Today we left Hanoi to make our way into the rural area around Mai Chau, close to the border with Laos and home to the White Thai minority. We needed about fours hours to cover the 150km – all on winding and bumpy roads. We had lunch after arrival, followed by a visit to the local bar (no kidding here … not much else to do) and an extensive walk around the village (which happened to culminate at the same bar) – before making it for dinner and a show of traditional music and dancing.

For me Mai Chau was pretty much the lowlight of the whole trip; all pretty touristy here and optimized for a high throughput of tourists. Almost every house is a homestay and / or has a shop selling souvenirs. So instead of being a glimpse into Vietnamese rural life, this is really more of a tourist trap.
Don’t get me wrong – the surroundings are still nice – it was just not the nice, tranquil, little village I had expected. Also the homestay was really more a pension with very little interaction with our hosts.