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Lào Cai

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60 km from Hoa Binh on the road to Dien Bien Phu, is the village of Mai Chau whose principal point of interest is the superb countryside around it.

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You need time during a trip to Vietnam if you are going to go to this remote region. It's a long and windy road to Mai Chau. And the distances are covered at a slow 30 kilometres an hour. It's no good being in a hurry. I liked the region a lot - the countryside, the terraces, the exceptional views and the meetings I had with the tribes of north Vietnam. In Mai Chau the White Thai people are in the majority. And to be honest, if I stopped at Mai Chau it was more for its surroundings, where there are sugar loaf formations a bit like those at Hoa Lu. The village itself is not very interesting and I thought it was better to stay a bit further on in the adjoining village of Ban Lac. In any event, I had some lovely walks in picture postcard countryside looking for local life.

60 km from Hoa Binh on the road to Dien Bien Phu, is the village of Mai Chau whose principal point of interest is the superb countryside around it.

The road to Mai Chau is worth the effort, as is the village, and it's a serene place to stay. There are rice terraces everywhere and we arrived in the middle of the harvest! The fields were filled with Vietnamese men and women adding spots of colour to the green landscape. The inhabitants were happy to see us watching them and even let us help them! If you love walking, there are walks to Cuc Phong national park but we didn't have the time. We had a somewhat rustic night staying with a local family but the evening before was memorable: a big meal, lots of rice wine and shared singing. The small houses were on stilts and we had a great time with the parents and children of the Thai family we stayed with.

Mai Chau is a small village in the middle of a valley which is calm and entirely surrounded by nature - rice terraces, lakes and mountains.

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