Read the rest of this entry »

September 2nd (Independence Day) is one of the few public holidays in Vietnam, and one of the rare occasions our school is closed.  We decided to make the most of the holiday and head for the hills (and then a valley).  Our destination was Mai Chau, a little village nestled in a valley about 3 hours west of Hanoi.

Due to its proximity to the city, Mai Chau has grown into a tourist destination — though (fortunately) not of the magnitude of Halong Bay or Sapa.  The town itself is quite small, and doesn’t provide much in terms of entertainment.  The main reason people visit is for the smaller villages, peace and quiet, and stunning scenery.  Most people stay in the White Thai “village” just south of the town, where there is a cluster of White Thai stilt houses.
Read the rest of this entry »

Our guide Canh very kindly arranged for us to visit his home village and have lunch with his parents, sister and brother-in-law.  His father and mother appeared to be in their 80s.  They greeted us with great kindness.  His mother’s teeth were dead black from chewing betel nut, a mild stimulant that is a habit with many older women.

Canh’s young nephew was there, and after lunch he and our three spent half an hour kicking a mostly-deflated soccer ball around the cement courtyard of Canh’s family’s house.  The kick-around came to end when Alec sustained his inevitable minor injury when he rushed in to kick his big brother in the ankles

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Well I wanted to get off the beaten track, and I did – literally and metaphorically, as the only way to access some of the place I’ve come back from are on foot or mortorbike!  The people there don’t see many tourists, and so you aren’t regarded as an opportunity to make a lot of money and it’s amazing the warmth with which I was received by people, some of whom had so little to give, but would offer what they had.

Most of the time it was just me and my driver Khanh, who picked me up from my Ninh Binh hotel on Friday morning.  We headed out of Ninh Binh by the horrible Highway 1 but soon escaped into the countryside.  Very soon we stopped to watch some people harvesting Read the rest of this entry »

We had to be picked up by a taxi at 4:00am.  It was still dark but we could see that someone was already sweeping the streets; we had never seen something like this in India; perhaps we had never woken up so early.  No taxi showed up, so at 4:15am we decided to walk the 1km to the bus station.  It is not very long, but considering the weight of the bags we would have gladly paid for the taxi.  As soon as we arrived at the bus station a guy who spoke no English shoved us into the first bus he found.  When the bus left earlier than the scheduled time we got anxious and pointed at Mai Chau, our next destination, on the travel guide book to show where we want to stop.  The people just nodded their heads and we hoped for the best.

Read the rest of this entry »

Us men sat cross legged on the rickety bamboo floor, which is not that easy for me following a myriad of minor motorcycle knee injuries and the general lack of suppleness one finds as they approach, ahem, middle age.

Hung joined us with a canvas water bottle and several small tea cups that he proceeded to fill from the bottle and then pass around. I contemplated the clear liquid with sober deliberation, much to the amusement of my hosts, sniffed with inflated nostrils and took a cursory sip. My suspicions proved perfunctory at best and indeed fruitless as the spirit was quite tasteless but warming, Hung grunted and my cup was refilled. All the cups were raised, a toast was made in Vietnamese and the contents were consumed in one. Essentially, it was a bottomless cup. When the bottle was exhausted, another was swiftly retrieved and the toasts and cheers were repeated. This would be constant throughout the evening.

Read the rest of this entry »

Drove into the hill country, a 5 hour trip from Hanoi. Then went walking thru the countryside, passing villages where the Black Thai people live. All along the way we met children who came out to see us.

Our guide had got us to buy bags of sweets to give them ( great for their teeth ), not many adults about coz they all go into the fields and forests to work. Some women using sewing machines to make beautiful coulorful clothes. It was a greatly interesting walk. Pigs crossing the road, hens and chickens everywhere. Read the rest of this entry »

The trip was worth it as Mai Chau is stunning. Enjoy the shot of Mai Chau taken by Pjgamble

Read the rest of this entry »