Travelogue through history

Making a fire to cook tea on top of Bang Am. Photo: Hoang Loi

It’s strange that young people all like to live in the city, even though it’s cramped and stuffy. The city is like a big box that locks up one’s soul, but Bang Am opens up the feeling of sobbing, soaring, and freedom.

Under the free sky

Because we have climbed many times, we are familiar with all the paths to Bang Am. You can quickly reach Bang Am by riding a motorbike along the concrete road at the foot of Ha Nha bridge, connecting Dai Dong and Dai Hong communes of Dai Loc district.

Looking from the bridge, the concrete road runs vertically like a ladder reaching to heaven, my friend had the opportunity to recite a poem he composed himself: "Climbing the ladder to reach the gate of heaven, asking where is happiness in this world?".

After driving past the concrete section, we began our journey on foot to Bang Am peak. The road passes through almost all the important streams of Huu Nien mountain range such as Bo stream and Lim stream.

The mountainside resembled a dinosaur’s spine, and we could see both the lower and upper reaches of the Vu Gia River. We followed the trail, occasionally stopping by the stream, immersing ourselves in the cool water, under the shade of clusters of white and pink wildflowers blooming overhead.

Between Khe Bo and Khe Lim, our friend Tai built a small house, close to the cliff, overlooking Khe Lim waterfall. Sitting here looking down at the waterfall pouring down day and night, in front of us is the peaceful village scene, feeling the simple happiness of having a place to come in and out.

The entrance has a pot of warm tea, the exit has some beautiful things of the world: A pair of birds gliding across the free sky, far away, flying straight towards Dai Lanh mountain, below the vegetable fields along the Vu Gia alluvial plain.

We went a little further and then turned, following the trail to look towards Khe Tan dam. Luckily, we went on a beautiful, clear day, so we could see the whole Khe Tan lake like a sparkling drop of water in the sky.

Khe Tan Lake is actually only about 7 kilometers away from Am Thong Peak as the crow flies, but it seems like two separate worlds . We assume that the immense lake below must have contributed to some extent from the streams of this Huu Nien mountain range.

Interestingly, there was a guy who had caught a stream fish in Khe Tan Lake and then found a similar type in Bang Am. The guys asked each other, wondering where this fish came from, did it come from the mountain first or from the lake first? There are many things like that in nature that no one can explain.

Flat land on top of mountain

We returned to the main road to Bang Am, wading through two or three mountains, occasionally passing a steep cliff. It took about an hour to reach Thong Am.

Strangely enough, Bang Am is exactly as its name suggests, a “flat” land on top of a mountain. So it can be called Bang Am mountain top or Bang Am plain.

If the road was full of big trees, then Bang Am was full of small grasses no taller than a person's head. The whole area was vast but the trees were only gently sloping.

I have conquered many peaks in Vietnam but have never seen such a strange peak. As usual, we burned incense to thank the earth, the Buddha and the ancient layman. When we were done, we climbed the cliff, gathered firewood and set up a pot to cook some tea.

Sitting here, looking at the Vu Gia upstream flows deep into my mind. In front of me are mountains and hills, feeling the tea seeping into each drop.

The brothers had another chance to compete with each other on who was better at geography and history. From the top of Am Thong, you could see the entire communes of Dai Son, Dai Lanh, Dai Hong and Dai Hung.

A man looked towards the Vu Gia River and saw Hoi Khach Bridge, connecting the two banks of Vu Gia. He said the location of Hoi Khach Bridge was very special. Standing in the middle of the bridge, surrounded by mountains and hills, every time he passed by, he could hear all the sounds of the Dai Loc mountains and forests.

The other guy in Dai Hung commune exclaimed: Dai Hung commune actually has a road that runs straight through Prao, Dong Giang district. I know Prao, because I once went straight from Da Nang , passing Quyet Thang tea hill, but it always seemed like two different worlds.

He said that when he was a child, people brought wild animals from that path every day, sometimes deer meat, sometimes bear meat. I guess that was a long time ago, at least before 1980.

His village also has the story of the women in Truc Ha village, who showed Nguyen Anh how to escape from the Tay Son army. Later, when the country was unified, in gratitude to those who saved his life, King Gia Long granted the title of Ngu Hanh Tien Nuong to the five women; he ordered the construction of a temple at the place where they died. Every year, on the 14th day of the first lunar month, Truc Ha villagers hold a ceremony at Ngu Hanh Tien Nuong temple.

From Bang Am, you can see the entire Thuong Duc hill, a national historical site. Another guy in the group told about the fierce battles that took place more than 50 years ago in Thuong Duc. He said that you can read about those things in official history and even in novels written by those who fought there.

Thuong Duc was a strong base of the Republic of Vietnam army that our troops had to lose a lot of blood and sweat to win. He said that only after General Hoang Dan was assigned to direct command, many errors in the battle plan were discovered, and a crash course in battlefield defense had to be opened for the battalion, and artillery combat tactics had to be changed, then the glorious victory of Thuong Duc was achieved.

We started each sentence with the word "old days": "Old days like this", "old days like that"... until the sun fell, its golden light spread across the world, as if the old days were forever echoing on the top of Bang Am mountain.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/du-ky-qua-mien-lich-su-3150390.html