The ceremony to recognize Mien hamlet in Ba Vi district as a community tourism site. (Photo: Hoang Quyen)

Mien hamlet, bordering Ba Vi National Park in the western Ba Vi mountains about 60 km from Hanoi, has hills and valleys, waterfalls and streams, and a flora system that has been well protected for many years.

The villagers are mainly ethnic Dao Quần Chẹt, whose women boast a special dressing style as their trousers are tightened to their legs. For many generations they have been growing arrowroot and gathering and processing other traditional medicinal herbs.

80% of the households here harvest and process medicinal plants that grow in the Ba Vi mountains. They have preserved folk remedies for common diseases based on these medicinal herbs.

Herbal foot soaking at Mien hamlet (Photo: Hoang Quyen)

Visitors to Mien hamlet praise the fresh air and quiet atmosphere of its lanes scented with medicinal herbs. Medicinal healer Trieu Thi Dung said: “In the past, people living in remote mountain areas couldn’t afford to go to a hospital. They used available medicinal herbs to treat themselves. They passed these remedies down from generation to generation.”

In the past the Dao people bathed in hot water infused with medicinal herbs on the last day of the year to welcome the new year and occasionally offered this experience to honored guests. Now they’ve turned herbal bathing into a regular service for tourists.

At Mien hamlet, visitors can now experience herbal facial care, herbal shampoos, herbal foot soaking, herbal bathing, and herbal massage.

“After this treatment I feel relaxed and refreshed. I had a foot massage while I was soaking in herbal water, which increased my blood flow and soothed my muscles. Now I feel much healthier,” a tourist shared.

Dishes are made from medicinal herbs which have some unique flavors and are very good for your health.

Tourists visit a herbal medicine facility. (Photo: Hoang Quyen)

Villager Ly Thi Hue said: “We use medicinal herbs in cooking. For example, “bánh dày”, pounded sticky rice cakes, have the attractive colors of herbal leaves, which are very good for your health. Sticky rice cooked with gourd, ginger, and hill chicken are good for post-partum women. Ginger can be given to people with a cold or chills. Pork stewed with yams, goji berries, and red apples is a nutritious dish that’s served to people with weak kidneys and poor physiology. Some vegetable have the effect of detoxifying and reducing inflammation.”

Tourist Mai Lien said: “The scenery is impressive and the food is special. I’m impressed with the leafy vegetables. We are told a story about each dish.”

Vu Van Tuyen, General Director of Travelogy, commented on the Mien hamlet community tourism model. “This place has huge tourism potential, because there are few places close to the capital Hanoi that have beautiful scenery like Mien hamlet. It has mountains and forests protected by the Dao. For many generations, they have made Vietnamese medicinal herbs famous. Creating community-based tourism products and making people the center of tourism activities will attract a lot of tourists,” Tuyen said.