Located on the coastal Dien Hoa Commune, Dien Khanh District, Khanh Hoa Province, Memento Country Home offers guests Vietnamese-style thatched-roof cottages that exude the aura of a 1930s village surrounded by streams, brick courtyards with mango and jack fruit trees.
In 1990, after graduating from the University of Aquaculture in Nha Trang, a 23 year old man named Tran Dang Liem decided to move to HCMC to follow a dream of owning his own business. However, he never forgot his beloved home land in Lac Loi Hamlet, Dien Hoa commune, Dien Khanh District, Khanh Hoa Province; an original French-style ancient house built in 1939 in a garden of 7,000 square meters, where four generations of the Tran family had found shelter and which was now deserted and downgraded
Fifteen years later, he left HCMC and returned to his home town, to restore his garden and the old Tran family home into a countryside tourism destination, calling it Memento which, according to Dang Liem, means memorable homeland.
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Memento is located in a rural area amongst the roads, rice fields and gardens of the villages, 14 kilometers from Nha Trang. To get there, travelers must follow the National High Way 1A to Dien Khanh District, pass the two gates West and East for four more kilometers until they come to a small street on the left side, facing a school, named Nguyen Du. Memento is a little more than one kilometer down this street.
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The streets to Memento pass green rice fields and are lined with betel-nut trees. Travelers will enjoy the fresh air and the beauty of nature. Admission to Memento is free, or visitors may pay for a stay at this rural area to enjoy the specialties of the local countryside.
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Passing through the wooden gate of Memento, visitors to Memento will discover the characteristics of the original Vietnamese countryside in the houses with thatch roofs and earthen walls, cooking tools to make banh xeo, a special crispy rice pancake in the countryside, and bamboo tables and chairs inviting guests to come in to enjoy this hot, crispy dish. There is a small fishpond with fishing-rods placed at the side for guests who want to test their talents in fishing, or they may chose to relax while taking a leisurely walk in the shadow of the trees, enveloped in the green grass and luffa and melon trellis, hearing the murmur of the small brooks and watching the cocks wandering around searching for food.
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Upon request, the tourism center will prepare a lunch of traditional Vietnamese dishes such as grilled corn and sweet potatoes, sweetened porridge and other traditional countryside foods. There are also other simple pleasures that visitors who stay for the night will not find in modern cities, such as a relaxing nap after lunch in hammocks tied to the bamboo trees, a hair wash with soapberry water poured with a dipper made of coconut shells beside a row of bamboos, or waking up after a good sleep to the sound of cocks crowing in the early morning.
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For Dang Liem, Memento is not an installation but a homecoming to his joyful childhood, the place he loved so much and all of which he has recreated within only 7,000 meters.
(Source: SGT)
