Lak Lake
- TUEsday - 19/11/2013 10:12
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It is on the National Road 27 – about 50km from Buon Ma Thuot. It was this lake that gave its name to DakLak province . "Dak" in M'nong language means water, river, stream or lake. "Lak" is the name of a young man with
over whelming courage and strength who found the water resource for the villagers in the area. So DakLak means LAK LAKE in the M'nong language.
The lake legend is told by locals as follows. Once upon a time, a long time ago, for reasons unknown to man, the God of Fire and the God of Water declared war on each other.
After a fierce fight, the defeated God of Water had to hide by turning himself into a boulder. Consequently, a huge drought came. It did not rain for many years, plants and animals all perished, and the villagers were waiting miserably for rain.
Then one day, a poor youth name Y Lak started on a quest to find water for the village. He walked endlessly until he became too tired to continue and sat down on a boulder to have his meal. His eyes happened to FALLS upon a small eel coiled in a deep crack in the rock. He caught it and put it into a pan from which it could not escape. The next morning, Y Lak noticed a water drop, like a pearl, from the eel's mouth, at the bottom of the pan.
The youth had the premonition that the eel was the God of water transfigured, so he released it and followed the eel's slither. After a very long journey, the eel disappeared and an immense lake suddenly appeared in front of the youth's eyes. LAK LAKE had come into being. At LAK LAKE you can row a dugout canoe, ride elephants and sightsee in the villages and the mountains of the M'nong. Alternatively you can go trekking through the streams and forests, witnessing the beauty of the diverse flora and fauna while listening to the sounds of birds and wind.