Hanoi (TAN): Lake Ba Be and its surroundings is a beautiful place that tourists from all over the world visit time and again to enjoy living with the local residents in their traditional stilt houses, taste the local cuisine and soak in the hospitality and culture of the Tay people.
Situated in the northern Bac Kan province in Vietnam, Lake Ba Be is one the of the 100 largest fresh water lakes in the world. In 2011, Unesco recognised Lake Ba Be as a Ramsar Site, the third wetland of international importance in Vietnam. The lake is the habitat of more than 50 species of freshwater fish and many rare and precious flora species.
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With homestay options increasing in Ba Be, the economy of the area has improved. Community-based tourism has helped raise local incomes and improve the local people’s lives. The Nam Mau commune, for example, is now home to 40 households providing homestay services.
The local people, most of whom belong to the Tay community, used to be dependent on cultivation and fishing until tourism was developed here. Now they are busy almost throughout the year providing cultural tourism services.
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Visitors to the tourism site have the unique opportunity chance to stay overnight in the stilt houses, enjoy Hat Then, a folklore singing and eat distinctive local food. “Visitors to my stilt house like having meals with my family. They especially enjoy drinking with us,” news agency VietnamPlus quoted Trieu Van Toan, a resident of Ba Be district, as saying.
Ba Be is beautiful throughout the year, but the special times to visit, when the lake and its surroundings are at their most breathtaking, are spring, summer or early autumn.
