Back to A Luoi - the far west of Thua Thien

The first time I went to A Luoi was more than 15 years ago.

Back then, I drove alone from Minsk to A Hua village - a village of the Ta Oi people nestled under the old forest, half a day's walk from Hamburger Hill.

I brought some necessities bought with my scholarship to give to the children in that village, where my department head used to go to guide the villagers to do community tourism.

Picking me up along the road to the village that afternoon was a Ta Oi policeman, who, after a long time of questioning me thoroughly, provided me with information. Being a border point (Laos), ensuring security in the border area meant that procedures to go to A Luoi or other villages in the district previously required full documentation according to regulations. I told him my teacher’s name, so the policeman led me straight to the village’s stilt house, and then he called the village chief to… receive the person!

The village chief appeared, and before I could say anything, he smiled from afar. He heard that I was a student of the teacher who had come to the village to teach the villagers, so he shook my hand and greeted me warmly, as if we had known each other for a long time. Then the gentle village chief went to the corner of the yard in front of the stilt house and rang the gong to signal to the villagers that today the village would be welcoming guests to stay.

That night, the children in the village were brought by their parents to the stilt house. The youth association helped me distribute food to the children. Then, late at night, all the children followed their parents home, while the youth were assigned to sleep in the stilt house with me. The boys lay in one row, the girls in another, facing each other, chatting in Ta Oi language like a song that lulled me to sleep in the typical cold weather of the mountainous region.

The next morning, at around 7am, I woke up and saw breakfast already prepared in the middle of the stilt house. A Zich, a girl from the Arts team, was the one who prepared the food for me, including sticky rice, grilled meat wrapped in leaves, and the Ta Oi dipping sauce. In her traditional Zeng (brocade) outfit that she had woven herself, A Zich shyly introduced the specialties of her people. Only later did I know that, to have that breakfast, A Zich had walked nearly 10km to the market to buy pork to make breakfast for me.

That year’s trip to A Hua village left a deep impression on the hospitality and kindness of the people there. Returning many times, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends or with tourists, I am always excited to return to this mountainous region.

Trip after the epidemic

On this occasion, when post-pandemic travel was under control, I took 3 families from Hue to A Luoi to visit. Army's family, Lily's family and Bao Bao's family were all excited, partly because after days of staying at home during the pandemic, and partly because I sometimes heard me talk about A Luoi so I also wanted to go to learn more about the beauty of my hometown Thua Thien. A Luoi, located about 70 kilometers from Hue city center, is a place that contains many interesting things about the life and culture of the people living along the Western Truong Son range.

After 9am, after a comfortable meal, the whole group left the city, each family had their own car to drive. The road from Hue city to A Luoi along Highway 49 was resurfaced very "smoothly". After about 2 hours of driving, crossing 3 mountain passes, winding along a few streams, a few villages on the way, we arrived at Bot Do intersection.

The place I chose for the whole group to stay this time was nearby, at a house named Hachi.

Hachi was originally a wooden house of the Ta Oi people in the village, transformed by the SiLaa Architecture team and breathed new life into it, thanks to the combination of old wooden materials and creative architectural thinking, promoting indigenous cultural elements.

The house has enough space for a group of less than 10 people to stay together, with a kitchen with windows overlooking the airy garden, and a bathroom with a hot water heater. The porch surrounding the house is filled with morning or evening sunlight, a place to sit and read a book or make coffee and chat - both public and private spaces are available. The wooden floor creates a very close, rustic feeling. Many fruit trees such as grapefruit, persimmon or jackfruit are planted around the garden, creating shade and being gifts that the owner wants to give to guests when coming to Hachi's house. The whole group got to eat ripe, delicious persimmons this time.

A Sau Valley in the evening

After lunch with some specialties such as A Luoi beef bone hotpot, stir-fried dried buffalo meat with pickled onions, etc., I let everyone rest freely before starting the exploration journey in the mid-afternoon.

It was past 3pm and the weather was beautiful. I informed the fathers - drivers of each house about the route we would take, then following the Ho Chi Minh trail, the whole group headed straight towards the A Sau valley.

This place used to be an important military base of the US army during the Vietnam War. The remains of A So airport are still there, with some runways covered with grass, but the traces of that time still resonate with those who like to learn about the country's history.

We arrived at A Sau in the afternoon, rays of sunlight penetrated through the floating clouds, spreading down the valley surrounded by hills in the background and rice fields in the harvest season in the front with the winding A Sap River, creating a beautiful landscape painting.

The Ta Oi people here still have houses harvesting the Summer - Autumn rice crop. Stopping on the bridge over the A Sap River, I showed the group how the Ta Oi farmers built rectangular stone blocks right under the stream, then put a tarp underneath and poured the harvested rice on top. After that, people opened the top and bottom of the rectangular blocks to let the water flow through. The broken rice grains and spoiled rice grains floated on top and were washed away; the firm rice grains and good rice grains sank and were retained on the tarp. When finished, people gathered the four corners of the tarp and pulled it up, put the rice in bags and brought it home to dry, then stored it to eat gradually or as seeds for the next crop. That is also a characteristic of the rice farmers here, different from the way the Kinh people in the plains harvest, making everyone excited to see it.

There is a section of the A Sap River with a beautiful rocky beach, so I took the whole group across the fields and down to the river to swim. The children really enjoyed this activity. Army and Lily, pulling each other on the inflatable raft their parents brought, happily splashed in the cool water. The fathers also picked up stones and threw them around happily, to the cheering laughter of their wives.

The sun set behind the western mountains as we left the A Sau valley. From the car, I looked back at the white smoke rising from the burning straw from the harvested rice fields, feeling nostalgic as I remembered the history that this beautiful valley had experienced.

Night and morning in homestay Hachi

Dinner at Hachi's house today was a barbecue. There was a group of the landlady's regulars joining in, so it was quite lively.

The whole group gathered around the area where the men and boys were lighting a fire to grill meat. Some women were preparing sticky rice, some were arranging wild vegetables on tables and guiding the children to eat. Some young people in the other group were playing soft music, hanging some lights, creating a very cozy atmosphere in the middle of the night sky on the mountain.

Under the starry sky and by the crackling fire, we talked until late at night. I told the story of my arrival in A Hua village years ago and my attachment to A Luoi since then, of course.

The children went to bed first, while Lily still held the puppy that had been her friend today, sitting next to her mother, next to the charcoal fire, occasionally turning to listen, although she was not sure she understood everything the adults were saying.

The morning was bustling with sunshine. I didn’t want to miss the early morning sun so I gently got out of my warm blanket and went out into the garden. The sunlight filtered through the persimmon leaves, making the persimmons look even plumper and more beautiful than yesterday.

Army also woke up, followed his mother to sit on the porch, where the morning sunlight was gradually pouring down. Suddenly, a street vendor in the village passed by the house, Army's mother bought two bags of mung bean sweet soup for the two of us. So while waiting for the group to wake up for breakfast, Army and I ate the two bags of sweet soup, watching the golden sunlight shine on each other's faces, even though neither of us had washed our faces. Army's father woke up the earliest, jogging around the far end of the village. Over there, the morning mist was still lingering around the mountains.

The landlady cooked a pot of hot chicken porridge and set it out on the wooden floor behind Hachi’s house for the group to gather for breakfast. Lily and Army’s father finished eating and went to pick more persimmons. I prepared the coffee making equipment on the porch and ground coffee for the group.

K'Ho coffee mixed with honey, with some avocados and persimmons placed next to it along with homemade cakes brought by a friend in the group, the whole group of us sat there, along the sunny porch of Hachi's house, enjoying the morning in A Luoi like that. Lily, of course, still hugged the puppy from yesterday. And Army drew that scene again. Army and Lily were both in the same class of Choi.

In the middle of the Truong Son mountain range

Seeing the dew on the leaves in front of the house had cleared, I told the group to prepare to leave Hachi's house to continue the journey. This morning, the group visited the Pa Co village and bathed in the majestic Anor waterfall.

Past A Luoi town, there is a village of the Pa Co people. They have been doing community tourism for several years now, with many houses offering homestay services or providing food and entertainment for tourists staying in the village.

Nearby is Anor waterfall. The waterfall has 3 levels, over 100 m high, pouring white water down creating a famous "wonder" in the area. At the foot of the waterfall is a clear lake. Water pouring down from above creates a cool breeze blowing around the lake. Sometimes, I also make coffee right there for my friends to enjoy.

Today was sunny so everyone from children to adults in the group boldly jumped into the water, swam around and felt the wonderful nature in the middle of the Truong Son mountain forest. Lunch with Paco specialties such as grilled meat with ivy leaves, grilled stream fish in bamboo tubes, wild bamboo shoots, sticky rice, and A Quat cakes...

Before getting on the bus back to the city along the spectacular route they had taken yesterday, the group strolled around the central market of A Luoi - where the Ta Oi, Pa Co, Pa Hy, and Van Kieu ethnic groups sell their regional specialties. Along the way back, the group stopped for a while to let the children rest. With their eyes on the mountains, everyone was full of praise for their experiences from yesterday until now.

More information

- Hachi Homestay & Spa is a new homestay that has been in operation since September 2021, and is still a new name (and not too crowded with guests). Contact Hachi directly viaFacebookor Phone: 090 587 95 89.

- If you want to experience trips with Shi Jang, you can contact to book a tour via phone number: 098 5555 827.

Shi Jang