Bu Lach Grassland

Wide patches of grass lie side by side with a natural lake and a stretch of forest, and no one designed any of it. There is no artificial lake here and no trees planted in rows. This is Bù Lạch Grassland. It lies in Thọ Sơn commune, in Đồng Nai Province. Nature set it out by chance, in a way that cannot be repeated anywhere else, and many visitors come once and want to return.

The grassland used to belong to Bù Đăng, in Bình Phước Province. After the administrative reorganization of 2025, the area was merged into Đồng Nai Province. The name of the place did not change. Today the grassland lies in hamlet 5 of Thọ Sơn commune.

The name Bù Lạch is tied to the M'Nông language, according to Vietnam's national tourism authority. The M'Nông are one of the peoples of Vietnam's Central Highlands. In their language, lạch means a grassland and bàu means a lake. So the name is said to point to a grassland with a lake in the middle. That is exactly what a visitor finds here, broad patches of grass, a lake at the center, and natural forest all around.

Sources give different figures for the size. A 2018 portal of Bình Phước Province gives about 140 hectares, with 20 grasslands of cỏ kim and cỏ chỉ. A 2025 article gives a landscape of up to 500 hectares. Each figure counts a different area. Together they describe a wide landscape, with many grasslands stretched out one after another.

Two grasses dominate here, cỏ kim and cỏ chỉ. In the rainy season, from about May to October, the grass covers the ground in broad green patches, like a velvet carpet. In the dry season it turns yellow-brown, like a small prairie set in the red basalt soil and natural forest of southeastern Vietnam. The lake in the middle never dries up. It gives the whole grassland something for the eye to rest on.

The trail along the lake is a place to slow down. It winds along the edge of the water and then runs through the forest. Walking it, a visitor can watch the color of the grass and the water change from every angle, hear the wind moving over the grassland, and feel the open air of land that lies between forest and prairie.

The culture around the grassland is tied to three communities. The M'Nông and the S'Tiêng are two of them. The third is the Châu Mạ. In Thọ Sơn, an organic cashew cooperative carries the name of the grassland, and local M'Nông people took part in building its production chain. This land has its own people. The local people tie their culture and their livelihoods to the landscape in their own way.

Another place, Thác Voi, lies about 4.4 kilometers from the grassland.

The grassland is still wild. The lake is clear, without a ripple. The yellow grass sways gently in the evening wind, and the sky is wider than anywhere in the city.