Thai women in traditional costumes perform a folk dance (Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn) Nghe An (VNA) - As the sunshinewaned, Lo Thi Hoa and her sister, looking fresh in traditional Thai costumes,prepared food to welcome guests to their stilt house in Nua Village.
Inside the kitchen, three women in Hoa’s groupwere cooking food in several big pots on firewood while others were busyboiling water, cleaning vegetables and marinating meat. A dozen traditionaldishes had to be served in just an hour.
Hoa knew everything should be prepared well asher Hoa Thu (Thu Flower) home-stay in the village in the central province ofNghe An’s Yen Khe commune. She would help host 40 guests for dinner and about20 would stay overnight.
As the guests arrived, Hoa and other women welcomedthem with cheerful salutes in Thai language and the soft and loud rhythm of thegongs. Guests were invited to wash their hands and face and relax in the oldstilt house.
Right on time dinner was served. All dishes werelocal specialities that come from the forest and the river.
Dishes included com lam (sticky ricecooked in bamboo stick), moc (a special mixture of meat, vegetablesand sticky rice which is covered inside banana leaves and steamed),stir-fried don (fern) vegetables, banana flower salad, boiled bambooshoots, charcoal grilled chicken marinated with honey and the wholegrilled mat fish. All were eye-catching and skillfully displayed onbamboo-woven trays lined with banana leaves.
"We have restored traditional Thai dishesand serve them in the old way, as how our ancestors did. For example, they atehealthy so we also learned to use less fat when cooking by steaming orgrilling,” Hoa said.
"The mat fish are caught in thenearby stream, while banana flowers and vegetables are picked from the garden.Free range chickens and pigs are also raised at home, so whenever we haveguests, we can serve local dishes right away,” she added.
As the guests enjoy traditional Thai cuisine,Hoa and her village sisters prepare for an art performance with folk songs anddances. Guests were also invited to join the bamboo dance, drink jar winethrough pipes and have a cotton cord tied around their wrists for luck andhappiness.
The night ended with the tipsy feeling of thewine taste and the bustling laughs of singing and dancing, that made the guestsgo into a deep sleep together on the wooden floor of the house.
Hoa’s house is one of three home-stays in Nuavillage that are part of the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA)’sproject for livelihood diversification through heritage tourism in remoteagriculture and fisheries villages.
Her house actually started to receive guestsince 2011 when a group of tourists came to the village and looked foraccommodation. Hoa opened her door for them and let them stay with her familyand enjoy the local dishes and learn about the culture of Thai people.
Hoa said before this, villagers only offeredwhat visitors asked for. But with the help from JICA’s expert, she learned thefirst lessons about community-based tourism, that natural landscapes andcommunity are the key.
Under JICA’s project, Hoa and other villagerswere sent to learn from other Thai village in the northern province of HoaBinh’s Mai Chau district. They were taught for the first time what tourism is,who tourists are, what the relationship between the host and the guests can beand how to maintain tradition along with with promoting tourism.
“We started to think about our potentials andhave ideas to apply into our Nua Village,” Hoa said.
Taking advantages of local landscapes, thefarmer-turn-tour organisers started to put other attractions in for guests tochoose from, such as swimming at the nearby Moc Stream, enjoying Khe KemWaterfall, riding on carriage pulled by buffalo or cow, catching fish bytraditional tools, experiencing Thai people’s farming as planting and weeding,and taking part in a wedding ceremony.
The community-based tourism group in Nua villagewere trained to cook and decorate Thái dishes traditionally, but still elegantly.A group of song and dance performers was also set up, attracting more localwomen to join in.
Vuong Thi Thuan, head of the Thai Folk SongsClub in the village, said that many members of her club were hesitant to singbefore.
“They were afraid that no one could understandthe lyrics of Thai songs so they refused to sing,” Thuan said, “But now theyunderstand that the guests like the performance and by singing the songs, theyalso help preserve the traditional culture.”
“Singing at night helps us forget all hardshipof day work,” Thuan said.
Japanese student Raito Hotta said thathe loved the friendly and smiley people in Nua village and would definitelycome back in future.
“I love the afternoon on the field. The darkmountains cover the rice fields, kitchen smoke from the floor spreads out inthe village,” he said. “The food is excellent with materials easy to findaround the village that I’ve never seen and tasted before,” he said, addingthat he loved the purple sticky rice the most.
In September last year, with the help of a JICAexpert, Hoa and other partner home-stays built clean toilets next to theirhouses to better serve guests.
“In order not to break the natural landscape,the substructure has only the inner core of concrete and standard sanitaryequipment, the roof is covered with palm leaves and roads are paved by thepebbles taken from the local Giang River,” Hoa said, adding that the toiletshelped guests feel more comfortable when staying in.
The toilets also have built-in bathroom withwater pumped directly from the nearby stream.
“We are keeping the surrounding as natural as wecan following advices from JICA expert as we know that is important tocommunity-based tourism,” she said.
Last year, three homestays in Nua Villagewelcomed more than 900 visitors, and since the beginning of this year, therehave been more than 1,200. Price for a meal varies according to demand. Itcan range from 80,000-200,000 VND per head while an overnight stay is at 60,000VND.
Hoa said that within two years, she had paid offher bank debt of 50 million VND (2,200 USD) thanks to tourism.
"In the past year, my family planted onetonne of rice a year, earning only 6 million VND. But since I became involvedin community-based tourism, I earn about 3 million VND a month, which is moreprofitable than farming," Hoa said, adding that she had suggested morepeople in the village to join in community-based tourism.
However, there are difficulties promotingcommunity-based tourism in Nua village as it is located in a remote area about130 kilometres from Vinh city.
“Despite potential, the number of tourists islimited and little promotion has been carried out,” said Vi Van Giao, thevillage chief.
Giao said that the village was doing its best topreserve traditional customs, especially folk songs, to contribute tocommunity-based tourism.
Local people also face difficulties in terms ofcapital as there is no credit programme for community tourism.
"We need long-term loans with low interestrates because promoting tourism takes time," Hoa said.
She still hope more people in Nua village willjoin in promoting tourism.
“I don’t mind the competition after more peoplejoin in as I believe community-based tourism will help increase villagers’income and raise awareness of locals about environmental protection andtraditional preservation,” she said.-VNA
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