Welcoming us at Lo Lo Chai tourist village (Lung Cu commune, Dong Van district, Ha Giang province) was Ms. Vang Thi Xuyen, the owner of a homestay right at the entrance of the village. Ms. Xuyen is a Lo Lo ethnic, 31 years old and was born here. She and her husband, Mai Van Hien, 41 years old, manage a 3-storey, 15-room motel with catering services.
Four young people from Ho Chi Minh City in front of a homestay in Lo Lo Chai, they call this a million dollar view with Lung Cu flagpole in front.
"We borrowed money from the bank and gradually bought this 1,000 square meter plot of land. My house is normal because the investment is only over 2 billion, but in the village there are many houses with rammed earth walls and beautiful yin-yang tiled roofs," Ms. Xuyen said while serving 3-4 groups of guests checking in at the same time. Xuyen's homestay costs 500,000 VND per room, and guests come in droves, affirming that Lo Lo Chai has now become a "phenomenon" of tourism on the Dong Van stone plateau.
Chiéo pa and yzá pa become specialties
When I went to Lung Cu before, a border guard officer advised me not to go to Lo Lo Chai because the road was difficult to travel and this area was remote and close to the border. From the top of Lung Cu, looking north, I could only see Lo Lo Chai with rammed earth houses, roofed with yin-yang tiles and lots of peach blossoms blooming in the spring.
According to Ms. Xuyen, the Lo Lo people call the rammed earth house chiéo pa, and the yin-yang tiled roof yzá pa. Both are familiar "products" in the northern mountainous region, both are made of earth in a rudimentary, manual way. However, when the economy improves, the mountainous region also catches up with the lowlands with many solid concrete houses being built, then chiéo pa and yzá pa become specialties, in which Lo Lo Chai stands out because the community here knows how to preserve the highland culture, including architecture.
A yin-yang tiled roof - yzá pa - in Lô Lô Chải
The head of Lo Lo Chai village, Mr. Sinh Di Gai, the first person to do tourism in the village about 10 years ago, has called on the villagers not to destroy their rammed earth houses to build brick houses, not to replace the yin-yang tile roofs with corrugated iron roofs to preserve the landscape and attract tourists. Ms. Xuyen said this has become the "village covenant" of the village, committed by the families.
Deputy Secretary of Lung Cu Commune Party Committee Ta Quang Tien, a seconded border guard officer, excitedly said: "No one thought Lung Cu would have such beautiful views before, but now it does. At night, Lo Lo Chai is very sparkling. That architecture, that voice, that costume is our OCOP. Hunger eradication and poverty reduction also starts from there." In the past, visitors to Lung Cu only visited the flagpole and then returned, but now they can stay overnight, with tens of thousands of people staying here every year. Previously, vegetables, pigs and chickens grown by the locals had to be sold elsewhere, but now a day of tourism can consume two or three pigs and several hundred kilograms of vegetables.
"This is thanks to the efforts of many people. Starting with a Japanese man named Yasushi Ogura who loves the culture of the highlands and supports the Lo Lo Chai people in tourism, then came dedicated people like Mr. Sinh Di Gai, Secretary of the Party Committee of Chu Van Huong Commune or Vice Chairman of Dong Van District Nguyen Van Chinh. I personally went directly to the village to persuade the people to move their barns and keep the environment clean so that we could have visitors," Mr. Tien added, and said that everything went smoothly, the only difficulty was that this area often lacked water during the dry season.
In particular, Secretary Chu Van Huong revealed that it was the architecture and culture in Lo Lo Chai that helped this village achieve the 3-star OCOP (One Commune One Product) title. Mr. Huong also said that Lung Cu has another tourist village that promises to be very famous, which is Then Pa Village.
Ms. Hoang Thi Lanh, receptionist of Then Pa Village, leads guests to visit the village.
Turning a cowshed into a tourist room
Then Pa Village, a "5-star" tourist village as Mr. Huong said, is located near the foot of Dragon Mountain with Lung Cu flagpole and many straight sa moc trees. Along the neat paths are rammed earth houses with yin-yang tiled roofs running around the foot of the mountain, looking up is the flagpole. Just as Mr. Huong jokingly said: "The villagers have turned the cowshed into a tourist accommodation", I only saw a fairly clean cowshed here, as if to recreate the traditional living space of the Mong people, the rest were moved far away, making room for accommodation.
The village receptionist is a beautiful and polite 18-year-old Day girl, Hoang Thi Lanh. Lanh took me to visit some pretty nice bungalows with high-end furniture next to the rammed earth houses with yin-yang tiled roofs and homestay signs with the owner's name on them, decorated in front with pumpkins, corn, baskets, and farming tools. Everything is very clean. There is a restaurant and bar area at the end of the village.
Mr. Vang Cha Sy, 58 years old, one of the people who owns a house to rent out rooms, said that the village has only been operating for a little over a month. Mr. Sy's house has a communal room with 6 bedrooms and has welcomed guests for 120,000 VND per person per day and night. "Just clean and tidy up and guests will come and stay, they will compliment the beauty. I don't have to spend anything but still get money," Mr. Sy happily said.
Mr. Vang Cha Sy's homestay in Then Pa village
In the village, I met Nguyen Sy Duc, a 28-year-old man from Bac Ninh who loves highland culture and is the village manager. Duc said that the Then Pa tourist village project was supported by a businessman from the lowlands named Vu Gia Dai. This is a "risky" investment project when Mr. Dai invested in the common landscape and mobilized the whole village to do tourism, at the same time directly built bungalows on the land of some households and handed them over to their families to manage, then share the profits. Mr. Duc and Ms. Lanh are the ones who directly manage the activities of the whole village. They will organize marketing, welcome guests and regulate so that all families have their interests in a harmonious way.
It is a pity that when I arrived at Then Pa, the village had just opened to welcome visitors, so there was not much information about revenue and sales. However, I believe what Mr. Huong said, if you want a crowded place, go to Lo Lo Chai, and if you want something more upscale and quiet, go to Then Pa. This tourist village will certainly be famous and crowded in the near future.
According to Lung Cu Commune Party Secretary Chu Van Huong, in 2017, the province had a policy of supporting and mobilizing businesses to participate in tourism development in Lung Cu, and the Commune Party Committee also had a resolution identifying tourism as a spearhead. Now, Lo Lo Chai alone has more than 40 households providing tourism services.
The commune has not yet collected taxes and fees from households doing tourism, but is asking for permission to sell entrance tickets and build a parking lot for visitors to Lo Lo Chai.
As for Then Pa, Mr. Huong said that this village is still beautiful and does professional tourism, of course it is more expensive than Lo Lo Chai, promising to be a place to live slowly for those who have the conditions and need quiet.
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