Hello Hive friends, today I would like to introduce to everyone about Hoa Bac mountainous commune, a place that I always choose to visit when I feel tired and stressed, and also a place where I always find my soul being healed and filled with positive energy.
Located 40km away from Da Nang city, this is one of the few remaining places that are less affected by industrialization and services and are blessed by nature with mountains, rivers, and valleys sandwiched on both sides of massive mountains. With a cool and fresh climate, anyone from the city visiting here will immediately feel the peace, this is also a place where your soul is soothed and the stress of life is left behind (especially for those who like to be quiet). Since Da Nang is a coastal tourist city with many attractions combining beautiful nature and diverse services, so Hoa Bac area has only really been known and emerged in recent years.
I feel quite fortunate to have known Hoa Bac from about 4 years ago thanks to a brother in my biking team sharing. At that time, not many people in the city knew about it, so I had the chance to feel the purest peace and quiet there. I am allergic to reinforced concrete, artificial sounds and the smell of urban, so Hoa Bac has always been my first choice for the past 4 years. In the weekend, I usually cycle alone or with a group up there to explore, have fun and enjoy the scenery. Hoa Bac gradually became famous and more people know about it, especially young people, perhaps the biggest contribution thanks to the sharing of cyclists 😍. With a moderate distance and beautiful unspoiled nature to explore, there are many ways to visit Hoa Bac commune but I like to bike there the most because biking is a combination of a sport and one of my hobbies and most importantly it helps me slowing down to truly immerse in nature instead of just passing it.
My most impressed memory about this place was the first time I came here. I just bought a mountain bike about 9 days before when a brother shared about his weekly 100km bike to Hoa Bac. Immediately, I was attracted to it because of the green color of the trees. Without hesitation, I decided to make it in the next 2 days when the weekend came. However, I haven't exercised much and am not healthy enough with a return distance of more than 80km, so I researched Google map to find a point on the way to use a motorbike to transport my bike with me to there. The place I chose is Hoi Yen church. When the day came, I tied my bicycle to the back of the motorbike and set off, when I got to the church, I went inside to meet the priest who managed the church and asked to leave the motorbike to use the bicycle to go out and explore around. The priest was very friendly and enthusiastic to help and support my ideas.
Since I am also a Catholic, I also sat down to chat with him and learned that this is a Catholic church that has just been built for about a month and is finishing the remaining items such as the surrounding campus, the statue outside, the front yard and front gate. And he has just been sent here as a missionary for more than 2 years and together with parishioners gathered to build this cathedral. The church has a small area and is covered with white paint that stands out with the green of the mountains. There are 3 children studying and helping with church work with the priest as well. Those kids really liked me because I teased them to laugh and taught them how to ride my bike.
After unload my bike, I started my tour around the church. There is a whole area of sugarcane growing for factories right opposite the church, I stopped there to talk to the aunts and uncles who are harvesting sugar cane there. I was known that traders buy sugarcane from local people here at the price on side of 50,000 vnd/1 bunch (20 plants), which is quite cheap. I teased some buffalos gnawing on sugar cane stumps and then continued to explore the peaceful rice fields and bamboo groves like this is my own hometown. When wandering deep into Ta Lang village, about 15km from the parking lot, I found a house of Co Tu ethnic people to have breakfast. Some people here are friendly, some are a bit shy because they rarely see strangers, but they are honest and kind. They couldn't talk much, but after I finished eating, they also invited me to drink a kind of sweet and fragrant forest leaves. They told me that I can use a hammock if I like to sleep for a bit before come back to avoid the hot sun. I sit there and watched some wild orchids and fruit orchards, that view made me miss my home because my house also has a very large garden. After taking a break for about 30 minutes, I went back to the church to get my motorbike. When I arrived at Hoi Yen church, it was almost noon, and the priest invited me to stay for lunch, but I refused and made an appointment for another day. The kids even told me to come up next time because they were curious about the stories that I told them about the city.
Since then, my team and I have visited Hoa Bac commune very often, once or twice a month, to explore and have fun. Now, there are more services provided for visitors there such as camping, climbing, rowing sup, etc, which bring more people to Hoa Bac for picnic or weekend activities. This brings economic benefits to local people, while also increasing options for those looking for a place to relax on the weekend. I hope that Hoa Bac can keep its ecosystem well and not over-industrialize.
Thank you for reading my post and have a productive week.