Da Mi, where visitors come to

With 2,500 hectares of Ham Thuan Lake and 600 hectares of Da Mi Lake, Da Mi Commune not only has the advantage of a cool climate and attractive garden fruits, but also has a unique feature that cannot be found anywhere else. And now, more visitors are coming back, not only to stay...

Resort

The road to group 1, Da Tro village (Da Mi commune, Ham Thuan Bac) is muddy and slippery with red soil due to the rain last night and the previous days, which seems to contrast with the houses with unique and luxurious architecture located on it. On this side of the road, the beautiful houses are almost all arranged to face the road, looking down at Ham Thuan lake. Every house has zigzag steps, to limit the steep slope of about a few dozen meters to reach the water's edge. For the rest, nature has arranged it so perfectly that visitors only need a place to sit under the water's edge to want to explore and experience. And at the heart of this road, which is actually the backbone of a range of hills, the reclamation work has been completed at some point, so that now, anyone who comes here feels like they are standing in the middle of a charming feng shui painting. Because in front of you can see the deep blue Ham Thuan lake, the color of the water mixed with the color of the sandbanks, adding to the endless mystery. Behind, below, are durian, avocado, and coffee gardens stretching to the foot of Highway 55, a road that, near the border with Loc Nam commune, Bao Lam district (Lam Dong), suddenly becomes straight like a silk strip across the hillside.

In the scene above, the farmer with a wide-brimmed hat and high boots stained with red soil suddenly appeared, reminding me of what the durian seller said earlier, that this was a neighborhood of the rich. And the rich were gardeners? “What rich, miss? I work for the government, retired and came here for nearly ten years now, bought 2 hectares of land to grow rubber, and recently planted durian. This year, durian is expensive, but the house is not profitable, because the hundreds of trees have not yet borne fruit. Hey, how can this prefabricated house be called rich?” - The farmer denied it vehemently, but also said that he only came here to see how the garden was. The same goes for the owners of those beautiful houses, usually on weekends or holidays, their families gather here to relax. Although they are in the same neighborhood, because of such living conditions, they rarely see each other. I only know that they live in the city. HCM City found them, some were business owners, some were doctors, some were engineers, some were journalists... They randomly gathered here at the end of 2020, the time when in HCM City, the Covid-19 epidemic broke out horribly. Between that line of life and death, people realized how dangerous the crowding in a big city was. In case the epidemic broke out again... We had to find a way out so that when there was an incident, we would know how to return.

And Da Mi, where the climate is similar to Da Lat, the scenery is even more attractive, especially for those who love steep hills, wild rivers and lakes, and most of all, there are few people, close to Ho Chi Minh City, so it has attracted people with conditions to come here to build a second home for vacation. Despite having to buy land with hand-written documents, because up to now, 90% of the people in the commune do not have a red book. Despite having to use rainwater, lake water... But it's okay, it's slowly being overcome. Last year, they dug up, contributed and the whole group 1 agreed to pool money to lower the electric battery, a very normal thing to do in other places, but here, when this house is separated by a hillside, a durian garden... it is a big deal. After more than 20 years of establishing Da Mi commune, now group 1 has just escaped the scene of flickering electric lights at night, stopping the scene of one house watering durian, this house has to stop cooking rice, because the electricity is weak and cannot ripen it.

I want to do tourism

However, the weak electricity situation still exists in Da Mi. Not only because of the large terrain and sparse housing, but also because the people in the commune are still worried about food and clothing, a typical worry that is always deep in the minds of nomads. Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune Nguyen Anh Toan, who has worked in Da Mi for the past 19 years, told about the formation process of this commune, which has only been established for 22 years. Because he has been attached to it since the early precarious days of the new land, in each development of time he told, it was almost all about the story of visitors coming back and staying and the worry of escaping poverty. "Currently, the whole commune has 1,349 households, of which 93 are poor households, 67 are near-poor households, 356 are households with an average living standard, and the rest are households with a fairly good and rich living standard. That is the result after 22 years of Da Mi commune being formed, starting after the construction of the two hydroelectric reservoirs Ham Thuan and Da Mi". Mr. Toan emphasized that the first class of citizens of the commune were workers who participated in the construction of the hydroelectric project and chose to stay instead of returning to their hometowns. After that, the good news about the land spread far and wide, and their families and relatives came here to settle down. And many people decided to stop living in Da Mi for different reasons, causing Da Mi to become more crowded day by day, creating the characteristics of people from all over the country. On their journey to the new land, they brought with them and planted all kinds of fruit trees from different regions here. But up to now, there are only 3 main crops including coffee, durian, and avocado. Accordingly, beautiful fruit gardens have also appeared.

This year, the price of durian bought at the garden here ranges from 45,000-65,000 VND/kg, an increase of 15,000-20,000 VND/kg... making the lives of the people here better. And everyone feels that the price is contributed by the sudden increase in tourists coming to Da Mi since the April 30 holiday, thanks to visiting the garden to buy fruits, after admiring the scenery of the 2 lakes, rowing boats, fishing, hunting clouds... With 2,500 hectares of Ham Thuan Lake, 600 hectares of Da Mi Lake, Da Mi commune not only has the advantage of a cool climate, attractive garden fruits but also has a unique feature that cannot be found anywhere else. “During the dialogue with the people about socio-economic development, in addition to the petition for granting land certificates, borrowing capital, etc., the people began to have the desire to develop tourism. On agricultural land for tourism, the commune is waiting for guidance from Resolution 82. On energy land, namely on the two lakes of Ham Thuan and Da Mi, the commune recently accompanied the district delegation to work with the Da Nhim - Ham Thuan - Da Mi Hydropower Joint Stock Company to find a direction for tourism development” - Mr. Toan said with concern, because recently, the commune has had spontaneous tourism services around the lakes to serve the influx of visitors during the holidays. Now that visitors keep coming, what will Da Mi commune do?

The farmer in the rich neighborhood wondered that since 2019, Vietnam Electricity Group has issued a document and Da Nhim - Ham Thuan - Da Mi Hydropower Joint Stock Company has requested the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Binh Thuan province to guide the company on procedures to not hand over/lease the reservoir land and complete the necessary legal procedures related to the management and use of the Ham Thuan - Da Mi hydropower reservoir land. If implemented, there will still be reservoir land taken out of the energy land for people to apply to rent for tourism purposes, why not?

Unable to hide my surprise, I asked him if he wasn’t a farmer and didn’t know his name. But he laughed heartily and said if he wasn’t a farmer, why would he have to wear boots to water durian?

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