Discover community tourism in Thach Lam commune

May Waterfall is as beautiful as a white silk strip, a tourist attraction that attracts visitors to visit and experience.

This April, when the weather is warm, it is also the peak season for community tourism in Thach Lam commune. The reason why this place attracts tourists is because of the May waterfall which still retains its pristine and majestic beauty. According to legend, May waterfall is also known as the "nine steps of love" waterfall. The waterfall is located in the middle of a primeval forest, pouring down from the top of Thach Lam mountain at a height of about 100m, with 9 steps overlapping each other, creating soft streams of water like the wavy lines of a white silk strip. In the past, May waterfall was a peaceful, clear, and gentle waterfall. Suddenly one day, nine fairies flew by here and stopped to bathe in this waterfall. While the fairies were bathing, the Jade Emperor called them back, the nine fairies hurriedly flew back to heaven, leaving behind nine footprints, becoming the nine steps of the waterfall and people called it "nine steps of love".

In 2019, May Waterfall was recognized as a provincial-level tourist destination by the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province. In 2022, May Waterfall is one of four famous waterfalls selected by Vietnam Post Corporation to issue a stamp set "Vietnam Waterfalls" to promote the image of the country, people and landscapes of Vietnam. This is not only an important milestone affirming the potential value of the commune's natural landscape, but also a "premise" for the locality to promote tourism development.

Based on that potential and advantage, the commune has promoted the propaganda and promotion of May waterfall tourism to a large number of tourists in and outside the province. Being a locality with a large population of Muong ethnic people, Thach Lam still preserves many unique cultural features of the Muong people such as: folk performances, gongs, lullabies, charms, Muong mo; folk games such as: playing mat, throwing con, shooting crossbows, swinging; special traditional dishes such as: sticky rice, hill chicken, buffalo meat with lom leaves, bitter leaf soup, rock snails, bitter bamboo shoots; brocade weaving... In addition, about 300 traditional stilt houses of the Muong people are preserved here. Some of these stilt houses are hundreds of years old. This is the "lever" for the commune to promote the development of community tourism with many unique experiential activities.

Over the years, the commune has always actively promoted and mobilized people to pay attention to building a new cultural and civilized lifestyle to promote the development of community tourism. At the same time, it has promoted and introduced tours and tourist routes connecting with tourist attractions in the commune; encouraged Muong people to preserve and promote the traditional cultural values ​​of their people; actively coordinated with the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to organize training courses on tourism development for local people... Every year, the commune also actively organizes the May Waterfall Cultural, Sports and Tourism Festival with many unique cultural and sports activities imbued with the culture of the Muong people, to attract tourists to visit and experience.

Thanks to these flexible and creative ways, community tourism in the commune is increasingly developing. Up to now, the whole commune has 20 households registered to do community tourism. In addition to ensuring the conditions and standards for accommodation and food for 30-40 regular tourists, households doing community tourism also increase the construction of tours combined with forms of experiencing gong performances, art performances, folk games of the Muong ethnic group, bringing visitors to directly visit the brocade weaving profession... In addition to households doing community tourism, the renovation of stilt houses, the renovation of the campus to create a bright, green, clean, and beautiful rural appearance is also of interest to many households in the commune, thereby leaving a good impression in the hearts of visitors.

Mr. Le Van Chien, a household doing community tourism in Thach Lam commune, said: “Realizing that community tourism in the commune is increasingly developing, with a large number of tourists coming to visit and stay, especially in the summer, my family has invested in renovating the stilt house and the campus to develop community tourism with the hope of earning more income and improving our lives; at the same time, it is also to maintain, preserve and promote the cultural values ​​of our people. To attract and best meet the accommodation needs of tourists, my family has focused on improving the quality of services, serving guests with accommodation, food and drinks at the most reasonable prices. Along with that, it is introducing and supporting guests to experience the life, work and learn about the traditional cultural identity of the local Muong people".

Community tourism is a type of tourism for tourists who like to explore, experience and learn about the customs and practices of local people. Participating in this type of tourism, tourists will directly live and work with the locals to discover unique indigenous cultures. Therefore, with the available potentials and advantages along with creative, friendly and hospitable tourism methods, community tourism in Thach Lam commune will certainly be an attractive destination and leave many good impressions in the hearts of tourists when they come to visit and experience.

Article and photos: Nguyen Dat

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/kham-pha-du-lich-cong-dong-o-xa-thach-lam-245249.htm