Mai Chau Village: Hidden tribes in a deep valley
January 21, 2016
Location: Vietnam
Mai Chau is located at Hoa Binh, about 120 km away from Hanoi.
My Experience
The bus took about 4 hrs to arrive there and my first impression was absolutely positive. This place is popular for its beautiful lush scenery, the evergreen paddy fields surrounded by majestic mountains and the “love market” of some ethnic minority. The weather was terrible, it was raining the entire time in Mai Chau Village and I didn’t spend enough time exploring the area on the first day, I only saw their big and lovely market.
Monk People are dancing in their typical show. Mai Chau Village
Smile, smile and smile, I love Vietnam! Mai Chau Village
Nice people meet in the local market. Mai Chau Village
On the second day the weather was a little bit better, it wasn’t raining so I rented a bike to go around the village. There are no signs to guide you, but with a small map is pretty easy to discover the whole area. Anyway I enjoyed Mai Chau Village and its lovely countryside, watching people in their everyday living and doing their job in that beautiful area. Just before going back to Hanoi I watched a Thai ethnic dance performance and drank rice wine from a small bamboo cane.It was a lovely experience in a serene and peaceful place, except for the “incredible” cold weather. Read my adventures in Southeast Asia here.
How to get there, best time and cost
Hoa Binh is the only city you will pass through if travelling to Mai Chau village. The majority of buses to Hoa Binh depart from the main station in Hanoi, 3$AUD 4 hrs. The other option is to book a 2 days tour, with transport and accommodation included. I decided to book a tour to go there, it costed me 25$ AUD to go around Mai Chau village.
uTips
- Most people eat where they stay but a warning: cheesy song and dance routines follow dinner at some places.
- There are few popular treks in this area and many agencies in Hanoi run inexpensive trips to Mai Chau.
- A great alternative is to come here by yourself and do trekking to minority village passing throught rice fields, could be lovely and funny.
- Don’t forget to see the perform of traditional Thai dances, culminating in the communal drinking of sweet sticky rice wine.
- My last tip: Don’t get stuck with the thing that ruins your day, life is too short to be wasted in your crap. Smile and be positive because there are so many beautiful reasons to be happy, one of those is travelling.
Author of this post: Davide
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Nice. Unknown gems like this are the best. I have yet to fully explore Vietnam…it sure does have great off the beaten path destinations.
Sure Vietnam is full of beautiful and hidden places! they are just waiting to be discovered! Thanks for commenting my post, keep following me around the world!!
Too bad the weather was bad, but seeing the locals and their life must have made you forget about it. The pictures are great and I especially love the one of the smiling lady. How did the rice wine taste?
Well, was not so bad but it was great to drink it after an hard day!! thanks for your comment here, keep on reading my adventures around the world! 😀
It looks like you had a great time in Vietnam. Mai Chu looks like a great area to explore. We love hanging out with locals on holiday. Gives such a better experience.
Yeah it’s great to explore with bike or scooter!! Local people, amazing landscape and you will discover another culture and tradition typical of that area! Thank you for commenting this post, please keep following uTravelShare around the Globe!
thanks for nice description 🙂 I really like those friendly looking people from Vietnam on your photos, last summer while travelling in Mongolia, natives were happy to make pictures with us too
Wow lots of great photos and I love learning about places I have never been!
The place does sound full of positive energy. And I love the colorful attire of the monks in that performance. I would love to visit here
Beautiful pics. Love Vietnam!
beautiful and peaceful place it seems to be. countryside looks so green.
You seem like a very happy and outgoing person so no surprise that you meet so many great people in your travels. Really enjoyed reading about your experience in this town. I will be heading to Vietnam next week and hope to do some exploring.
Interesting write-up and beautiful pictures. It is always nice to see the village life up close and being a part of the everyday life. Hope you had a great time.
Very well explained everything! xxx
Seeing the everyday lives of the locals up-close is an eye-opening experience. We would surely love to do the trekking at this part of Vietnam!