“Who travels to Khe Ram
Who passes by An Dinh
Who returns to Hoi Yen…”
Located about 25 kilometers west of Da Nang, Khe Ram is nestled in An Dinh hamlet, Hoa Bac commune, Hoa Vang district. Recently, it’s been featured on several travel websites as an exciting check-in spot for adventure lovers and nature seekers eager to explore the wild beauty of untouched landscapes.
On weekend cycling trips out to the rural areas of Hoa Bac, I – Mr. Old Man – often passed through An Dinh without ever suspecting that behind the distant mountains there might be a place as stunning as Khe Ram that could stop me in my tracks. It wasn’t until recently, after being convinced by a few online articles, that I finally decided to hop on my bike with a few friends and head out to discover Khe Ram for myself.
The countryside roads of Hoa Bac are always heartbreakingly beautiful. Riding along the only road that hugs the hillside, you can look down and see Hoa Bac nestled like a small valley between the clear Cu De River on one side and undulating hills on the other.
Cycling in the morning along a path winding through forests, freshly harvested rice fields, sugarcane groves, and newly planted cornfields feels incredibly refreshing—like shedding all the noise and burdens of city life to blend into a world scented with wildflowers, the aroma of straw, and the nostalgic smell of a countryside childhood.
About 50 meters past the Khe Ram bridge at the end of An Dinh hamlet, you turn left onto a narrow path that leads into the heart of Khe Ram. With mountains on three sides and a stream running through the middle toward the Cu De River, the area resembles a narrow valley scattered with a few half-built or abandoned eco-farms and homestays—left unfinished due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
At first, Khe Ram may seem rather ordinary. But once you cross the shallow stream (barely knee-deep) and follow the trail about 500 meters upstream, a majestic scene suddenly unfolds, stunning everyone into delighted awe. Torrents of white water gush from cliffs, crashing down over massive rocks of all shapes and sizes strewn across the clear stream. It’s as if the Khe Ram stream had cast a spell, enchanting us all. We eagerly scrambled over boulders one after another to snap photos and capture memories in the midst of its raw, untamed beauty.
For now, Khe Ram remains a wild gorge, marked mostly by the footprints of wanderers and a few pioneering efforts to develop homestays and eco-agriculture tourism. But it’s a destination with enormous potential. If properly promoted, Khe Ram—alongside the Cu De River, Truong Dinh, Nam Yen, and Ta Lang Gian Bi—could, within a few years, transform Hoa Bac’s countryside into a magnet for ecotourism and nature lovers.
—
Mr. Old Man, October 2019
