30/07/2026
Slèng bấu, everyone? That's how the Tay people greet each other here in Thái Nguyên, less "hello" and more "are you well?".
Our Aven Asia team just wrapped up two days at Thai Hai, a Tay village that became the first in Vietnam to be named a UNWTO Best Tourism Village, back in 2022. No hotel, no itinerary packed with photo stops, just stilt houses, shared meals, and a community that still lives by rules most of us have never seen up close.
Here, around 30 households live under one roof of tradition: no one keeps a private income. Everything the village earns, from farming, from tourism, from the crafts people make with their hands, goes into one shared fund. The village elder, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hai, decides how it's spent so every family's needs are covered: food, healthcare, school, even a bit of fun. Locals call it "cơm ăn chung nồi, tiêu tiền chung túi", eating from the same pot, spending from the same purse.
Spending two days inside that way of life, sitting down to shared meals in the same wooden houses, hearing how the village looks after its own, was a reminder of something we don't say out loud enough: real hospitality isn't a transaction, it's a way of taking care of people. That's the same spirit we try to carry into how Aven Asia takes care of our partners.
And of course, no Aven Asia trip is complete without a bit of chaos: team-building games that had everyone laughing, competing, and throwing a teammate under the bus for the win.
Grateful to the whole team for making this trip one to remember.
📍 Thai Hai Village, Thinh Duc, Thai Nguyen
