Kiều Maily has never separated her work from who she is. She is a poet, writer, dancer, cultural researcher and culinary artisan, and each role begins in the same place: her life as a Cham woman and her love for the community that raised her.
She was born in Phước Nhơn, a Cham village near Phan Rang in Ninh Thuận, where folk songs, dance, family recipes and festivals shape daily life. Most families here live from herbal remedies passed down through generations, travelling for months each year to practise them and coming home for Ramuwan, the largest Cham festival in Vietnam.
In Cham families, dances pass from mothers to daughters, and most girls begin learning in kindergarten. Maily started at five. She later became one of the few women from her village able to sing while playing the baranưng, a drum that custom still reserves for men at religious ceremonies.
Finding her own way to preserve Cham culture
Maily spent nearly 15 years in Saigon, working as a Cham-language broadcaster for Voice of Vietnam, writing for newspapers, publishing poetry and researching the traditions of her community.
When she felt something through language, she wrote poetry. When she wanted children to recognize themselves in their own traditions, she wrote stories for them. When she saw that Cham cooking was being passed on mainly through memory, she documented it.
Her book Độc đáo ẩm thực Chăm (Unique Cham Cuisine) records 96 traditional dishes, most cooked with medicinal herbs, recipes long carried in the memories of the women who cook them. In 2020, she was recognized as an Artisan of Vietnamese Culinary Culture and Traditional Crafts, and in 2022 she joined the Vietnam Writers’ Association.
These titles recognize her achievements, but not the patience behind them: more than a decade of travelling, listening, cooking, dancing and gathering memories from Cham communities.
A Cham woman creating a home in Hoi An
In 2017, Maily left her established life in Saigon and moved to Hoi An to create a space dedicated to Cham culture.
The choice was rooted in history. The region once formed part of Amaravati, the Champa state that covered much of today’s Quảng Nam and Đà Nẵng. It also carried a family memory: her parents had travelled through Quảng Nam practising herbal medicine and never forgot the warmth of the people they met.
Beside the nipa palm forest of Cẩm Thanh, she opened Champa Amaravati House to visitors in 2020. It is not a grand museum but a personal space of traditional clothing, instruments, family objects and photographs, where a costume leads to a story about the women who wear it and a dish opens a conversation about family and the land.
Tea, stories, music and memory
Afternoon tea with Maily is one of the most personal experiences we can arrange in Hoi An. Guests are welcomed the Cham way, with water poured from a clay jar to rinse their hands. Over homemade herbal tea, traditional cakes and preserves, Maily talks about the culture she knows through both research and lived experience.
She may speak about growing up in Ninh Thuận, the role of women in Cham family life, festivals and beliefs, or the ties between Cham and Quảng culture. Often the conversation turns to music: an old call-and-response love song, the rhythm of the baranưng, or a dance with a water jar balanced on her head.
Music and dance are simply other ways for Maily to tell the stories that words alone cannot carry.
Maily speaks Vietnamese, and Justravel Asia arranges an interpreter for international guests. This keeps the gathering a real conversation, with time to ask questions and understand details that rarely appear in a guidebook.
The women who give a journey its depth
A well-designed journey should do more than bring travelers to beautiful places. It should create real value for the local people whose knowledge and hospitality give each place its character.
Time with women like Maily shows travelers the work behind the experience: years of research, memories being protected, family knowledge passed on, and the courage it takes for a woman to build something in her own voice. Her hopes reach beyond her own house, to welcoming travelers to Phước Nhơn and linking Cham cultural experiences across Central Vietnam. Supporting her work gives these stories the space and value they deserve, while offering travelers a more personal understanding of the place they have come to see.
As a women-owned travel company, Justravel Asia understands and appreciates this connection deeply. We are proud to work with local women, listen to the stories behind what they have created, and introduce our travelers to them with care and respect. It is the same care we bring to the journeys we design for women travelers, whether they come on their own or with friends.
An afternoon with Maily is more than an introduction to Cham culture. It is time with a woman who has turned her heritage into a lifelong body of work, and a reminder that the most lasting travel experiences often begin with the people who invite us into their stories.
