Childhood memories come flooding back at "Ba Dat"
Ba Dat Eco homestay is located in Hamlet 2, Hieu Liem Commune, Vinh Cuu District, Dong Nai Province, on the shore of Tri An Lake, about 70 km from Saigon. This place is known by many tourists and is chosen as a weekend getaway, to experience life with simple people. Tourists temporarily want to leave the crowded city to find peace and quiet.
Arriving at Ba Dat, all the hustle and bustle of life, the daily pressures seem to disappear and instead is the smell of the homeland, the rustic space. Every visitor feels like they are rewinding time to return to childhood memories.
This is a suitable homestay for weekends, for those who want to temporarily leave the crowded, bustling and noisy city to find peace and quiet.
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hieu is the founder of Ba Dat Eco homestay. Since he was a child, he and his family moved to Dong Nai to live and start a business on his homeland. After working for the government, in 2012, he decided to step out of his comfort zone to start his journey to pursue his passion for building an ecological area and community tourism in the mountains and forests of Tri An lake. Homestay aims to connect with nature, heal and balance body - mind - spirit through experiences.
“It took me 5 years to realize that I was doing community tourism, a homestay that combines nature connection, community experience and therapy,” said Dinh Hieu.
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hieu is the founder of Ba Dat Eco homestay.
Ba Dat Eco has an area of about 2,000 m2built in the form of community tourism model. Here, visitors will rest and relax right in the house where Ba Dat has lived for a long time.
The space of Ba Dat Eco homestay is like a Northern countryside village appearing in the Southeast region with simple houses with bamboo walls. Bamboo, reed, and wood are the main materials that make up the house, so it always brings a sense of familiarity and closeness but is also no less convenient and modern. The architecture is based on the traditional stilt house style of the Cho Ro people. Mr. Dinh Hieu has also made many improvements to make the house suitable for tourists coming here to relax.
Homestay is built in the style of a stilt house of the Cho Ro people.
Below the stilt house is a common living area for visitors with hammocks hung under the cool shade of trees. Tea tables are placed there, bringing relaxation to everyone. In the kitchen, instead of using a gas stove, firewood is used to light the fire under a cast iron pot.
Hammocks hung under the stilt house - a place for relaxation for all visitors
Ba Dat Eco is considered a place for tourists to return to their childhood, experience the rustic, simple space from wood stoves, cast iron pots...
One special thing compared to other accommodation places is that at Ba Dat Eco homestay, the food is seasonal. That is, the food is seasonal, the food is based on the market and there is no set menu. The food prepared for the guests is also fertilized daily by Ba Dat in her garden, along with clean local agricultural products.
Seasonal and local food trays
All visitors will sit together at a set time to eat. Meals will be outdoors to be closer to nature. Everyone will enjoy rustic dishes together, chatting, sharing, and connecting with each other.
“The space of Ba Dat Eco is different from other hotels or resorts in that there is no privacy at all. Coming here, you will eat at the same table, do activities at the same time, walk barefoot on the floor… to connect with each other more. After waking up one night, everyone will tell stories about meals or sleep, stories that evoke childhood memories… All of which bring about a common connection between people,” Mr. Dinh Hieu shared.
At Ba Dat Eco homestay, all guests sit together and eat at a predetermined time.
Ba Dat Eco has no air conditioning, only fans and cold water. Visitors who need hot water will have the opportunity to go into the garden to pick herbs, grapefruit, lemon, lemongrass and boil them themselves with rustic tools on a wood stove.
Guests participate in the Inside Your Outside therapy course
Watching the sunset on the dike
Visitors to Ba Dat Eco not only stop at the accommodation but also participate in and experience many interesting activities: walking barefoot on the volcanic stone floor to help blood circulation, good treatment and good sleep; watching the sunrise or sunset outside the dike, cycling to explore around the villages about the indigenous life of the people here, SUP rowing on Tri An lake, trekking, organizing team building activities...
Ba Dat - the name was inspired by her mother
Ba Dat Eco was built in 2012, inspired by Mr. Hieu's mother, the owner of the house, a simple, honest Northern woman who loves gardening and takes care of every corner of the house from morning to night even though she is 75 years old. Her husband compared her personality to being as gentle as the earth, so the name "Ba Dat" was born from that.
Ba Dat Eco is named after the owner of the house, a simple Northern woman and "Ba Dat" is also the mother of Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hieu.
All the work of growing vegetables, raising animals, cleaning, cooking dishes to entertain and eat with guests like family is done by the capable hands of Ba Dat. At the homestay, which welcomes both Vietnamese and Western guests, Ba Dat welcomes visitors with a warm and friendly heart, making visitors want to come back many times.
Surrounding space at Ba Dat Eco homestay
Mr. Dinh Hieu said: “Coming to Ba Dat, being in a space connected with nature and rediscovering childhood memories is also a form of experience. The floor is paved with red bricks so visitors can walk barefoot, which is very good for health and is rarely encountered in the city. Or connecting with nature, restoring the senses through trees is also a way to bring positive energy. The value of Ba Dat does not lie in material things but in other values, only those who are sensitive or observant enough can realize it.”
Bamboo, reed and wood are the main materials that make up the house, so they always bring a familiar feeling.
Far from the modern life with full amenities in the city, Ba Dat Eco brings a rustic life, but here connects people more, an emotional space for visitors to easily touch their senses.
Setting foot in Ba Dat, all the hustle and bustle of life and daily pressures seem to disappear, replaced by the smell of homeland.
Ba Dat Eco homestay is not only a destination for families with many generations gathering around a cast iron rice pot, a wood stove, barefoot on a terracotta floor, a vegetable garden, a fish pond... but also a place to welcome you back home in the midst of a busy life or a destination for balance in body, mind and spirit.
“Experience, travel a lot and be yourself. Everyone has a mission and meaning in life, so be confident in experiencing and discovering your abilities,” said Nguyen Dinh Hieu.
