Buon Ma Thuot - sunrise

Don't know the answer to your first and last questions, but for your second one, it's a quiet city with deliberately slow development.  There are few apartment buildings because condo living isn't a popular practice there.

Aside from tribal nations, residents are divided into two groups: Northerners who migrated in 1954 and Northerners who migrated in 1975.  Southern accent is practically non-existent.  Residents are multi-generational, there are not many newcomers.  Young people went to big cities to seek jobs as young people often do, but most found themselves happily going back home to stay. 

The city is clean overall.  Rush hour traffic means slower moving but doesn't last long.  I was told that commuting during rush hour means 15 minute delay in arrival.  Proportionately, there are more cars than motorbikes.  Drivers are considerate.   

There's not a whole lot of things to do beside sightseeing and light hiking.  It's a good place to raise a family but not an ideal place to live if one desires an active social life.

Thankyou, 1954= Catholic;  1975 = poor communist?? My family are both so I should fit right in hah.

Perhaps it's more relevant to another thread but I know whiteys aren't supposed to stray too far from the city. We are supposed to get permits or something to go into the hinterlands/highlands.

I'll probably have to do yet another scambodia trip and apparently there aren;t even any border crossings..........even Pleiku has that.

The cause for mass migration in 1954 is easy to understand.  The much smaller mass migration in 1975 happened when the government encouraged residents of the area known as Bắc Trung Bộ (North Central) to homestead in Đắk Lắk Province of which BMT is the capital.  After so many years, the homesteaders were granted the deed to any property that they actively cultivated.  That program gave the government free labour to a vast undeveloped area.  The homesteaders' benefits were the chance to leave their disaster-prone hometowns to make a new life in a region that has always been free from Mother Nature's wrath, and to own land that they couldn't afford otherwise.  It's a win-win situation.

You can get to Cambodia on foot without actually leaving BMT because the border runs through Yok Don National Park, but I'm sure that's not what you meant (no border control in the park) 

The "whiteys shouldn't stray far from the city" is a hoax.  Foreigners do not need any permit for a walkabout, but as Đắk Lắk Province is still wild in parts, they do need a licensed guide to avoid being lost, stranded, or trespassing into areas that are closed to the public.