Hai used to travel along Vietnam doing all kinds of jobs, even beggars, before stopping in Ha Giang to start a tourism business.
Giap Van Hai, born in 1991, currently works as a tourist in Ha Giang. He was nicknamed “Marine Land”, “Hai Ma Xo”. Before coming to Ha Giang to set up a business, he used to be a “bang”, roaming around Vietnam, walking, and working at the same time. Hai had to go through a long journey to find his true charm.
Looking back on Hai’s journey across the country, it can be said that he is the one “moved”. Born in a poor rural area in Bac Giang, he is the first generation of young people to leave the village and go to the city to study. After many years of working hard and still not having enough to eat, Hai’s parents believe that university is the way to success and want their children to go to school to get rid of mud on their feet. However, events hit his family, Hai had to stop studying for less than a year and go out to work. He struggled to work 2-3 jobs at the same time to send money home and save money to continue studying. But everything is not easy, Hai has many times thought of giving up to return to his hometown early.
Make a “bang” go around the country
Seeing that his experience was still young, it was difficult to fight alone in the bustling city, when he returned to his hometown, he was shy and embarrassed with his family, Hai decided to go by motorbike alone to go and find himself while traveling alone. just 20 years old. Departing from Hanoi, he stopped at Ha Nam, Ninh Binh… and then quickly went to Quang Binh. Arriving in Hue, he began to love traveling, focused on discovering things around him, and started working and walking to have money to move. “Anyone who hires me can do it, as long as I have money for gas.”
Traveling across the country, he used to work as a restaurant assistant in Hue, run a coffee table in Da Nang, worked as a fisherman on Ly Son island, picked coffee in Dak Lak, drove motorbike taxis in Da Lat, and sold flat coffee in Ho Chi Minh City, working as Santa Claus… Even he had to beg for food many times to have money. Once, when he was hungry for 3 days, Hai drank filtered water except for meals, slept in the Da Lat market. To keep his stomach full, he went through the food stalls in the market for the owners of the shops to invite to try and then walking around was enough to warm his stomach.
On his journey, he has discovered many new backpacking spots. He was one of the first people to discover the Meo Vac sinkhole (Ha Giang), Binh Lieu dinosaur spine (Quang Ninh), previously unknown spots on the tourist map of Vietnam.
Every game comes to an end. After a year of traveling through Vietnam, Hai returned to Hanoi to work after thinking that he had graduated from the “school of life”. Thanks to the skills gained from many professions, he got a job in the media and entertainment industry. However, the memories and memories of the roads always troubled Hai. “After experiencing many places, I realized that Vietnam is very beautiful, but it is a bit ‘poor’. Poverty here is a way of tourism as well as promoting a beautiful image to international guests,” Hai said.
So Hai decided to find a place to do tourism, and that was Ha Giang. In Hai’s eyes, this is the most beautiful place in Vietnam, with many colors that he never gets bored of discovering. In 2018, he moved to Ha Giang, when this place was still a stub for tourism. “I want to contribute a part of my efforts to the land that I love.”
Winning Ha Giang’s “love charm”
Initially, Hai only intended to live, experience and write a lot, to support the media about tourism for Ha Giang. But gradually, he felt more and more like he was hit by the “love spell” of this land, because he felt too intimate and close when he interacted with relatives and villages here. The “love charm” he received was “a little good wine, charming scenery, deep cultural empathy”. At this time, Hai thought that blogging and taking pictures alone was not enough, but had to do something more practical. So, he decided to do 3-in-1 tourism. In which, tourists must love and remember when returning, Ha Giang people preserve their identity, and he himself must feel comfortable doing this. there.
Building a tourism model “through the land”, Hai leads guests to go with the locals, explore the villages deeply and experience eating and lying with the people. “I focus on journeys and experiences rather than check-in tourism. My local tourism model helps people develop sustainable tourism. In the future, every local person here will be able to do it on their own. I want to be able to do tourism, I choose young people from the Mong, Dao, Tay, La Chi… to train some skills such as taking care of guests, telling stories on the road, and introducing landscape culture. everything must develop naturally, without changing the honest and close nature of the people here”.
Officially operating since the beginning of 2019, this model of Hai has been experienced by customers and has a lot of good word of mouth. Ms. Thai Le Ngoc Diep, a guest of Hai who went to Hai in October 2019, shared: “Really, I never thought I would go on a 4-day, several-hundred km motorbike tour at the age of U50. However, After the trip, I know it will be a mistake, a regret if I don’t experience those things. It is profound to directly experience and eat, sleep and sleep with the people here.” Ban Van Cham, born in 1998, an ethnic person who was trained by Hai to tell stories on the street shared: “When participating in this tourism model, I learned how to tell stories about my homeland’s culture. Especially, after each tour, I learned how to tell stories about my homeland’s culture. During the trip, I had more close friends from all parts of the country. In the past, I only knew how to go to the forest, go to the fields, but I knew how to travel.
“Die standing” when starting a business
Not long after working as a tourist, the pandemic hit, Hai was in the group of people most affected. Difficulties made him think about whether or not to continue cultivating his passion. “Passion for a job is probably the same as love. If you have to let go of difficulties and difficulties for some reason, is it love? If you love someone but tell them when If the weather is calm and the sea is calm, I will love you again later, is that love?”, Hai wondered. At that time, many friends in the tourism industry like Hai gave up, withdrew their license from the profession, and found another job. Hai decided to stick around and in a time when he couldn’t do anything with travel, he found a way to maintain it by filming discovery videos and posting them on YouTube so people could travel with him online.
In addition, he also searches for and connects local specialties to help people sell online and bring delicious and real products to consumers. Hai also conducts community activities such as guiding people to improve homestays, communicating on online platforms such as Booking.com, Google Maps, Facebook….
Promise with Ha Giang
Hai shared, he made a promise to Ha Giang to do good tourism to always feel valuable to this land. “I will go if I feel that I am no longer valuable here,” Hai said. If this “territorial” tourism model is more successful, he plans to replicate it to other provinces such as Cao Bang, Bac Kan…
According to him, Ha Giang is not only beautiful beyond the scenery but also beautiful in the cultural values of the intangible national identity. For foreign tourists, they love Ha Giang in its rustic and pristine. Hai said that in order to do this, it is necessary to mobilize and support models of community tourism that both preserve cultural identity, generate income and create pride for local people. In particular, it is important to limit the concreting of this land.
And when thinking about Ha Giang, Hai is still fascinated and gives this place very poetic descriptions. “People know a lot about Ha Giang thanks to the buckwheat flower season., but Ha Giang is always beautiful. Each season is a scene, an interesting experience. If spring is light pink with peach and plum blossoms. Summer is a green patch of luscious cornfields, autumn is ripe golden rice with terraced wine step by step, winter is cold air, the promised place of wandering and nostalgic footsteps. Every time I leave, I find my way back.” Follow vnexpress