This article was first published by our friends at The International Ecotourism Society, who have agreed to its republication here. View the original article on their Your Travel Choice blog.

I do not believe that anywhere in the world an area with the fame and beauty of Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, is not accompanied by high prices and hidden extra charges, such as an extra US$20 to switch the air-conditioning on or 5,000 Vietnamese dong ‘service charge’ for every drink that has not been purchased aboard a boat. My faith in Vietnam, however, remains firm despite travellers’ criticisms, as I feel that I have seen the real Vietnam and that money is at the bottom of its priorities.

Eating as the Vietnamese do in Giao Xuan

I refer to my visit to Giao Xuan, a small town a few hours bus drive from Hanoi. I had arranged to stay two nights with a local family in the town. There is a number of such homestays offered within the community at very reasonable prices (50,000 dong/US$2-3 per person per night) and in my opinion it is one of the best ways to really get a feel for Vietnamese culture and way of life.

Community-based ecotourism has been facilitated in Giao Xuan by NGOs, such as Volunteers for Peace in Vietnam and the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development, which aim to reduce the strain on local natural resources. They do this by promoting hospitality as an alternative income to destructive fishing and aquaculture techniques that have damaged the nearby Xuan Thuy National Park. The money paid to the host family stays in the community and does not go to any sort of global corporation. What is more a percentage of any income from tourism in the town goes towards a local community development fund.

During my homestay, I felt like a member of the family rather than just another customer. Although all the meals at the homestay are paid for by the visitor (again at reasonable prices) my host was only too happy to share as much of his home-brewed rice wine as I could consume. In hindsight it may have been better to have firmly refused to drink any more at an earlier stage of the night!

A typical traditional Giao Xuan house

The house at which I stayed was a traditional Vietnamese country house, as are all the homestays offered in Giao Xuan. Breakfast and lunch were eaten in the house’s communal living room and dinner was eaten on a mat in the courtyard watching the sunset. Although tour guides can be hired from the town, my personal experience was that the prospect of learning about another culture firsthand was incentive enough for the local people to offer an in-depth tour completely free of charge.

I visited the Xuan Thuy National Park, Vietnam’s first Ramsar site [added in 1989 to the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance] and a real haven for bird watchers. I also saw some of Giao Xuan’s beautiful pagodas and modern churches. Another amazing sight was the clam fields – miles and miles of knee-high water with stilted huts as far as the eye could see.

The Sa Nam pagoda in Giao Xuan

I was also astonished by the friendliness of the local people despite the frequently present language barrier. When leaving a beautiful nature reserve I had been visiting with a newfound local friend, I met the owner of the reserve and a nearby farm arriving back from a wedding. He invited me to come and drink green tea with him, which then led to more rice-wine drinking whilst he asked me as many questions as he could think of about life back in England. This may have been only 150km from Hanoi but it was 1,000,000km from the world of service charges and bottled water for the price of a hotel room!

My collective experience in Giao Xuan felt like I was finally unravelling Vietnam, breaking past the facade of the vending booths at Ha Long Bay or Sapa and beginning to see and understand the real Vietnam and the real Vietnamese way of life. Isn’t having Vietnam bare its soul to you worth travelling a few hours from Hanoi and missing out on a few days of air conditioning?

More Information

For accommodation and tour bookings in Vietnam, whl.travel has an extensive presence, anchored in 16 destinations, although not yet in Giao Xuan. The local connections available through whl.travel are part of the growing attention to authentic travel experiences like those enjoyed by Rob Bailey, the author of this piece.

In 2009, Rob Bailey, Rob Bailey was 20 and a history student at the University of Wales Cardiff. He spent one month of his summer break volunteering and travelling in Vietnam.

The International Ecotourism Society

The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) is a non-profit association committed to promoting responsible tourism practices that benefit conservation and communities. Representing the voices of stakeholders from all corners of the world, TIES' global network supports and is supported by members from over 90 countries, who are leading the vital efforts to make travel and tourism more sustainable. Your Travel Choice Blog is an interactive platform supporting TIES' mission to engage, educate and inspire everyone to make travel choices that make a difference.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 4:36 am and is filed under the following categories: