brocade and embroidery for the million-year-old volcano. Tourists not only come to take photos with the majestic mountain view, but also to live fully with the feeling of being one with nature, with the ancient spirit breathing under the volcanic soil layers".

Many female tourists in the group were extremely excited to transform into mountain girls, wearing brocade dresses and taking pictures with wild flowers. This is not only a million-year-old natural landscape but also carries the rich cultural life of the Jrai people. That resonance "enhances" the quality of this destination with more emotions.

When the first wild sunflowers bloomed, travel agencies brought many groups of tourists to check in at the volcano. **Photo: Hoang Ngoc**

In the wild yellow, many people climbing the crater for the first time stood still for a long time. The open space seemed to touch the horizon. The deep valleys below were covered with yellow flowers, where sometimes echoed the gong sounds of the Jrai people preparing for the festival season.

Some people compare Chu Dang Ya to “the mountain peak of memories”, with each step we take, we seem to hear the breath of the extinguished fire, but its warmth still burns in each small wildflower petal. And it is those wildflowers that become memories, memories, beauty, and a part of the lives of people in the highlands. People look forward to each flower season to see that beauty again.

When the last rains of the season have just ended, it is also the time when wild sunflowers bloom. **Photo: Hoang Ngoc**

Among the crowd of people going up the mountain to find flowers, there are eyes as if they have just met old memories. Mrs. Truong Thi Tam (a tourist from Ho Chi Minh City) is over 60 years old, still leisurely walking up the mountain to look at the flowers and grass, carrying in her heart her own emotions.

Ms. Tam expressed: “This is the first time I have seen such overwhelming beauty of a mountain when wild flowers are in full bloom. From here, looking down the valley, on the kilometers-long roads leading to the foot of the mountain, everywhere is filled with yellow flowers.”

Waiting for the golden flower festival

Every November, a wild sunflower festival is held associated with the million-year-old volcano. **Photo: Tan Kan**

Not only flowers, Chu Dang Ya is also a place where time and beliefs blend into a very unique festival. Every November, the Chu Dang Ya Wild Sunflower-Volcano Week usually takes place here. This is also the occasion for the Jrai people to awaken the mountain's memory with sacred rituals, the rhythm of the moon, the beating of gongs to call the sun, recreating the magical colors of the Central Highlands festivals at the foot of the million-year-old volcano.

It is expected that this year's festival will still be maintained with some of the contents that have created its own appeal like previous years. However, this year's journey of experience will be extended with sports-tourism activities, exploring, connecting forest-sea culture, and conquering volcano peaks...

The Chu Dang Ya Volcano Wild Sunflower Festival is an occasion to honor cultural and natural identity associated with stimulating tourism. **Photo: Hoang Ngoc**

Ms. Huynh Thi Tho, Director of Huynh Le Travel (Phu My commune) said: "The wild sunflower festival always has a special attraction, so every year we organize groups of tourists from the sea to the plateau to participate. Among the festival activities, the competition to conquer the peak of Chu Dang Ya volcano is always the most attractive highlight."

Tourists love the moment of receiving the race completion badge with the volcano and wild sunflower symbol - as proof of the journey of self-discovery of their own limits. What is more wonderful is that tourists can enjoy the bright yellow wild sunflowers blooming along the mountain climbing route and when standing on the peak of nearly 1,000 m, the whole plateau appears overwhelmingly before their eyes, it is a very valuable experience for tourists.

Waiting for the golden flower festival on the million-year-old volcano. **Photo: Pham Quy**

"Hopefully, during the upcoming festival season, the volcano summit competition will continue to be maintained and organized more professionally to increase attraction and experience for tourists," said Ms. Tho.

From the volcano, visitors can continue their cultural journey: visit the ancient moss-covered H'Bau church to contemplate the place of desolation, admire the hundred-year-old pine trees, stop by the ancient Buu Minh pagoda - where the bell rings morning and evening in the middle of the hundred-year-old tea fields...

All connected together to form a tourist route full of the flavor of the highlands waiting for visitors.

Source: https://baogialai.com.vn/cho-don-hoi-hoa-vang-tren-nui-lua-trieu-nam-post570412.html