Phu Cuong Falls

Phú Cường Falls drop over black basalt in the red-earth country of the Central Highlands. The name is two words that call up something powerful and full of energy, and when the water is running, it is fully earned.

They lie in the Chư Sê area, about 45 kilometers southeast of Pleiku. The land around Chư Sê is pepper and coffee country, and the falls sit beyond it.

The water pours over the volcanic rock of a mountain that has been quiet for a very long time. At the foot of the falls lie blocks of dark gray stone, large and small, piled on one another. They are the result of millions of years of forming and wearing away. It is a classic basalt landscape of the Central Highlands: red earth, black stone, green forest and white water.

On a sunny day, when the flow is strong enough, spray from the foot of the falls can form a rainbow. The Gia Lai newspaper has described this. But a rainbow is a gift of nature, and it is not always there.

The falls lie on the Ia Pết stream. The stream joins the Ayun River, which runs on to Ayun Hạ Lake. Standing before the falls, a visitor is looking at more than the place where water falls. This is one link in the web of rivers and streams of the highland plateau. Phú Cường is the starting point of a long trip, from old forest down to a lake that spreads wide.

To reach the foot of the falls, visitors go down a long iron staircase. It has handrails, and it brings people close to the water. There the sound of the falls fills the ears, and cool spray touches the skin.

In 2019 the Gia Lai newspaper wrote of a plan for a route beginning at the falls. It would link them with Ayun Hạ Lake, and then with the Plei Ơi historical and cultural site. Such a trip would lead from the basalt falls to the wide lake, and on to the cultural world of the Gia Rai in the Phú Thiện area. The Gia Rai are one of the peoples of Vietnam's Central Highlands. A route like that could show the depth of southern Gia Lai in a single day.

Down at the base, the water rings on volcanic rock and white foam melts into the Ia Pết below. Here it is easy to see why the people of the area named the place Phú Cường. That strength is not only a sound. It is a whole stretch of highland telling its own story.