The Mai Chau Lodge, our host for two days, provides a good description of this town on its website and brochures:
Mai Chau is located 135 km south-west of Hanoi in the Northern province of Hoa Binh which is bordered by Son La in the West, Phu Tho and Ha Tay in the North, Ha Nam and Ninh Binh in the East, and Thanh Hoa in the South. Mai Chau has a population of about 47,500 inhabitants that belong to different ethnic minority groups such as the White Thai, H’mong, Zao, Muong, Tay, Hoa and Viet. The Mai Chau hill tribes are warm and welcoming, and famous for their handicrafts – in particular for their skills in embroidering clothes. Mai Chau offers a most splendid vista of the Valley which is surrounded by lush greens and stilt houses inhabited mainly by the White Thai ethnic group. The Sunday market brings a lot of people into town where traditional Thai dishes are made and revel in traditional dances.
Not only did we find the vista of the Valley splendid, we felt like we were in an ecological heaven. Mai Chau is certainly one of the most beautiful valleys I’ve visited in Vietnam. Although the camera was able to capture some of the impressive green tones in the rice fields during our trip, our eyes were captivated by scenes that just could not be replicated by the lens of a camera. As we walked along the dirt paths along the rice paddies all of us were compelled to stop in our tracks because the beauty around us was spectacular. Our gang of 10 friends from Hanoi was equally amazed at the shear sense of raw nature all around us. We were particularly impressed by how ecologically sound the livelihoods of the ethnic communities were and by how long the community members work their fields and rear their animals. We met one woman who was tender and dear, and who shied away from our camera, who was sitting peacefully at the edge of one of the large rice fields waiting for her buffalo to return from grazing. Our local guide translated our questions to her, one of which was, “what if your buffalo doesn’t return?” The woman just laughed unassumingly, showing off her betel-stained mouth and few remaining teeth, “of course he’ll come back, he always comes back.” Our second question was more intrusive, but she was still happy to answer, “I’m 76 years old,” she said casually. Our group was astounded at her beauty and radiance. We all agreed that she did not look like a 76 year-old woman!
To see Vietnam the way it must have been before the “American” War, one must travel to the beautiful villages that are left untouched by the new “capitalist ways”. So get away from the air pollution and traffic congestion of the big cities (mainly Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi), one must wander out into the rural corners of Vietnam (and there are many!) to see people working their fields, tending to their animals, raising their fields, and chatting away with each other…all of these things carried out in beautifully peaceful environments! Us city folks felt a tinge of regret for pursuing the achievement of some-what materialist goals, living fast-paced, busy lives; while the ethnic minorities in Mai Chau seemed to have it all!
