Mai Chau

My first time in Mai Chau 

My story

Mai Chau – the name that I have heart from my friends over and over again. Until the age of 28 years old, I went to Mai Chau for a prospection trip.

I was happy and fullfilled.

People make the place, that is what I always believe.

The owners of the homestay made me feel home and forgot all the tiredness of a long travelling and thinking week.

If I go back Mai Chau by myself, one of the reasons is to visit the nice couple – Quan Hang.

Mai Chau itself has values of different ethenics . If you walk around different villages, you can see how local people live, rather the senery. If you want to see the scenery, you should take sometimes while staying in cars, vans to observe or take photos.

If you go to Mai Chau from Hanoi, let’s stop at the Thung Khe small market to take a break as well as eat eggs or corns. And yes from there you can take some nice photos.

Location

A rural district of Hòa Bình Province in the Northwest region of Vietnam

Opening hours

Always

It is better to visit in the haverst where you can see the beautiful scenery of rice field.

Stories behind the name

‘Mai’ is tomorrow in Vietnamese

‘Chau’ is perl in Vietnamese

Features

Recommended route:

From Ban Lac > go around all villages > Thai museum > back the homestay and learn how to cook or how to drink ‘ruou can’ (wine drunk out of a jar through pipes) or doing archery > wearing Thai clothes or learn how to become a weaver.

The next morning, you can go to Hang Chieu (1000 steps).

Where to stay

Quan Hang homestay – cheap, clean and convenient

The owner went to buy bread and made the breakfast for me. And yes, dont forget that he made a great cup of coffee for me. 

(Dinner prepared by c Hang and a Quan)

Mai Chau lodge – expensive but good variety of services (but I love the way they welcomed customers by handing them a wet tower)

What to buy

Buy LAM rice, eggs, and Thai clothes. 

Second time in Mai Chau 

And here I am, in Mai Chau, for a real trip with my awesome Belgium volunteer gang. I was more than happy to see my gang enjoyed Mai Chau at the first minute when they just entered the stilt house where we all sleep together. 

One of them shared with me "I already told my mum that I would stay here and dont go back home". Other said "I will come back here, you need to tell me how to take the bus back here". Everyone felt special and wanted to stay back Mai Chau. 

Even though it was hot and after a long ride in the car, everyone was excited to just go and discover the village. 

We started our small cycling tour with the whole group then divided the group into smaller groups for swimming, going to the museum and doing weaving. 

We gather at home at 7pm to start our cooking competitions. Three teams were excited to make their own spring rolls and decorated them beautifully. 

And this is time you can see how innovative people are. 

We asked the owner and her kid to choose which one is the best one. 

We then enjoyed the real spring roll made by the owner of our homestay - ms Hang. And yes, we enjoyed her fried chicken as well as her great soup. 

We chilled out a bit with a bit "ruou can" (wine drunk out of a jar through pipes) before starting our H'mong dancing. 

Everyone dressed in H'mong dress and started with H'mong song, then gangnamestyle song, then chicken dance then macarena and so on. 

The owner of our hotel said " I was so tired but I went to dance with you guys then all tiredness disappeared, just happiness and exciting remainging".

Thanks for wonderful people. 

I never expected we would enjoy that much but I could imagine it could happen as the best it could be 

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Photo gallery