Pù Luông Nature Reserve - Authentic Homestays

Located in Thanh Hóa Province, about 4 hours southwest of Hanoi, Pu Luong Nature Reserve would live up to most people’s image of an idyllic Vietnamese landscape and rural life. Jagged limestone mountains enclose a fertile river valley, dotted with small settlements of wooden houses on stilts. Luminous-green rice fields extend from the waters’ edge to the thickly-forested slopes, which are streaked with waterfalls. Women in conical hats tend the fields, men herd buffalo and goats from one pasture to another, and children play with domestic animals in earthy courtyards, or take turns jumping from bamboo bridges into rivers. It appears – to the casual visitor, at least – to be a landscape where nature is entirely benevolent; a land so fertile that it sustains each household throughout the year. If you can imagine how an animated Disney movie set in rural Vietnam might look, then you get the idea – kind of like a Vietnamese Shangri-La.

There are many homestay options in and around Pù Luông Nature Reserve. By far the most popular is Mai Chau, located just outside the nature reserve. However, these days Mai Châu is a firm fixture on most travel operators’ version of ‘The Northwest Loop’, so it can get a bit crowded.

For a more isolated, rustic, and spectacular homestay, head into the nature reserve. Homestays don’t get more atmospheric than in Ban Hieu 1 & 2, a small but spread-out collection of thatched bamboo houses on stilts, built on a steep mountainside. Bản Hiêu is situated in the east of Pù Luông Nature Reserve. The landscape here is superb: steep, jungled mountain slopes, gurgling fresh water streams, waterfalls and bathing pools, terraced rice fields continuing high into the clouds, dense, misty forests of giant tropical trees, and precipitous valleys. There are two homestays to choose from here: Mrs Thuan’s and Mrs Tam’s:
 

Mrs Thuan’s Homestay:
Mrs Thuan’s homestay can be found at the end of a steep, dirt path, that winds up a sharp incline beside a gushing mountain stream. The clear water descends in stages; flowing quickly, then collecting in a series of perfect rock pools at regular intervals, as it makes its way down to the river at the bottom of the valley. These gin-coloured pools are great for bathing, and they give the impression that the course of the stream has been ‘terraced’ according to the contours of the slope; in the same way that the surrounding rice paddies have been terraced. The rock pools are dripping with foliage, as are the bamboo stilt houses that are scattered across the mountainside: it feels as though you’ve stumbled upon the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Mrs Thuan’s homestay is a sturdy-looking wooden house on stilts with a thatched palm-leaf roof. Its location – on the mountainside, looking down into the valley – is fantastic. Considering its remote position (and compared to the standards of homestays in the area), the level of comfort here is quite luxurious. Downstairs, in the open-sided living room, there are cushioned sofas and swinging chairs with views over the valley. Upstairs is an ‘open-plan’ bedroom, with mattresses on the floor and mosquito nets hung from the roof-beams. Very clean toilets and showers are outside in well-made bamboo compartments. Food is all local, fresh and delicious (as with all homestays). Mr Si and his family are welcoming, polite and gracious hosts. Clearly, Mr Si – or someone in his family – knows what they are doing, because they’ve managed to incorporate a few modern touches and bits of furniture, without intruding on the ‘rustic’ nature of the homestay: this is as close as homestays get to being ‘boutique’. And, the family’s charm and attention to detail is working because they have a constant flow of guests; therefore it’s a good idea to call ahead.
 

Mrs Tam's Homestay
If a ‘boutique homestay’ is not real enough for you, head further up the mountainside to Mrs Tam’s house. Accessed by a very steep, 2km dirt track, that runs along a spectacular (if a little scary) precipice, Mr Ba’s homestay feels even more remote than Mr Si’s, and it’s certainly more ‘rustic’, although still very comfortable.

The wooden house is in the same style as Mrs Thuan’s: sleeping is upstairs on the wooden floor, and the living area is downstairs with views over the valley. But, unlike Mrs Thuan's, this homestay feels much more like a working farm. There’s no fancy furniture, just a bench and a wooden table with a pot of artichoke tea on it. Roosters, chickens, ducks and chicks have the run of the living area and courtyard; cattle reside in the bamboo cowshed and pigs squeal in their pens; vegetables are grown in the shadow of areca palms, jackfruit and clove trees; and bees are busy making honey in their wooden hives. The only obvious concession to foreign visitors is the separate shower cubicle and Western-style toilet, which Mrs Tam has politely provided as an alternative to his squat-toilet facilities.

The food is excellent and extremely, erm, ‘fresh’, which means that some visitors might find witnessing (or even just hearing) the preparations disturbing. However, once all the fresh meat and vegetables have been cooked over the wood-fuelled hearth, the result is the best homestay food I’ve ever tasted: spicy, herby pork patties, delicate, aromatic spring rolls, and an earthy cabbage soup for dinner (accompanied by some honey-infused, home-brewed rice wine), and then for breakfast, a very interesting kind of ‘pancake’ made from rice flour and duck eggs and then dipped in honey – just right for a cool, misty morning in the mountains. Mrs Tam and his wife are good, sensitive hosts: they are astute enough to know when to leave their guests alone or when to get involved. Their house, land and lifestyle does not appear to have been ‘diluted’ to suit foreign visitors: this definitely feels like a home-stay.

For us, the most romantic time of day to be in a homestay in Bản Hiêu is at night. Lying on the thin mattress on the wooden floor, the mosquito net rippling in the breeze coming in through the open windows, staring at the intricate wooden rafters, and just listening: there’s magic in the chorus of life out there beyond the wooden house – the frogs’ low, throbbing croaks, cicadas keeping rhythm, high-pitched bird calls, cockerels piercing the night, gurgling water from the streams, light rain tapping on the broad leaves of an areca palm, the jingle of cow bells as the animals shift in their sleep, and numerous other, unidentifiable sounds from the fields and the forests, that seep in through the open windows as you lie awake, listening; enchanted.
 

TRAVEL INFORMATION
Ban Hieu is in the east of Pu Luong Reserve. Most people come to Bản Hiêu homestays as part of a walking tour group, with a Vietnamese guide. However, it is possible to find and reach Bản Hiêu independently, either on foot or by motorbike. There is an excellent map available of the nature reserve which has roads, paths, sights and homestays marked on it. This is essential for locating Bản Hiêu. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get a hold of this map. Try asking the host families of homestays in the Mai Chau area if they have one, then you can go into town and make a photocopy of it. The map is also sometimes available at the nature reserve headquarters, a couple of kilometres west of Canh Nang small town. Failing this, there are dozens of maps displayed on wooden or concrete panels dotted around the nature reserve. Take a photograph of one of these maps and just zoom-in on it for reference.

Once you have a map, head to the modest market village of Pho Doan – this is easy to spot as it is one of the only villages in the nature reserve that consists mainly of concrete buildings, rather than wooden stilt houses. The road to Bản Hiêu is to the right, just after Phố Đoàn. The road quickly deteriorates: going from dirt track, to trail, to narrow pathway. This route is more suited to walkers than riders, but locals drive their motorbikes up and down the mountain paths and, in dry weather, there’s no reason why you can’t too. However, it’s advisable to take note of current weather conditions; heavy rains will make the steep, muddy paths almost impossible to drive up or down, and you’ll be stuck until they dry-out – mind you, there are worse places to be stranded!
 

WHAT TO DO:
Taking in the views and observing the daily routine of a largely self-sustaining piece of rural Vietnam, should be enough to keep most people interested for at least a couple of days. The livestock, herb and vegetable gardens, tropical fruit trees, food preparation and cooking over an open flame, and the irrigation systems that channel water from mountain streams, through bamboo pipes, and into the wet rice fields, is all fascinating to witness, especially if, like me, you come from a big city. There are also some good treks in the area, including one to a nearby waterfall.