(TITC) - Located about 7km to the north of Dien Bien Phu City’s center, Phieng Loi Village (Thanh Minh Commune, Dien Bien Phu City, Dien Bien Province) is home to 220 Thai ethnic people with specific customs of the Northwestern region.
Phieng Loi Village has the total area of 112.4 ha. According to the local language, “phieng” means a flat place, and “loi” is a slang speak of “doi” (life). This name expresses wish of village people to settle permanently in this land.
Like many other Thai villages in Dien Bien Province, stilt houses in Phieng Loi back to mountain and face river, stream or field. From a distance, Phieng Loi looks like a water-color painting with traditional stilt houses in close proximity next to the beautiful river of Nam Rom, surrounded by forest and spectacular mountains.
Thai people in Phieng Loi live mainly by planting rice, knitting and weaving traditional embroidery. In recent years, thanks to orientation of Dien Bien Province, Phieng Loi Village has began to develop community-based tourism to serve visitors. So far, there are 30 households in the village taking part in community-based tourism, of which 15 people were trained to raise awareness of this tourism type. Community-based tourism not only contributes to improving life of people but also preserves and promotes traditional cultural values such as: folk art, cuisine, festivals, crafts…
To Phieng Loi, visitors will have opportunity to admire idyllic village scenery and experience cultural life of Thai people. Especially, if staying overnight, visitors will see romanticism of Phieng Loi’s night. Around flickering flame, visitors together with village people process and enjoy local specialties, drink cassava wine and participate in “xoe” dance – a specific cultural activity in Phieng Loi.
Spectacular natural landscape, specific cultural features and hospitable people are invaluable resources making special attractiveness of Phieng Loi Village.
|