The historical Vietnamese Village aka VietVille in Brgy. Sta Lourdes, Puerto Princesa ends 2020 with a bang, through their on-going renovations and make over to a place that was once a dwelling community of Vietnamese people.
Owned by the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Princesa, Vietville is always in the go to list of City Tours in the past, with only the ruins of more than 150 houses, a church, a Buddhist temple and a restaurant that offers authentic Vietnamese cuisine as attraction, but only this December the management decided to reborn the whole village with new concept and plan intended to finish in three months’ time.
The new VietVille is now presented with numerous LED lights display, the old houses were removed and its design have undergone innovation to serve as art pieces with cultural value, a 40 minute walking tour is introduced as the sole activity for the guests who want to walk and experience the forest feel ambiance loaded with historical information, and a four day market bazaar to help the local entrepreneurs.
Nightly entertainment is also set with different contest for local artists in different field to showcase talents and wits. These are initial offering for now according to Adora Marie Aldritt, VietVille Co-Partner. Many are in the pipeline of their plan with undisclosed amount of money in order to put all of this, as part of the preparation once travel became normal again for international and local tourists.
“VietVille on its heyday was a very vibrant community, so now we’re doing slowly-slowly trying to bring back life to the village, and encourage people to walk around. Nothing major, soft development ang tawag namin diyan, we have many-many things planned, that is all came na parang we need to help, buhayin natin ang place and in doing so we can also help the local economy,” Aldritt said.
“Filnamese” cuisine or Filipino-Vietnamese food with fusion is in their list to make the VietVille Restaurant ring a bell soon, a well enhanced gastronomic experience is targeted in order to keep not only the locals, but tourists to love their food offers.
“It’s all privately funded, the investment that was put in here is not a joke, because we are also not joking about our intentions, no.1 this is an alternative destination, it deserves a recognition, and we need to help each other,” Aldritt explain.
Partnering with VietVille as Investor is the Palawenyo Savers Club headed by its Founder Peter G. Sing, he said that in its long term plan, they want to conduct a an annual festival of lights in the area, making it an art hub, venue for exhibits, a theater set up in the forest, a bar in the forest, and a special library in the forest.
“We simply beautify the place, we lit it up inilawan natin, simula pa lang ‘yan ng pag-iilaw ng isang nabubuong pangarap sa grupo, para magkaroon ng annual festival of lights in Puerto Princesa, so taon-taon iba iba ang makikita, mas gagara mas gaganda. Lahat tayo gustong bumalik ang turismo, sa Palawan, sa Puerto Princesa, we are preparing a new destination for local tourists and hopefully soon international tourists,” Sing said.
The visit to VietVille is free to the public, free ride is also offered from Robinsons Mall starting from 10AM up to 10 in the evening, the walking tour is also free to the guests, just approach the management of the Village for the schedule, and they are open Monday to Sundays.
The Vietnamese Village is established in 1996 as new site from the original Vietnamese Asylum seekers camp in Canigaran beach at Rizal Avenue extension, most of them are now back in Vietnam while majority lives in the United States of America.
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