In the early days of 2021, Pixar's animated film "Soul" was released and created a huge buzz about the journey to find the meaning of life (or "spark of life") of souls, especially soul number 22. Coincidentally, we also arrived at homestead Libra Valley on January 22, 2020, bringing with us confusion and concerns about our current life.
We believe in coincidences, consider it fate. And the miracle of this “fate” really brought us new emotions, and a valuable experience at Libra Valley - a garden house about 15 kilometers from the center of Da Lat.
Libra Valley and the homestead model
Early that morning, Ms. Thanh introduced us to the Agriculture team, including An and Kien. The morning activities would be tilling the soil, sowing seeds, then cutting grass for compost. The work sounded simple, but we had to struggle all morning before we could even begin to get used to holding a hoe or using a sickle.
After finishing work, An took us around the Libra Valley's farming area. In our opinion, An is a simple and gentle Hue girl. An knows that her voice is hard to hear, so she had to try very hard to explain and briefly tell us about the work that the group had done to improve the soil.
Before implementing the Libra Valley project, this land had been used to grow coffee for many years, so the soil was no longer fertile, along with the difficulty of the steep terrain, making fertilization and irrigation difficult. Especially in the rainy season, water would wash away all the fertility and fertilizer. The lush green vegetable plots or the sturdy chayote growing on the trellises were the result of the labor of both An and Kien's group. Ms. Thanh joked with the two that Kien and An considered Libra Valley as a giant laboratory where they could freely use their knowledge of agriculture to experiment with seedling incubation or planting.
Libra Valley is a rare accommodation that operates on a resort model.homestead. Simply put,homesteadis a country house with a large garden space, andhomesteadingis a self-sufficient lifestyle, respecting nature. If homestay brings visitors local experiences, homestead will focus on lifestyle.
This model is still very new in Vietnam, Libra Valley can be considered one of the pioneers. Coming here, people will be close to nature, do simple jobs, live "basically" to have time to listen and understand themselves better.
After a morning of hard work, the two of us realized that the human soul was like this barren land, and of course so were our souls. Every time the hoe touched the ground, our souls were also loosened, waiting to be watered, to be sown so that life could sprout from deep within.
WHEN LOVE IS BORN FROM THE BARRY SOIL
In addition to managing Libra Valley, Ms. Thanh also opened a small cafe inside the valley, which also served food and drinks to visitors, called Crazy Dreamer. Here, the two of us continued to meet many other interesting young people.
In addition to the homestead staff, there is also a force of volunteers. Through our conversations, we also found ourselves in your troubles. City life brings abundance, but the hustle and bustle sometimes brings suffocation and pressure.
Nhu Tri, a young man with a bright face, hard-working and lovable. When interacting with Tri, we clearly see the word “calm”. That calmness comes from practicing, accumulating experiences from trips away from home. You said that you used to work as an employee at a large corporation, but you had to quit because you could not connect yourself with the work you do. You were afraid of the “pollution” in the city: in terms of human personality, in terms of sound, and in terms of energy. Then you gave up that stability to continue your life journey in peaceful (and limited) places.
Or Thanh (a friend with the same name as Ms. Thanh), also had good results in her career. In Thanh, although the two sides did not share much, we still felt the word "patience" very specifically, and did not understand why. But what is emotion, how can we describe it in words! She came to volunteer for a week, then a few weeks, and by the time we met, it had been more than half a year.
As for Ms. Thanh, we see a simple but truly passionate “love”, like being awake but “crazy”. She seeks nature, or she also seeks herself.
The last person we want to mention is Ai, the bartender of Crazy Guy. You are the most different person in the group because you come from this place, Da Lat city. Your tough, thorny, tattooed appearance is completely different from the warm heart inside. Meeting Ai, we feel like drinking a glass of wine in the cold weather. Cold, then warm!
In the evening, everyone gathered around a pot of wine cooked with fragrant herbs. But the wine would not be delicious without the most valuable ingredient - each person's story, which was heated up with the pot of wine. And that was just the beginning! Ai gave us another set of five special wines created by herself and used them to tell the story of "first love" in turn. Ai used her own life story to tell and persuade everyone to open up to drink and share their stories in each flavor. You know, it would be difficult for someone to open up to participate in similar activities, but that night we really immersed ourselves in it and opened our hearts.
On the way back to our room, we told each other that although we had been to many places and had many similar exchange nights, perhaps this night was the most memorable. Because from heart to heart, from one person's sharing leads to another's sharing. There is no boundary between guest and host, but only similar souls meeting and inspiring each other to heal.
a new way of life
Homestead may still be a new concept in Vietnam, butfarmstayYou must have heard of it. Farmstay is larger in scale and has a more unified system, while homestead is more about houses and "small" gardens. In general, both of these accommodation models are closely connected to nature and bring a wonderful serenity. Now, when the trend of "leaving the city to return to the countryside" is gradually being chosen by many young people, this house-garden model is no longer a simple accommodation service. It has become a way of life.
Both the homestead and farmstay models are closely connected to nature and bring wonderful serenity.
If you are looking for information for a “homestay” trip, you will easily find accommodation in Moc Chau, Dak Lak, Da Lat or the Western provinces. Because of the need for large areas for accommodation and farming and livestock raising activities, these locations are often near forests, lakes, rivers and streams. Agricultural products harvested from gardens/farms will also be used to prepare meals for guests.
Due to soil conditions, climate and agricultural advantages, farmstays (or homesteads) will be built in a diverse and flexible way according to regional characteristics. In the Mekong Delta, there are sometimes houses with coconut leaves or bamboo bungalows; in the Northern mountainous region, there are sometimes modern resorts or traditional rammed earth houses; you can also see campers or containers that have been refurbished and used as bedrooms in Da Lat, etc.
Chay Lap Farmstay - a unique farmstay model in Quang Binh (photo: Internet)
The agricultural activities organized in farmstay/homestead are also diverse - from catching fish, picking plums, picking avocados, to sowing seeds, plowing, depending on the season and specialties of each region. We used to stay in the middle of an avocado forest in Bao Loc, a lotus field in Dong Thap..., waking up in a fresh, green space, or watching the twinkling stars at night. Although not too new, it is still a rare and precious experience in this modern era.
