RETURNING HOME
What if traveling to Vietnam could also make you look at your own life differently?
Returning Home takes you beyond the usual tourist trail and into everyday life in Vietnam’s Central Highlands — where land, food, nature, culture, language, work, and people are connected through everyday life. Through real experiences and local perspectives, this bilingual book explores six simple parts of life:
LIVING • EATING • EXPLORING • LEARNING • WORKING • SOCIALIZING
For travelers, it offers a closer look at life beyond hotels, attractions, and tourist checklists.
For language learners, English and Vietnamese appear side by side, connecting everyday words and expressions with real places, people, food, work, and culture.
For curious people and dreamers, the Six-Harmony framework offers a simple way to think about the quality of your own life.
Inside the six chapters, you will find stories and practical reflections on real life in the Central Highlands — from homes and gardens to food, work, learning, travel, and relationships.
LIVING explores homes, traditional Ede stilt houses, communal houses, gardens, ponds, farms, forests, family spaces, ancestor altars, and Rooted Design — how land, people, plants, animals, and local resources can shape the way we live.
EATING explores family meals, local markets, Ede cuisine, Vietnamese food culture, coffee, rice civilization, seasonal food, gatherings, and Yin and Yang in everyday cooking.
EXPLORING goes beyond famous attractions to explore Buon Ma Thuot, local place names, Dray Sap and Dray Nur waterfalls, Yang Tao pottery, elephants, museums, Bao Dai Palace, history, and the sounds of the Central Highlands.
LEARNING connects language and culture with local knowledge, practical skills, education, history, communication, self-awareness, and everyday lessons.
WORKING looks at leaving home, returning home, preparation, farming, craftsmanship, business, knowledge, systems, growth, and building a life and community.
SOCIALIZING explores family introductions, greetings, cultural exchange, deep connection, individuality, shared values, and what it means to build a happy community without losing your own identity.
You will also encounter ideas such as The Rural Paradox, The Price of Leaving, The Journey Home, Practical Patriotism, The Power of Preparation, Growth Has an Order, and Individuality and Community. The book explores slow travel, responsible tourism, cultural exchange, sustainable living, and community through everyday experiences rather than abstract theories. This is not a traditional travel guide, and it is not a formula for happiness. It invites you to look closer — at a place, its people, and perhaps your own life.
Whether you live in Vietnam, the United States, France, Germany, or anywhere else, ask yourself:
Do I have a safe, peaceful, and warm place to live?
Does what I eat nourish my body and mind and give me the energy I need for everyday life?
Do I have nature and space to explore, play, and enjoy life?
Do I have something meaningful to learn?
Do I have meaningful work and a private space to focus?
Do I have people to share life with, exchange ideas with, and connect with?
You do not have to change everything at once. Sometimes, improving one small part of everyday life is enough to begin. Because sometimes, finding your way home is not about finding a particular house. It is about discovering what kind of life truly feels like home to you. Come beyond the check-in, experience the place, understand the people, look at your own life, and find your own way home.
Li–Based Agro-Architecture Book
In the age of deep globalization, Vietnam’s economy must clearly define its core comparative advantages to sustain long-term competitiveness with both developed and emerging economies. Rooted in its wet-rice civilization, Vietnam possesses inherent agricultural strengths that support participation in international supply chains and the capacity to meet global food demand.
To align with the principles of the green and circular economy, Vietnamese agriculture must reach international integration standards. This transformation requires industrialized production systems that ensure traceability, and achieve high consistency in productivity, form, and quality.
Such development calls for a systematic reassessment and redesign of current agricultural and rural infrastructure, accompanied by a long-term state strategy to enhance farmers’ knowledge and technical capacity. Innovation in agriculture must be pursued through an interdisciplinary approach — integrating education, transportation, industry and trade, and construction — to realize shared development goals.
Beyond external support in markets, finance, and technology, Vietnam must cultivate internal resources: public knowledge, civic spirit, and social welfare — the essential foundations for sustainable production, social stability, and dynamic trade growth.
At the heart of this internal strength lies Vietnam’s traditional language and culture, which must be preserved, cultivated, and advanced as a strategic pillar of national development.
Podcast & Storytelling
Podcast: Can you see the big world even from the countryside? – chia sẻ kinh nghiệm sống và phát triển homestay ở Đắk Lắk.
Tài liệu Podcast – Unbox Your Life – hướng dẫn, case study và transcript của các tập podcast liên quan đến phát triển cá nhân, trải nghiệm vùng nông thôn, wellness, và storytelling.
Tourism & Homestay
Documents on homestay development, VAC model, and farm tour experiences.
Guides for Digital Nomad Hub, co-living, and volunteer programs.
Best practices for homestay management, marketing, and sustainable tourism development.
Language & Education
Documents for language learning and teaching (English Practice, Chinese & English Club).
Four-Word Thinking of Field (FWET) and Four-Word Explicit Thinking (FWET) – logic, memory, and cognitive skill development.