By Rob Bailey

Last weekend as I was taking in the beauty of Ha Long bay on the top deck of a boat, a fellow traveller told me that he had travelled all over South-East Asia and he liked Vietnam the least. Amazed that anyone could make such a statement when observing such beauty, I asked why. He told me “all the Vietnamese care about is money”. I have found this attitude among my fellow travellers far too often during my stay in Vietnam. This statement confuses the hetroglossic entirety of Vietnam with the well-trodden tourist trail of Vietnam which is all foreign visitors seem to see.

I do not believe that anywhere in the world an area with the fame and beauty of Ha Long bay is not accompanied by high prices and hidden extra charges such as an extra $20 to switch the air-conditioning on or 5,000VND “service charge” for every drink which had not been purchased aboard the boat. My faith in Vietnam remained firm despite this traveller’s criticism as I feel that I have seen the real Vietnam and that money was at the bottom of its priorities.

The experience I refer to is 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 home stays offered within the community at very reasonable prices (50,000 VND/2-3 USD 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 (VPV) and the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD), which aim to reduce the strain on the local natural resources. They do this by promoting hospitality as an alternative income to destructive fishing and aquaculture techniques which have damaged the nearby 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 the local community development fund.

During my home stay, I felt like a member of the family rather than just another customer. Although all the meals at the home stay 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!

The house at which I stayed was a traditional Vietnamese country house as are all the home stays 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 are to be hired from the town, my personal experience was that the prospect of learning about another culture first-hand 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 and a real haven for bird watchers. I also saw some of Giao Xuan’s beautiful pagodas and modern churches. Another amazing sight was that of the clam-fields, miles and miles of knee-high water with stilted huts as far as the eye could see. 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 new-found local friend I met the owner of the reserve and the 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 Sappa and beginning to see and understand the real Vietnam and the real Vietnamese way of life. Is having Vietnam bare its soul to you worth travelling a few hours from Hanoi and missing out on a few days of air conditioning? For those who still believe that tourism in Vietnam is all about being a walking cash cow, then yes, it is worth it every time.

>> Learn more about Giao Xuan

>> More about Rob

“My name is Rob Bailey and I am a twenty year old History student currently in my second year studying at the University of Wales Cardiff. Though I now spend much of my time in Cardiff I grew up in North Devon in England. I am on my summer break and decided to spend a month of it volunteering and travelling in Vietnam. The organisation I work for is called Volunteers for Peace in Vietnam (VPV). VPV have development projects all over Vietnam which assign volunteers from all over the world onto projects such as teaching English, supporting local NGOs, disabled children care and raising awareness about HIV. I am currently half way through my placement here and thoroughly enjoying it. My particular role is administrative support, in particular raising awareness about certain projects in which VPV is a part of. There is a number of volunteers from all over the world, from various backgrounds and of various nationality working for VPV at any one time. It is an experience which I seriously recommend to anyone who wants to make a difference while they travel. Volunteers work hard throughout the week on their various projects but on days off become regular tourists in Vietnam, visiting all the big sites (such as Ha Long Bay).”