Traveling in Vietnam - Day 2

Mai Chau is located in Hoa Binh province, approximately 135 km from Hanoi and 60 km from Hoa Binh. One can admire the superb panorama of Mai Chau surrounded by a green valley and stilt houses from the top of Cun Mountain. Many minorities, including the Thai ethnic group, live in Mai Chau. There are stilt houses that surround both sides of the roads as you travel through. Some of the houses are pretty large and are covered with palm leaf roofs and bamboo floors. We headed up the mountains from Hanoi with our Guide and Driver. As we drove up the windy roads I could feel the pressure begin to change. After about an hour and a half we decided to stop for a moment to get out and stretch. We also decided we would take some "Happy time" (Vietnamese bathroom break). We pulled over next to a local market. This market was in the middle of no where, on the side of the road. There were women selling, bamboo rice sticks, flowers, vegetables and local mountain crab's that they had collected from the nearby cliff's. After a short break and chatting with the locals, we hopped back in the car and continued driving up the mountain pass. After about another hour we arrived to our destination. A small local village in Northern Vietnam. The members of the local house we were with for the evening came out to greet us and offered us a nice cold coke or Tiger Beer. We thanked them and relaxed for a while as the girls of the house chased chickens around the yard (I found out later, they were catching them for our dinner). After unpacking our bags for the evening it was still early afternoon and the husband and wife were beginning to prepare lunch for us. We decided to take a walk around the village to see what else was going on.

As we head around the village, Dat our guide, told me that recently the Vietnamese government moved the villagers from their huts and into more modern huts surrounded by cement sidewalks and closer spaced homes. However, most of the villagers, didn't like it, so they decided to moved back out in the jungle where they had more space and now the "town" is mostly empty.  We did see an older man with his granddaughter in a really neat handmade wooden wheelbarrow and a water buffalo roaming through the village though. Most of the villagers seem to live a few hundred feet outside of this community. The house we stayed at was very nice, our Travel company, Exotic Voyages, based out of Hanoi, helped the family by building modern restrooms and showers. They also helped by building a larger living room and provided comfortable mattresses, blankets and bug nets. One of the funniest things, I thought, was that they decided to raise the house on stilts a few feet so that when tall tourists visit, we can walk under the house. Considering me and the guy I was traveling with were both 6' 1", this nice ammenity was very appreciated. I also found humor in the fact that we are in the middle of the Jungle in northern Vietnam, far from most modern civilization, cooking over a fire in the house, yet the family has a fridge full of Coke and beer and a Sattelite dish. The family lives incredibly simple and it was an amazing experience to participate in their daily activities.

During our walk, we traveled down a road which led to the local villagers rice fields, this is a community effort and everyone helps and participates in the bounty. There was a really unique handmade bamboo water wheel that was irrigating the field. I really enjoyed seeing how even without most modern items they were able to craft some ingenious inventions. On our way back to the hut for lunch, we stopped and talked to some of the locals coming out of the rice fields and the kids enjoyed seeing our white american skin and blond hair. Once back at the hut, we sat down at a small table with the family and the eldest man of the house served us rice wine to start the meal. We appreciated everything we were served and were very grateful for their hospitality. The meal consisted of eggs and duck, several local fruits such as mango and papaya and some very tasty spring rolls. We were also served green tea and rice, which is included with every meal. We had requested some coffee for the afternoon and they happily obliged. The coffee was quite different then what I was used to though. It was dark and thick and I sweetend it with condensed milk. It was so thick my spoon litteraly stood up in the cup. I did appreciate it though and was always greatful for everything they so graciously provided. I even got used to the coffee.

For the evening entertainment, the village decided to perform a show. We were so excited, the entire village showed up for the event. This was quite a feat considering we all gathered into the small house we were staying at. We sat in the corner with the grandmothers and children while the men and women performed a variety of traditional H'mong dances for us. There was even a group of musicians playing their traditional vietnamese instruments. After about 6 or 7 performances they decided we should get involved, they grabbed us and got us to dance a traditional Bamboo Stick Dance. It was a blast, all the children were laughing at my attempts to perform my first bamboo dance. I couldn't help but laugh myself, I had no clue what I was doing, we had major communication barriers since I don't speak any Vietnamese and we kept going faster and faster each time. Once we finished they decided I was so entertaining to watch, that I should perform another dance with them; the Rice Wine dance. This dance consisted of us all laughing and dancing around a jar of rice wine and then drinking it through giant bamboo straws. Once we finished, all the children immediately ran up to the rice wine and finished it off for us. Dat, our guide, commented that the kids were sure going to sleep good tonight. The entire evening was a blast, I never thought I could have such a great time in the middle of the jungle in Northern Vietnam with new friends that I couldn't communicate with in english. It changed my mindset on how people can understand one another and get along even when we can't speak eachother's language. As we said our goodbyes to the villagers, the family setup our beds and prepared everything for us. We wrapped everything up and headed off to bed, apparently the rice wine helped us sleep really good that night as well. 

This blog is one in a series from a recent trip I took to Southeast Asia through a Vietnamese based travel company called Exotic Voyages.