Mai Chau

Travel Stories - Vietnam


Mai-Chau-Rice-Field-Worker-Vietnam-Rural

My Arrival


It's a quarter to one when I depart the bus at Tong Dau and the (bus)boy gets my big bag out of the trunk. There are a few houses, a cafe and a gasoline-station but that's it. Two boys come directly from the terrace and ask me where I want to go. I point to the sign indicating Mai Chau.

 

It is too far to walk, says the young boy, especially with your bag and the heat, and there he has a point. Because he might get commission, I agree with the price and take me to a homestay in the village Pom Coong by first driving through the boring Mai Chau. It is indeed quite a distance and this is really a "White Thai" community with houses on stilts. The man shows me the toilet and shower that look reasonable in the yard behind and he takes me to the first floor on a bamboo floor (at first I thought I would go straight through) where he points to the corner near the open window. 

 

He points to a mattress and a blanket and apparently that will become my place to sleep. We fix a price including dinner and breakfast and I leave my big bag here. Before I set off, the man proudly points to one of the poles under the house where a piece of paper hangs. It turns out to be the WIFI code for the internet. The power has failed, the internet does not work, but the password is good.


dream valley


Many new buildings are erected here, including hotels and guest houses. As I walk further I turn right and follow the slope down where I see a whole group of people together. Women with large baskets full of rice and reed come running, baskets on wooden sticks, carts - everything that the rice can be transported with, I see coming together here.

 

There is also a machine for separating the wheat from the chaff, and pieces of agricultural land are set on fire - the so-called "chopping and burning". It looks like war - smoke with kinda “dancing” men (because of the way they walk fast) with heavy baskets, and women with machetes in the field. Rice fields, small ditches, green areas, wooden houses on the water and high mountains around the valley.

 

It looks like a dream valley and it is. If the machine falters for a moment, I quickly pass by so that I do not get full of reed residues and come from a concrete path of about 3 meters wide which leads to different communities.


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The new Sapa


Great heirs with cows, piglets and chickens. Dogs run loose and you see people walking with carts. Sometimes a scooter passes. Everywhere houses on stilts and women sit outside to weave. Suddenly I see a woman with a red mouth (from the plums) and traditional clothing (at least I think so) - black skirt, blue scarf around her head, a purple shirt and a flower sash around her waist.

 

Women offer to buy something and children are still waving here to tourists like me. I walk out of this community where again there are a few lakes and a mud path where I’m sent by a man along a rice field with various water buffalo. On the edge are some women to rest from the hard labor they did in the paddyfields. I arrive at the expensive "eco-lodge" which is nicely built but of course brings the “wrong” people here; I also see a whole group of white tourists walking around here. I fear that this will become the new Sapa and in a few years this no longer recognized. Now it's really nice though the principles are already there. 

 

I'm just lost and ask a girl on a scooter where to go to get back at my hostel. She brings me back to the bridge of the community Pom Coong on an even smaller mud trail. I am happy to step down and wave her goodbye.


Home stay hostel


The home-stay is not the "home" that I expected and hoped for. The food is brought (potatoes with pieces of carrot, onions with chicken, green beans and rice) to my table while the family sits in a different room on the floor. I was hoping that I was part of this family and we would at least eat together.

 

I am offered another cola (which I can pay extra for tomorrow) when the rest of the family (the children) return home. No idea where they all go to sleep and I hope that when I come upstairs there will be a number of mattresses next to mine. If I have my food I go up anyway because it is dark and so to see or everyone goes to bed early. When one of the daughters comes back from a "performance" for tourists further up the road, I brush my teeth and go to my bedroom.

 

A mattress and a deep silence - I take a seat in my mosquito net, read some more and then take off my light - I think I was the last in the village.


Mai-Chau-Pom-Coong-Rice-Field-Worker-Vietnam-Rural

tips & advice (2014)


There are of course direct "open tour" buses from Hanoi (old city) to Mai Chau - costs 250,000 VND and within 3.5 hours you are there. There are also day tours so that you are back in the evening.

 

But you can also first go to My Dinh bus station in Hanoi (with local bus nr 34 from Dien Bien Phu street) Cost: 7000 VND and duration 45 minutes Do not buy a ticket at the counter but find (or ask for) the bus that goes to Son La on the bus grounds and find a spot on the bus.There are also direct local buses from Hanoi to Mai Chau at 6:30 am and 1:30 pm. The bus of mine went at 9:30 am and took a bit more about 3 hours Costs (in the bus) 100.000 VND You will be dropped off at the Tong Dau junction where it is still 5 to 7 kilometers to Mai Chau and the valley.

 

Back I was again brought on the engine for 25.000 VND (arranged by the hostel); it was maybe ten minutes on a bus to Son La. The bus takes 4 hours and costs 150,000 VND.


There are actually no nice places to sit, eat or drink in Mai Chau. It was a disaster to find a "nice" eatery which is not a real "cozy" city anyway. Later I found a reasonable terrace outside Mai Chau where I had a cup "Nescafé". Eating most people do at their "home-stay" who also offer this when you check in. In the evening the place is empty so bring a good book.


There are certainly plenty of sleeping options in Mai Chau city and valley. I have certainly seen two hostels in the city and a few (more expensive) hotels. The best thing is to sleep in a home-stay in a smaller community in the valley itself. I have seen enough "home-stays" in Pom Coong and Lac and also on the way. There is a gigantic large "Eco lodge" built where you can sleep and so to hear and see the number of overnight places quite extensive in the coming years.

 

  • Name: Nha Nghi homestay 10 (Ha Trung Tu)

Address: nr 48 (Pom Coong)

Price: 100,000 VND (dormitory)

Phone nr. : 02183868585/01239103964

 

Content:

The guesthouse is the first on the right which you encounter when you enter the community Pom Coong. Under the house (on stilts) is a table with two plastic chairs, while in front of the road is a weaving wheel of grandmother whose house it is (together with grandpa). It is a neat house - daughter with husband and child sleeping downstairs where also in the garden the toilet and shower are located.

 

Primitive but it is a Western wc and the shower gives fairly warm water. On top of the reed floor you will sleep on a thin folding mattress, a blanket and a large mosquito net around it. This looks like the living room with cupboards, a nice view with two windows on the road in front and a hallway to the room where the parents sleep. It is pretty noisy all but everyone goes to bed here at 22:00. There is WIFI available.

 

  • Sleeping: 100,000 VND
  • Food: 80.0000 VND (you have to bargain because he also asks 100,000) for dinner and breakfast. Lunch is not included - this is pretty pricey considering what you get. The dinner is still decent, the breakfast is a large bowl of noodles (from a package) with some fresh vegetables.

 

PAY ATTENTION:

Drinking is therefore totally not included; the can of cola or beer that you get offered during the dinner will be put on the account the next day (20,000 for cola). And this also counts for coffee in the morning (20,000).


Mai-Chau-Pom-Coong-Rice-Field-Worker-Vietnam-Rural-Homestay

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