Exploring Mai Chau for 2 days 1 night
After 2 water-related places I just explored, I decided to get to a place up to the mountain, but I want to have a place nearby Hanoi because I’m not feeling so well to go farther than 5 hours driving. Then I choose Mai Chau – a province on the Norhtwest of Hoa Binh city which is 3,5 hours bus driving from Hanoi.
Let's go to get on the bus to Mai Chau. This bus also went around to pick my group mate up after me.
Departure to Mai Chau
Tour guide and driver pick me up at my hotel.
At first, what is Mai Chau?
At first, I bet your guys will not know where is Mai Chau and what is the specialities there? Well, in short, it is "the countryside of Vietnam", it is totally a different world from Hanoi because of its mountains and the terrace rice fields a long.
Also there are so many ethnic minorities living here. Ethnic minorities- they are wearing casual clothes like us, but when they have some special events or festival, they will wear their group’s traditional costume which is very colorful and beautiful. Their house is a traditional high floor dwelling. Their language is not only Vietnamese but also their own ethnic groups language.
You should stop at the Gosa corner at the scenic point!
→ See more: 24 hours escape from Hanoi
It was three and a half hours to be shaken by bus from Hanoi to Mai Chau. But before reaching Mai Chau, we stoppedfor a while by the superb view point. From here you can see the over view of Mai Chau province. Everyone in my group was so impressed by this scenery like the 2 girls in the photo, I put here...
Actually, souvenir shops are lining up like this, and the other side of the souvenir shop is a superb view. There is a table at each shop,they sell different things in each shop. Try the tea there, it was very nice.Perhaps, even if you do not buy anything, if you say "I want to sit over there", they are willing to let you sit down for a while, but to sit there and didn’t by anything is no nice so I bought some tea back home and some sugarcane to eat right there.
Meals during the tour…
Tours are also concerned about the contents of meals, don’t they?
With this tour, you will be served totally 4 meals and all those meals was fulfilled like this.
The above picture is lunch for the first day. The lunch on the second day is also similar. I really like to join Vietnamese style meal because it bring me a feel-like-home feeling.
For dinner, barbecue
This is all-you-can-eat!
It’s seemingly tasty pancakes.
Well, when you are cold ... ... It would be nice if someone bring you a hot thing to eat,even it was just a simple thing like pancake.
It was a subtle pancake.Toast and fried eggs, instant noodles etc can be chosen, so you can choose something else other than pancakes.
Activity in Mai Chau
Cycling in Mai Chau
On the first day, after arriving at Mai Chau, I had lunch then took a cycling tour aroud Lac village.
You can choose your favorite bike then let's go!
Well! The tour guide was taking us cycle around the village to see those beautiful sceneries like this in the photo. It was a typical Asia countryside with rice fields, mountains, rivers, animals…. The atmostphere here made me feel so peaceful and my soul just thought about my grandma’s house in my hometown years ago when I was a small kid and my parents brought me there to visit my grandparents.
The sunset with a small burning sunset, the temple's bell rings on the mountains. I think I was fall for this Asia country already.
The accommodation is too beautiful
"Sunrise Village" at the accommodation.
This hotel was really nice.I can choose from two types of dormitory orprivate bungalow to stay.
Dormitory but it was not just a narrow space with a bunkbed. As the curtains were on, my private space is secured.
It was making of the form "stilt house" of ethnic minorities. I want to try the feelings of ethnic minority people! I highly recommended people to stay in a kind of house like this.
This is a standard type room. Feel good enough.
Deluxe type rooms here.
Oh, note that the shared toilet shower becomes a separate building in the dormitory rooms.
Although it was clean, it was a bit troublesome to go outside and take shower at night. You had better go there in the evening.
Local drink and dance at night
After BBQ, we enjoyed the local ethnic minority dance performance.
This dance performance, the audience and performer will also dance together.
Bamboo dance was a traditional dance of minorities group in here.
At the end, we danced in the circle and everyone drinks local sake (ruou can) with a long bamboo straw.
This is pretty tasty. It was a feeling like white sake of Japanese. But honestly it was so strong wine.
Trekking on the second day.
The second day was trekking. I went on a halfway with my bicycle, stop my bicycle and walked down the mountain and through the village. Here I met do many people who is living here and these 2 little cute girls was one of them.
The water in the mountain was very mellow.
The man who was cutting chop sticks for family using. Of course, this uncle is ethnic minority, too. It was very interested that people here they can make most of the things needed in daily life by themselve.
Until now, some of ethnic minority family still lives in a high floor dwelling.
Andduring trekking, I was able to see a variety of things, such as being natural and living in ethnic minorities.
Trekking on the second day is very fulfilling
The animals will be healed
While cycling around Mai Chau and doing trekking, I met a lot of animals which were really cute and friendly to human. They seemed to live with the ethnic people in the same house, too.
Pretty cute miscellaneous goods
Here is a cloth accessory shop in the village called Lac Village.
I bombed cloth accessories myself in Mai Chau (My tension went up most in Mai Chau). But it's about 30USD in total. If you buy it in Hanoi city, it is about twice as likely. Mai Chau had more cheap and cute cloth accessories than I’d imagined.
I think that traditional textile technology of ethnic minorities is well sold with a modern design.
Even in a shop you could see the workshop!
Let's enrich our free time!
On the second day of the tour, returning from trekking, eating lunch is a free time until a bus returns to Hanoi.
There are about 2 hours, so I think that it would be better to make a journey like me
Here is a mother who cooking bamboo-tube rice, traditional food in Northern Vietnam. They made this tasty food by steaming rice in a bamboo-tube until they turned from white bamboo to dark yellow. And simply I just ate it with peanut-salt.
Shopping for miscellaneous things is also in the free time.
These activities I did on my own when I have 2 hours free time from the tour so depends on the tour guide that day if there is some vacant time you should go exploring yourself to have some interested experiences.
Mai Chau summary
In the countryside of Vietnam, "Mai Chau" can be reached inabout 3 hours and 30 minutes from Hanoi, the imaginary countryside view point was spreading. I think that it is the best place to have some fresh air, see a peaceful scenery and relax. And, the only unexpected thing was "shopping"!
The souvenirs such as folk crafts, dress, bracelet…., but I was surprised to see a lot of cute miscellaneous things which Hanoi's fashionable grocery shops could sell with a lot more expensive.
"Refreshing yourself" was what Mai Chau tour’s purpose. To those who are considering a girls journey like that, I’ll highly recommended.
⇒ Book Mai Chau tour: Send an email: info@vietnamamazingtours.com
