Country Info
- Hanoi
- Capital
- Dong (VND)
- Currency
- 79,939,014
- Population
- VN
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Vietnam Slideshow
Travel Blogs from H? Mai, Vietnam
The road less travelled
This is a top pick! Having planned a route through Northern Vietnam utilizing the basic Vietnamese Road Atlas we had purchased at half price, Tilly and I searched around Hanoi for someone who would rent us a Russian Minsk motorbike. We had leant from our research that this ...
Mai Chau
This is a top pick! ... today, so got dressed and went down for my free breakfast of pancakes with honey and tea. The bus arrived at 8 and we set off to Mai Chau. I spent some time talking to the girl next to me who is from Malaysia with 3 of her friends. I also dozed a while, ...
Village People
... bus which stops every few hundred metres to pick up some goods - chicken, vegetables, bricks, fish, etc.. - with a planned delivery in Mai Chau. Hardly any people and the one girl we spoke to tried to rip us off by taking a commission from our guest ...
A Day in the Life
Our visit to Mai Chau, a village in the mountains of North Vietnam, was especially intriguing because it offered the rare opportunity to experience the local culture outside the big cities. We arrived at the Hanoi airport and transferred ...
Some Culture
Most people who visit the north of Vietnam go to Sapa to see the mountains and minority tribes...having been there before and got rained out, we decided to go somewhere a little different and went on a little mini tour to Mai Chau and Phu Quoc Nature ...
Road Trip to Mai Chau
... 165 km from Hanoi and many minorities, including the Thai ethnic group,(distant relatives of Thailand's mountain people) live in Mai Chau. Typically the living quarters are about six feet off the ground, to provide better ventilation and shelter for ...
A walk (Hill tribes)
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 ...
Dag 1: En uheldig start paa vores mc-eventyr
... risvin serveret. Beboerne i Mai Chau er af stammen 'White Thai', som er en af de mange forskellige minoritetsgrupper i Vietnam. Da landsbyen kun ligger en lille dags koersel fra moderne storby, bruger de ikke laengere deres traditionelle paaklaedning til ...
Endlose Stufen im Nationalpark
Frueh aufgestanden, ein wenig gefruehstueckt und dann ging es auch schon ab zu unserer (Paul, Silvia und ich) Trekking-Tagestour. Unser angeblich englisch-sprechender Fuehrer sprach zwar einige Brocken Englisch aber verstand kaum etwas. Den Anfang der ...
Third Time's the Charm
... beer or two and then ordered a Ruou Can (pronounced zeo can). Nothing tastes better after a long bike ride though the hinterlands of Vietnam than a pot of ruou can (rice whiskey). Ruou Can is served in a ceramic pot that's placed in the middle of the ...
Day 2 - Through the clouds
... '. Mai Chaun provinssin kyltti toi helpotuksen huipulla. Loppumatkaa kiihdyttikin 12km alamäki upeilla vuoristomaisemilla. Saavuttaessamme Mai Chaun kylään vastaanotto oli ihanan lämmin. Vilkuttavat lapset saivat ylämäessä tulleen vitutuksen ...
Yoga, Back Road Bike Ride, a Cave
... caverns. The first cavern is a huge 60 meters long by 16 meters wide and is where weapons were hid during the American/Vietnam war. The second cavern can be found by climbing 10 meters of stairs and the locals think its the home of saints and ...
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
... , weird but very Vietnamese. I also convinced Thang to unpack the bike so I could find more unsuitable clothing to put on. Mai Chau is a beautiful area of rice fields nestled amongst mountains which is only 150 Kms ish from Hanoi where you can stay in a ...
The Simple Life
... my head a few times. The limited lighting and narrow crawl space made the cave exploration that much more exciting. Mai Chau was a great introduction to the simple life of Vietnam, now it’s on to the motorbike madness of Hanoi! Until next time, ...
Day 3 - Mai Chau surroundings
Vettä satoi kokopäivän. Silti käytiin tsygäilemässä lähi kylissä ja matkaa tänäänkin tuli kuitenkin 26km. päivä ollut iisi, lihakset tuntuu hyvältä ja mielessä on kova psyykkaus huomista varten. Mikko kävi illalla vielä lenkillä ja ...
City girl in the countryside
... a point. Everyone gave me good directions on how to get to Son La...the next big town on my route. Apparently there is a bus from Mai Chau...for about 40-50,000d...direct...cool I thoughts. I was in no mood to be hassled today. I hopped on a moto, and ...
Do it yourself tribe tour
... and we hoped for the best. After 4hours we glimpsed the first stilt houses and once again we began pestering the driver with the 'Mai Chau?' questions. He dropped us at the next junction and from there we took a motor bike taxi to Pom Cong; a ...
The Highway of Hell
... a bus in the background with two unfortunate motorcycle riders trapped underneath it. Coming over the top of the mountain heading down into Mai Chau, I glided around one of its many twist and turns to be faced with a motorbike in the middle of the road. ...
Off the track (and off road!) in Northern Vietnam
... roads, passing more villages and a local wedding party in progress before heading back onto a paved road to the town of Mai Chou. Again we stopped at some points of interest including a chopstick 'factory' and some more weaving before ...
sleeping on stilts
... .. Of course, we thought, let's go that way. Thank god we did cos it was beautiful. Easily the most beautiful scenery in Vietnam so far. A few minor public bus hitches and we were in the hills, cadging a lift from the post bus up into the mountains. ...
Village traditionnel et retour sur Hanoi....
Nous levons assez tot, prenons une douche, petit dejeunons puis allons nous ballader dans le village fait de maisons sur pilotis. Ils vendent tous des souvenirs et des objets artisanaux. Beaucoup de guesthouses comme la notre. Nous promenons au milieu ...
In country
... the weeks before an important primary. (Actually, exactly not like that. As a one-party nominally Communist state, Vietnam has nothing like America's free, boisterous, and combative primaries.) These broadcasts can start as early as 5:30 a.m., ...
The sound of bamboo
(Jim) Today as we were walking in the rice paddies near Mai Chau, the wind was blowing as we walked past a bamboo grove. Bamboo has a sound. In even a faint breeze, a bamboo grove begins to creak and groan. It is a living sound, though not an ...
Hanoi's Angels ... we nearly killed a man
... to their bus at a better price!) until he pulled out his cell phone and Dat rushed over to explain to me that in Vietnam it's technically illegal for foreigners to drive (through unenforced except for in cases like this) and if the bus driver got the ...
Rice wine and tall tales
... which point, I became nervous. Was I about to be married off to one of his daughters or had I inadvertently stumbled across the Mai Chau branch of the Masons? My guide, Mr. Duc, shuffled closer to me as the speaker began his oration and quietly ...
Musee, route et nuit a la Thai....
... mais vivants, dans une maison thai sur pilotis, tenue par une famille. Les thais sont une autre minorite du Nord du Vietnam. Nous installons en haut, dans une grande piece avec une paillasse pour chacun, deux couvertures et un oreiller. Confort sommaire ...
Mai Chau, Mai Chau, It's off to Mai Chau We Go
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 ...
Lucky Seven
... years old, lost his seventh tooth. It somehow seems auspicious to lose your seventh tooth in the middle of a rice paddy in rural Vietnam when you are seven, and he's thinking he will have a really lucky life (like his mom, who thinks having a family ...
Vietnam Life
... side of a mountain it’s well worth the effort. Even more so when Xuan begins to tell us the history of the cave; During the Vietnam war, over 5,000 people sought refuge in it. It’s a big cave, really big, but no way near big enough to hold ...