Pastoral bliss?

After a few days in bustling Hanoi Vaughan and I were both happy to seek the tranquillity and silence of the countryside. Our drive to the Mai Chau region proved to be a hair-raising adventure in itself though, as we had close encounters with 4 different kinds of animals (baby pigs, a goat, cow and dog) and also nearly ran over a deaf old lady! The moment we entered the valley of our village the mood changed, as if we had entered a hidden world, safely tucked away. The 'homestay' in a traditional stilt house with a local Thai minority family was more run like a hotel, but maybe that was no real surprise, knowing that the Vietnamese have entrepreneurial blood running through their veins! Talking with the owner Mrs Chung about her life was still a wonderful experience, as she mentioned how opening up her home to foreigners had enabled her to send her daughters to university in Hanoi and build a better life for themselves. I guess tourism doesn't always have to have a negative effect on communities...

Mrs Chung in front of her home

Mrs Chung up close

Our first lunch was not only plentiful but consisted of some of the best food I've ever eaten (especially the pork meat rolled in bambooleaves: heavenly!).

Our guide Thuan spent 3 days with us and was not only a great source of information, but a wonderful person.

Vietnam has many different ethnic minority groups and most of them live in isolated areas. Taking a boat up the Ma River is the only way to reach the local Muong people, who have little contact with the outside world.

The famous Vietnam smile, gets you everytime :-)

Terraced rice paddies are a stereotypical image of many Asian countries, but I have to admit I too was excited to see them. My excitement turned into discomfort though when I noticed the back-breaking work the local women were doing, most of them from dusk 'till dawn. And here I was, rich enough to afford going to their village and gawking at their labour... It's been a bit of an internal struggle on this entire trip actually, probably because I have mostly travelled in Western countries and hence never had to deal with this aspect.

To the credit of most of these people, they treat foreigners with great hospitality and always return your smile. I'm not sure whether I'd be as generous in their situation...

The next morning we spent walking through our village and the surrounding countryside, which was lovely. I love this kind of 'slow' travel, too bad we couldn't have spent 6 instead of 3 weeks in this amazing country!

Idyllic pastoral image

Another woman hard at work

Traffic jam on the narrow roads

Friendly local!