26.03 Day 71 Hanoi to Mai Chau
Tuesday 26th March - Hanoi to Mai Chau (Day 71)
We’re now turning our eyes to the end of time in South East Asia - we fly out in eight days from Hanoi to the US. But even for us slow travellers eight days in one play (and after three nights before the cruise) seems a bit much. So after some suggestions from a 2016 Vietnam Lonely Planet Guide we’ve been lugging around and checking on booking.com for accommodation, we’ve booked bus tickets to Mai Chau, about 140 kms west of Hanoi.
Breakfast at Little Hanoi Deluxe is on a mezzanine floor with low ceilings overlooking reception. There is school work to push through encouraged with some jelly from the nearby Circle K before Seb has a literacy class online at 10am before packing up and checking out to walk 20 minutes to the steps of the Hanoi Opera House where our minibus departs at 12:30.
There’s a little confusion when he arrives from Mai Chau with passengers who get off at 11:50, then motions for us to get on - we’d hoped to eat lunch whilst waiting - but instead I scurry off to source a selection of Banh Mi’s before four travellers also join us on the bus - they ask the kids to guess where they are from - France, Spain guesses Sienna, Costa Rica suggests Seb. It was Israel (to be fair I didn’t get it either).
Like our transfer buses for the cruise our van has only seven seats in the back and we settle into the comfy seats for a journey of three parts; stop start heavy city traffic, dual carriageway ploughing past rice fields, up and up single roads along a windy road up and over the mountain before dropping into the lush green valley continuing to Mai Chau.
Our accommodation, and as it transpires of the four Israelis, is Green Homestay 2 km outside Mai Chau. Although this area has blossomed with tourism with plenty of homestays, it’s still a working valley covered in lush green rice fields, the small levees breaking up the fields to maintain the water level cris-crossing like a laid out spider's web.
Our thatch roofed double queen bed bungalow is a little scruffy around the edges, but still has ensuite, aircon, wifi and comes with breakfast included for 430k VND per night ($28) so is still punching way above its weight. We have a drink on one of the small verandahs hanging over the rice fields with dark mountains enclosing the valley on all four sides.
Another appealing aspect was the ability to cycle around, and so using the homestay’s bikes we ventured off on a small loop past other wooden bungalows and small stalls selling fabric goods made in the valley.
Dinner is at Coffee Hop Loc Lac - picked to allow Sienna a pizza after the seafood heavy days on the cruise. It too sits over a small pond and the kids are excited to find some rabbit huts with hopping bunnies by the owner’s house. It starts to get darker sooner than the 18:30 sunset because of its position in the valley so it's back to Green Homestay for more card games.