Flowers in the mountain mist

"If you don't try, how do you know you can't do it?"

In 2014, the concept of community tourism was still very strange to the Tay people in Na Tong. When the district had a policy of developing community tourism, taking households with clean and beautiful stilt houses and spacious and airy grounds to renovate and transform them into places to welcome tourists, not many people wanted to do it.

Ms. Trieu Thi Xuong at the brocade stall.

The Tay people in Na Tong are hospitable, but also shy. When guests come to their house, the villagers are ready to welcome them with the best dishes, but asking them to welcome strangers to stay with them is a problem... Ms. Xuong is currently the Vice President of the Women's Association of Na Tong village. When reviewing households that are qualified to welcome guests, her house was in the Top of the most promising houses, because of its spacious area, airy and clean yard, and located right on the road leading to many famous landscapes of Lam Binh such as Khuoi Nhi Waterfall, Coc Vai, Ban Cai... At first, the couple was hesitant. "All their lives they have only known how to farm, now they are working in the West, they don't know what to do..." - Ms. Xuong shared.

But if you don't try, how do you know you can't do it? During the days of training for the women's union, the most popular saying of Uncle Ho among the women in the union was "... women must try to study. Study culture, study politics , study a career. If you don't study, you won't progress. If you are determined, you will definitely learn...". So the couple decided to "open up" this new endeavor.

The couple used 300 million VND of savings and bank loans to renovate the house and improve the yard. She said, at that time, she just thought, if she didn't succeed, she would at least have a nice house to live in.

In the first year, the family's income from tourism only reached 30 million VND.

I asked, 30 million VND, compared to 300 million VND spent, do you feel discouraged?

The woman laughed heartily and shook her head: In my mind, since I decided to follow this path, I have never felt discouraged. Because in the loss, there is gain, and I have gained a lot. In the classes to visit and learn experiences at famous community tourism spots in the North such as Ha Giang , Thai Nguyen, Hoa Binh organized by the province, district and commune, Ms. Xuong tried to arrange time to learn everything. "Traveling a day, learning a basket of knowledge", after each trip, she learned a little more about how to arrange the house, how to welcome guests, how to interact, chat and how to serve to please guests when they come, satisfy guests when they leave.

Visitors experience making cakes at Hoang Tuan Homestay.

Fire tests gold...

The trips helped Ms. Trieu Thi Xuong understand many things. The need of tourists when coming to highland villages and ethnic minority areas is to experience unique and distinctive cultural features.

Ms. Xuong displays the loom she used to weave in the most visible place. The rice mortar, mill, plow, harrow... seemingly rustic objects, turn out to be items that attract customers. The products used to serve customers are also prioritized to be made by the Tay people themselves, from blankets, pillowcases, sheets, mattresses to cups and bowls. In the Homestay area, Ms. Xuong has reserved a separate space to introduce products made from local brocade. The reasonable arrangement makes the booth a favorite highlight for most tourists coming to her family's Homestay.

Tourists experience activities at Hoang Tuan Homestay.

Her "throwing a spear, having to follow through" campaign is also getting more and more daring. Realizing that the trend of tourists loving community tourism and discovery tourism will increase, as the urbanization process and work pressure in urban areas increase, Ms. Xuong has invested more than 1 billion VND to upgrade the Homestay and expand the scale of the rooms. She said that in fact, the more she gets involved in tourism, the more she realizes that this is really a hard job, but suitable for her. This job not only helps her family earn income, but also gives her more experiences, the opportunity to broaden her horizons and become more confident than ever.

Ms. Xuong said that the story of tourism has started to flourish in the past 5 years. The number of visitors to Lam Binh has increased. The number of households providing services like hers has also increased continuously, from 4-5 households, now it has increased to 14-15 households. Families that do not welcome tourists, provide other services such as weaving brocade, providing agricultural products and bicycle and boat services and other services such as cooking and cleaning. With the experience of a predecessor, whoever needs anything, she enthusiastically supports, whoever does not need it, she also gives suggestions for corrections when she sees something unreasonable. She said, she is lucky to be the first to do it, now seeing those who come after her confused, she feels pity and worry! The pity is because she thinks of herself in her first years of taking the first steps, not knowing who to look to, learning from experience. The worry is that they think of immediate benefits and gradually erode and fade away the identity of her people. So I have to pay attention and remind.

Na Tong has now become a “must-see” tourist village for visitors to Lam Binh. Even more proud, this village was recently selected by the APEC Secretariat to promote tourism on the APEC website.

In the new sunlight, the graceful figure of a woman wearing the indigo costume of the Tay people quickly welcomed the group of guests who had just stopped their car in front of her house like a flower shadow in the mountain mist. Before saying goodbye, the woman smiled confidently, sharing her future plans, which were to return to her hometown to film her daily activities, to promote indigenous culture to visitors from afar.

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