EDITORIAL NOTE

Many villages in Vietnam are becoming attractive destinations for domestic and international tourists. To preserve cultural identity, beautify the landscape, and create impressive tourist experiences, people have proposed unique 'village customs' and unanimously implemented them.

VietNamNet newspaper introduces some articles by tourists, sharing their impressions of tourist villages in the series of articles ' Strange customs in Vietnamese tourist villages '.

Tran Tan Tai (in Hai Phong) is a young YouTuber who owns a personal channel with nearly 40,000 followers, specializing in sharing videos with content exploring unique stories at home and abroad.

9X has set foot in 7 countries and provinces and cities across Vietnam to record and spread attractive travel stories and experiences.

Below is an interesting sharing by Tran Tan Tai about Aur village - the village known as "the cleanest in Vietnam".

If I hadn't gone and witnessed with my own eyes, experienced the daily life of the people in Aur village, I would hardly believe that such a "strange" and interesting village exists in Vietnam.

Aur village is located precariously on the top of Ngoc Linh mountain, more than 1,000m above sea level, in A Vuong commune, Tay Giang district, Quang Nam province. This is home to 98 people (23 households), who are Co Tu ethnic people.

To get to the village, I was lucky to meet Mai An (born in 2000, Co Tu ethnic, born and raised in the village) who helped me with directions and accompanied me throughout the 20km "walk" in the forest, crossing waterfalls.

We departed from Hoi An City at 3am, by motorbike, then crossed more than 100km of mountain pass to the foot of A Vuong 1 Bridge and walked from there to Aur Village. We traveled from 10am to 3pm to arrive.

Hai Phong boy discovers the "cleanest village in Vietnam"

What struck me as soon as I set foot in Aur village was the simple yet clean landscape. All the paths were made of raw earth but there was no litter or dead leaves.

My first impression of the village was exactly as everyone said. It is the “cleanest village in Vietnam” or also known as “miniature Singapore in Vietnam”.

Here, people encourage each other to raise awareness. Every house is cleaned regularly, and no litter is left, not even a plastic bag, fruit peel or piece of paper.

Anyone who litters will be punished by having to clean the whole village. Children are also taught from a young age to throw trash in the right place and keep the environment clean.

People even raise livestock and poultry far from their living areas, not allowing them to roam around or defecate indiscriminately. Thanks to this, both houses and common living spaces are kept clean.

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The areas in Aur village are kept clean.

In addition to the beautiful scenery, during the 2 short days of living with the locals, I also learned many other interesting things.

The village has no electricity, no trash, no phone signal. After about 6pm, people use solar lights. When using chainsaws, people use gasoline.

There is not even a market, a medical station or a road for vehicles to get around.

The only way to enter the village is a nearly 20km walking trail through primeval forests, wading through streams that flow day and night, and crossing hills covered in clouds all year round.

Although the road is inconvenient and somewhat difficult, in return, the affection and kindness of the villagers made me truly fascinated by this land, wanting to come back many more times before leaving.

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The road to Aur village is difficult but visitors do not want to leave once they arrive.

As the afternoon falls, the villagers of Aur bustle about carrying small trays towards the communal house. On the trays are bowls of rice, plates of vegetables, sometimes boiled chicken, grilled stream fish or smoked pork.

In a moment, dinner was served with delicious dishes typical of the village's culinary culture. I was warmly invited to come and have dinner.

This is the custom of “raising guests together” that the Co Tu people here have maintained for generations. According to the village chief, every time a guest visits, the whole village will contribute a little bit from each house, from a bowl of rice, a cup of wine, to a grilled fish... Depending on the occasion, each house can prepare one dish or two or three different dishes on each tray.

Young visitor experiences meal at community house of Aur village

During that meal in the village, I also experienced some beef dishes such as stir-fried beef intestines, minced tongue cooked with brain, grilled beef skin...

These are two dishes that villagers consider to be specialties and the best to treat guests visiting from afar.

Because of the delicious and fun meal, I drank until I was quite drunk and slept until 7am. After that, I also had breakfast with Mai An's family.

The meal was simple but enough to make me feel new and attractive, including dishes such as field mouse meat, fern leaves, and grilled stream fish.

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Aur villagers prepare to offer new rice

Not only that, I also participated in the new rice offering ceremony of the Co Tu ethnic group, which included two dishes: boiled chicken and hot rice. After this offering ceremony, the villagers could eat new rice.

Every moment in Aur village was truly worth it for me. The people were friendly, affectionate and enthusiastic. When I left, the whole village came out to see me off.

I have been to many places, visited many remote villages in Vietnam but Aur village is still the place that gives me the most special feelings. The “strange” and interesting things here will become beautiful memories that I will never forget.

Photo: Tran Tan Tai

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