A Weekend at Giao Diem Homestay, My Tho

Last weekend I needed to get out of Saigon's traffic and get myself into a quiet, green area, stat. Fortunately, Sieu's colleague broke his leg (I mean, that part's not great, obviously), and he needed to deliver his work computer and materials to him at home in My Tho for extended work-from-home. Opportunity buzzer sounds!

We packed up for three days and two nights to travel to the closest city southwest of HCMC and set about looking for a place to stay, eventually landing on Giao Diem Homestay, which has a big ol' garden and DOGS. While it isn't very close to the city of My Tho proper (about 8 miles/14 km), that was just dandy for me. I generally subscribe to a more isolationist, and decidedly lazy, view of vacation. Going out and doing things? When you just did things all week?? That's how they get you, man.

Click through to learn all about Giao Diem Homestay, My Tho!

Located just Northwest of My Tho, roughly 32 miles away from Saigon, Giao Diem has, just like the tourism industry as a whole, been heavily impacted by COVID and so we got the red carpet treatment as the only tourists visiting for the weekend. They have 6 bungalows surrounding a country-style garden, with some gathering space in the middle, including a BBQ you can use.

I can't say enough good things about this place. The grounds are really pretty, the bungalows are spacious and well-equipped, and the host is so kind and knowledgable. He noticed that I hadn't gone out for dinner the first night (I was alone and not that hungry) so he sent his kid over with corn on the cob and onion butter. That's next-level hospitality!

Before we went out for a spin around the countryside on our free, provided bicycles, we took a look around and I got some pictures. 

Take a look inside and out in this quick video:

And here are some still images from my stay:

It's really pretty, if a bit full of mosquitos this time of year (it's the rainy season). It was the perfect antidote to the unending concrete and inescapable buzz of people and motorbikes of the big city.

The owner, Tri, and his son are very fluent in English and are looking to make your stay as comfortable and interesting as possible. Currently they aren't getting a lot of guests and have pivoted to housing workers from the nearby industrial park, so if you are looking for the Royal Treatment a short 1.5 hours (by bus) from HCMC, give him a boost and make his day! 

The place also has THREE (3) DOGS! And they love to be touched and get skritches!

And these weird pigeon-chicken things, which imma call pidgkins because that's cute and it sounds like a pokemon. They have fluffy feet and I honestly have no idea what they, except birds of some sort. I never saw one fly, though.

The homestay offers several services, in addition to just being generally helpful and informative. There's a boat tour that lasts from 8am-3pm for 2 million VND (we didn't have the cash to try, unfortunately). They can rent you a motorbike for 180k VND a day, and we got a good one to zoom around the countryside. They provide free bicycles for you to pedal around the countryside, and they also have a big list of attractions you can go see (if it isn't raining, that is... it’s a bit of a drive to the nearest attractions or the city of My Tho).

They're looking to make your getaway as interesting as possible, and they do a great job.

Thanks for reading! Let’s hope the country doesn’t have many more COVID case outbreaks in the coming months so I can get out and blog about somewhere new in the areas surrounding Saigon. :)

My Tho attractions and things to do/eat coming in a post soon!