On the eve of April 30, 2023, a friend in Hanoi called to ask: What is interesting about Pu Mat National Park? Tell me about the Giang River with its clear blue water like a soft silk strip running endlessly through the vast green forests; about the majestic Kem waterfall with a height of 150m pouring down into the sparkling silver water day and night; about a group of Dan Lai people famous for their habit of sleeping sitting up and living in the heart of the forest...
Listening attentively, you asked again: So is the resort service good? Is it like in Pu Luong in Thanh Hoa?… I have not been to Pu Luong, but I have read, heard, and watched a lot, and know that the resort service at destinations in Con Cuong district, associated with Pu Mat National Park, is a limitation. So when you asked, I felt sad and did not know how to answer properly. And to satisfy my curiosity, in mid-July this year, we went from Nghe An to Pu Luong.
From Vinh city, it takes about 5 hours to get to Pu Luong by car. At first glance, this place is a green, fresh space. Mountains connect to green undulating mountains; Thai villages are hidden behind bamboo forests, bamboo, and green meters; on the vast terraced fields, the rice begins to turn, the girls also caress a green color..., making visitors completely escape the heat and stuffiness of early summer, especially in the city. Our first stop was at Pu Luong Specialty Restaurant. Built in the structure of a stilt house with natural materials such as bamboo, wood, palm..., this restaurant has a gentle, friendly beauty, close to the space of the mountains and forests. The surprise when entering, among the large number of diners, there were quite a few foreigners.
The first meal at Pu Luong, in addition to Muong pork and roasted Co Lung duck, had many other dishes similar to those of the Thai people in Nghe An, which were prepared for holidays and Tet. However, the restaurant’s business wisdom was evident when not only the owner, but also the staff in Thai costumes were all very proficient in introducing dishes, instructing how to use them, and promoting the “unique, exclusive” products, which were a series of dipping sauces such as mac khen, doi, green chili pepper, etc., so that diners, whether they wanted to or not, had to try them to find the right flavor for themselves.
Talking to the restaurant owner, who is around 40 years old, he openly said that he came from Thai Binh province to do business in Pu Luong for 10 years. “Only me and a few management positions, the chef are from other places, the majority of the staff are local young people who have been selected and trained. Today, for the first time, my restaurant has the roasted Muong pig dish that you guys have enjoyed. To have a unique and different recipe, I had to find a “famous” chef from Quang Ninh to direct with a salary of exactly 1 million VND/day…” – the restaurant owner excitedly said.
The place we chose to stay was Casa Resort. This is a fairly comfortable place, consisting of a series of moderate-height buildings, connected by garden systems, infinity pools, and walking paths that are quite delicately and eye-catchingly decorated with many flowers, ornamental plants, and shade trees. But the outstanding point is that from any location in the resort, you can see the space of Pu Luong mountains and forests associated with the terraced fields valley... Thanks to that, at times when the sea of clouds in the valley at dawn or the golden sunset falls, there are many beautiful virtual living and check-in spots for guests to choose from.
The staff here all wear black uniforms with red accents typical of the Muong people. They said the resort owner is a group of investors from Hanoi; and they are all locals, from Don village or Ba Thuoc district.
We stayed in Pu Luong for nearly 2 days, but this time was short because in addition to visiting the terraced fields, we only went to Huou waterfall, Kho Muong but did not go to all the places introduced by the resort staff such as Bat cave, bamboo forest, water wheel... However, it can be seen that to become an eco-tourism resort, in addition to natural resources, Pu Luong has attracted a number of investors from Hanoi, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh... to build a system of hotels, resorts, homestays and restaurants.
These investors all have economic potential and professionalism, so the products they create to serve tourists are all of high quality. It must be said that the products they create are not only limited to the premises of hotels, resorts, homestays, and restaurants, but also include adjacent spaces such as walking paths, terraced fields, etc. with corresponding quality. At the same time, thanks to their guidance, the people here participate in tourism activities quite professionally, especially the young people.
On the part of local authorities and Party committees, all conditions are created for investors to operate tourism effectively. For example, at the end of 2023, in order for Pu Luong to build an eco-tourism brand, Thanh Hoa province officially approved the Project on eco-tourism, resort, and entertainment in the special-use forest of Pu Luong Nature Reserve...
As for Pu Mat National Park, what I said above is just a small sketch of the vast space of the Western Nghe An Biosphere Reserve - the largest green belt in Southeast Asia as recognized by UNESCO since 2007, of the "green paradise" as many major newspapers at home and abroad have praised.
Indeed, Pu Mat National Park not only has the Giang River, clear as an endless soft silk strip, running through the banks and the immense green primeval forests. Not only does it have the majestic Kem waterfall, day and night, splashing sparkling white foam with a winding entrance road flanked by tea hills and Thai villages. Not only does it have a group of Dan Lai people, famous for their habit of sleeping sitting up, living in the core of the forest...; but there are also countless interesting things along the border, including Pu Mat peak, 1,800m above sea level, and in the primeval forests along Thoi, Bu, Na, and Choang streams... that are worth the effort to explore.
Pu Mat National Park, within its management area, covers an area of over 94 thousand hectares spread over 3 districts of Anh Son, Con Cuong, and Tuong Duong, with over 2,494 plant species, of which 68 are listed in the Vietnam Red Book. In particular, the most prominent is the thousand-year-old sa mu forest, including a tree 70m high, up to 5.5m in diameter, ranked as the No. 1 heritage tree in Vietnam. There are more than 132 species of animals, belonging to 11 orders, 30 families, including 42 species of large animals, 39 species of bats and 51 species of small animals; typical species are elephants, tigers, saola, white-cheeked gibbons, brown-shanked doucs, pig-tailed macaques, Truong Son mang... In addition, Pu Mat National Park also has 324 species of birds, of which 10 are particularly rare species such as crested pheasants, peacocks, white pheasants, and money chickens; There are about 86 species of amphibians and reptiles, 83 species of fish, 459 species of butterflies and 78 species of ants...
Pu Mat's natural resources are so large and valuable, but when it comes to entertainment and resort services at destinations here, and even neighboring areas within Con Cuong district, it is still too modest. Because of the fact that since 2015, Con Cuong district has been approved by the province for a project to build a town in the direction of an ecological urban area, in which it is determined to focus on exploiting ecological tourism of Pu Mat National Park; investing in building ecological tourism areas of Kem waterfall; Pha Lai dam, Pu Mat National Park Office; Khe Nuoc Moc ...; investing in building commensurately community tourism villages, hotels, commercial centers ...
However, having entered the 9th year of implementing the Project, what exists has not yet fully met the needs of visitors. Even the hotel - supermarket cluster of Muong Thanh Group has been invested in and built very conveniently, but its location in the center of the district, in Bong Khe commune, only ensures the need for food and accommodation like other hotels in the same system, but cannot meet what tourists want, which is to enjoy the ecological resort space and other needs when tourists set foot in the land recognized as a National Park, a Biosphere Reserve of Western Nghe An.
We have asked the leaders of Con Cuong district several times that Muong Thanh Group has spent hundreds of billions of VND to build a hotel - supermarket system, why don't they expand the scale, invest in various types of tourism services along the road to Khe Kem, the banks of Giang River to achieve business efficiency? The answer received was that in 2016, after completing the Grand Con Cuong hotel - commercial center chain, Muong Thanh Group raised the issue of investing on the road to Kem waterfall. But then there were difficulties, so Muong Thanh Group was no longer interested in pursuing investment in Con Cuong...
On the last day of 2023, we told about our experiences in Pu Luong, and mentioned the Project on developing eco-tourism, resorts, and entertainment in the special-use forest of Pu Luong Nature Reserve, which the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee had just approved in November 2023, with some leaders of Con Cuong district as well as Pu Mat National Park. That project is expected to be implemented on more than 16,000 hectares of forest within the scope of Pu Luong Nature Reserve, connecting with buffer zone communes in the two districts of Ba Thuoc and Quan Hoa with a budget of more than 188 billion VND.
In the Project, Thanh Hoa province determined to attract 2 large investors to cooperate, link and rent forest environment to develop tourism in Pu Luong special-use forest; form 9 intra-regional tourism routes, 7 inter-regional tourism routes, 5 marathon routes through the forest, gradually calling for investment to build a cable car route from the central area to the top of Pu Luong with an altitude of 2,000m, in the core area of Pu Luong Nature Reserve...
Learning from friends to change ourselves is what we heard from the leaders of Con Cuong district as well as Pu Mat National Park. Because more than anyone, these officials deeply understand that protecting and developing natural resources is a very important task; but promoting the advantages of biodiversity and scenic spots of Pu Mat National Park to diversify tourism products to help Con Cuong develop its socio-economy, becoming an eco-tourism city, as the Project approved by Nghe An Provincial People's Committee in 2015 in Decision No. 4798/QD-UBND is also a very important task. Therefore, they have also formed new ideas with high determination...
I think it is necessary to do so, because a large and very practical project for a land with great potential like Pu Mat - Con Cuong after nearly 9 years but the results are still too modest, it needs to be re-evaluated to have a new solution that is truly feasible. It is believed that Resolution No. 39-NQ/BCT dated July 18, 2023 of the Politburo has opened up new opportunities for Nghe An. Why can't the Western region of Nghe An, including Con Cuong district with Pu Mat National Park with rich potential, create development opportunities!?
