 Hien Hao village is a small community with a total population of 400 people located about 20km away from Cat Ba Town, 4km away from Cat Ba National Park’s Head Quarter. The village has been funded by British based Fauna and Flora International (FFI) to establish community based tourism. Local families were selected to join the project. The heads of chosen families were sent to Sapa, a popular destination of community based tourism, to be trained to receive and serve customers. Furthermore, the villagers were trained by a chef from a restaurant in Hanoi to prepare appropriate food. We inspected this village to find more option of homestay in North of Vietnam for our visitors.
We had a private car driving us from Hanoi to Hai Phong and then to Dinh Vu Jetty, where we took a 1-hour high-speed boat to Hien Hao vilage. On arrival, we had a local bus waiting and took us to a local family that we booked in advance. The local family that we stayed located by the main road and easy to find out. It was one of the best homestay in the village selected by the FFI. The family members are well trained to serve visitors like cooking and preparing the bed. They also could be a good guide to show visitors go around the village and explain the daily life and work of the local people, of course, with a guide/interpreter as most of them can’t speak English.
At the time we arrived, we were a bit disappointed as the house was not as authentic as we thought. It was a big new house with 2 floors with modern facilities. The owner, also our guide for this 2-day tour was Mr. Dong, a village’s header. They have two daughters, one married and lived with her husband’s family, and one was student at University in Hanoi so we stayed in his two daughters’ rooms for the night. In general, the homestay accommodation was quite far different from our imagination as it’s just similar to the one we live, we expected something more authentic, more ‘village and local’, and we believed our visitors did the same.
After lunch with some seafood like squid, fish, oyster…we had a short nap, it was not because of we were tired or need a short nap on touring days, it was mainly because of the local farmers, fishermen were on their noon break and it was not convenient for them to welcome guests at that time.
In the afternoon, we visited Cây Thị cave, a hidden cave in the village. The trek to the cave was very hard and dangerous as we had to climb sharp and slippery rocks. It was obviously not suitable for old visitors. There was a giant ‘cây thị’ (Chinese fig) in the entrance of the cave and that’s why the cave was named as the tree. The cave itself was good, huge and as it still kept the original of a limestone with no human tracks. The cave was found in the 1960s during the Vietnam War and used to be the hidden cave of the local people but it fell into oblivion after that and just officially opened for visitors since FFI stepped in this village. However, Hien Hao still is less visited village in Cat Ba Island so Cây Thị still sound new to most of tourists.
After that, we walked to the beach where the owner had a ‘tidal flat’ area to raise oysters. It was a fascinating insight to the local lifestyle and work. The owner’s wife told us how to dig oysters in the sand and encouraged us to try our own hands. Well, it was lots of fun to dig our own oysters for dinners. The job was very interesting so we were there for hours and we even wished that we could move here to raise the oysters, not being tour operators in the office any longer. 
On our way back, we stopped by an ecological farm raised bears, crocodiles, deer and many other fruits trees. The farm was not really completed at the time we visited so it did not interest us. We went around for just 15 minutes and left for the homestay and prepared dinner with the owner’s wife.
The dinner seemed to be more delicious with our own dig oysters and we enjoyed it very much. As there was no other activity in the village in the evening, we gather ourselves in the TV and chatting over a cup of green tea. Life was good!
Woke up early in the morning, we had breakfast with ‘cháo hàu’, the owner, also, our local guide showed us around the village. We also met the chairman of the ‘Bee Club’ and learnt how he reared the bees and especially how to avoid being bitten by them as one of my colleagues was bitten twice right after he took photos of the ‘bee-cage’ ‘So, remember, bees don’t like camera flash’ – we all think so. 
We then walked along the small valley where our local guide identified us the local plants, vegetables of different kinds and Vietnamese herbs. We also tried the gardening skills by watering the plants; it was lots of fun too.
We finished our visit this morning by a pleasant hiking to ‘Nguoi Xua’ cave. The cave was not as interesting as Cay Thi cave that we visited yesterday. There was a small stream inside the cave that connected to the sea and our guide said that we could even walk in this stream to the sea at the low tide.
After lunch in the family, we took our local bus to Cat Ba town and have a free time on the beach before another one-hour speed-boat from Cat Ba to Ben Binh, Hai Phong, where our car was waiting and took us back to Hanoi.
The two-day homestay in Hien Hao village, Cat Ba Island was good for us but we had to put some more activities in the itinerary to make it more interesting. Also, we’d prefer a homestay which is more authentic so that our clients can have a real close look to the daily life of the local people. We have edited the programme and if you want to get an experience of Hien Hao village, just send us an email! |
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