Sitting by the fire telling stories of the mountains and forests

In the middle of Ba Be - the green pearl of the Northeast region, there is a Dao man who left the mountains and boldly started a business in community tourism. From a rustic stilt house in the middle of Coc Toc village, Mr. Dang Van Hung - also known affectionately as Hung Man - has turned the dream of green tourism into reality, introducing international tourists to the ethnic identity, so that they can experience sitting by the fire and telling stories about the mountains and forests.

Ba Be Farmstay - traditional features in the mountains and forests.

Coc Toc is a lakeside village of Ba Be commune that has been peaceful for many years in the middle of the forest. Now, thanks to tourism , the village is gradually waking up. And the person mentioned most in this story of change is Hung Man - one of the first Dao people to bring Western tourists to the village.

More than ten years ago, Hung Man was just a Dao boy attached to the fields in Na Nghe village. One afternoon in May, while he was plowing the fields, a group of Western tourists went trekking by. They stopped to take pictures, chat, and then said: "You have such a beautiful house, why don't you open a homestay?" At that time, Hung didn't understand what "homestay" meant, he just smiled. But those words planted in him a bold idea: if foreigners like to come here, why don't we try to welcome them?

From that idea, Mr. Hung borrowed 100 million VND from the bank - almost all of his family's assets - to renovate the stilt house, add wooden beds, build a bathroom, learn a few English phrases to greet guests and start his journey in community tourism.

“The Dao people are used to living on the mountainside, but to do tourism, we have to be close to water,” Hung said. So he decided to go down the mountain and choose Coc Toc village, which has the best view of Ba Be Lake, to start over.

Ba Be farmstay is invested with modern facilities but still retains its identity.

With the hands and will of a highlander, Hung built Ba Be Farmstay - an ecological accommodation model imbued with local identity. Traditional wooden stilt houses interspersed with vegetable gardens, stone paths covered with green grass; all create a peaceful picture, where people and nature are in harmony. His Farmstay is not only a place to rest but also a place where visitors can experience indigenous life: picking vegetables, cooking, plowing fields, harvesting rice, learning folk songs, or sitting by the fire telling stories about the mountains and forests.

As the number of visitors increased, Hung realized that to retain international tourists, it was necessary to combine traditional identity with modern conveniences. He boldly invested in expanding Ba Be Farmstay, renovating the stilt house area, installing solar energy, building an ecological swimming pool in the middle of the garden, building a modern restroom while still maintaining the rustic wooden architecture.

Now, visitors to Ba Be Farmstay can swim in the pool in the middle of the mountains and forests, eat organic vegetables grown on site, participate in community activities such as pounding rice cakes, making corn wine, weaving brocade, or making a campfire listening to the flute and singing Tay, Nung, Mong, Dao folk songs. It is this harmonious combination that makes this place a special destination: both familiar and new, both imbued with "Vietnamese" but also professional and international.

The menu is beautiful and delicious.

Despite welcoming thousands of visitors each year, Hung’s farmstay only accepts a moderate number of guests to ensure a quiet space and a sustainable environment. Hung and the villagers agree to limit plastic waste, use traditional handicrafts, grow their own clean vegetables, raise fish, and provide green tourism services.

Nowadays, Ba Be Farmstay welcomes mostly tourists from Europe, America, Australia - people who love nature and local culture. Many tourists after returning home have introduced their friends to come back, even write articles and share pictures of Ba Be Lake on international travel forums.

“When Western tourists come back, they tell others about Ba Be and Vietnam. That is how we bring our homeland to the world without a big promotional campaign,” Hung said, his eyes shining with pride.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/van-hoa/du-lich-thai-nguyen/202511/ngoi-ben-bep-lua-ke-chuyen-nui-rung-6294988/