Homestay Bai Huong

Mama Kim hosted us at her place as if we were from the family ! She has such a smiling face and so many nice attention that you forget about the language differences! She cooks as a chef, and her location is just amazing if you want to mingle with local people. We have also been on a fishing excursion organized by her, and it was so authentic. Such a pleasant moment ! I just regret that I couldn't stay longer !!

I had been in contact with Homestay Bai Huong prior to our arrival to advise them that we were making our own way to Cham Island with a diving company. I asked them if they could pick us up from the beach where the diving company was going to leave us. They confirmed all was OK and they would come and get us. Once at the beach, we waited for over an hour but no one turned up. Despite the language barrier, we managed to arrange a lift by boat with a local Vietnamese man. When we arrived at the village, a man confirmed he had received our email but he was not the owner of the place I had booked. I believe there was some confusion there and I might have emailed the wrong person. He took us to a place which was very basic and was not the place I had originally booked. I refused to stay there. So he found us another place to stay which belonged to the parents of the lady I had booked with. It still wasn't the place I had booked, as she (Kim) had given our rooms to someone else but it was clean, had air conditioning and the couple were doing their outmost to please us. In the end, we were happy with the accommodation. "Mama Kim" took great care of us, cooked us some wonderful food and was genuinely friendly and helpful, despite the language barrier. So I can't recommend the place we originally booked since we didn't stay there but I can highly recommend Island Smiles Homestay, which is where we stayed.

Overall really bad experience. Real safety questions that go to whether this place should be listed. The snorkel tour equipment was substandard (and there were no fins) and the owner was I believe inebriated in the tiny wood boat. Two other young women tried to get back into the boat but the owner was sleeping and the rope ladder broke. Extremely unsafe. Our room had no door on it and the owner and his wife were constantly coming in. My girlfriend was without clothes and the male owner came in and stared at her grinning until she yelled at him. The home stay was misrepresented in description. Basically, the descriptions are for an amalgamation of various home stays in this village. There is no balcony. The tv is also on loud. The electricity goes off at 10 pm in the village. There is a wonderful little Buddhist monastery in the village worth going to and speaking with the young monk. I did not expect even a two star place and was not expecting it. I have traveled in many third world countries - that is not the issue. The issue is safety and security. We booked for two nights but left after one night. Depending on how you get to the islands a number of the boats are unsafe.

Dear fellow travellers, We spent two nights at Island Smiles Homestay and I have to say it was the best decision we have made while travelling Viet Nam. Everything was incredibly well organised. Kim, the owner, contacted us two days before our arrival and she speaks very good english so it was very easy to communicate. Her mom, Bui, came to pick us up at the main ferry arrival in Bai Lang. Then we took a second boat to Bai Huong with Bui to go to the homestay. We were delighted to be there. The house is very clean and new as well as the sheets, the bathroom is functional, and most important the food Bui cooked for us was incredibly delicious! We really enjoyed ourself at this homestay, we felt at home. Bui is such a loving person, she took care of us very very well. I would like to thank you Kim and Bui (also called "Mama Kim") for being so helpful during our stay on beautiful Cham island. Lastly, I would recommend this homestay to everyone who is willing to learn about the real vietnamese culture and lifestyle. Cheers, Zoe and Florian

Så mycket homestay det kan bli! Väldigt enkelt boende och ingen i byn förstod någon engelska. Trots det hade vi en härlig kväll med värdparet som kommunicerade med oss med hjälp av en ordbok. En upplevelse!