After the Ha Giang Loop, we spent another night in Hanoi and then headed to Mai Chau. It’s about 2.5 hours southwest of Hanoi… but for some reason the drive took closer to four hours.
Mai Chau is a bit off the beaten path, so it’s a much more relaxed place with not a whole lot to do other than bike around the rice fields. So that’s exactly what we did.
On the first day we rented some bikes and rode around the fields. Unfortunately we had to stop a little earlier than we wanted because Teddy’s bike wheel was rubbing on the frame, which made it really hard to pedal. He was pretty frustrated because he’d been looking forward to biking for a while.
That evening we realized the kids had forgotten their tablets in the car we took from Hanoi. I texted the driver, but he wasn’t replying. At that point I figured they were probably gone. A little later I texted him again and offered a 1,000,000 VND reward for returning them (about $50 CAD). As expected, he replied pretty quickly after that. Funny how that works.
He told me he was coming back to Mai Chau and that I could meet him there. When we met up, he handed me the tablets and I tried to give him the 1,000,000 VND. To my surprise, he refused it. I had the cash in my hand and asked him about five times, “Are you sure?” But nope. So I offered 500,000 instead… still no. I guess I judged him a little too quickly.
The next day we rented bikes again, making sure Teddy got a better one this time. Then we went to visit a small rice wine distillery. It was actually pretty cool to see how it’s made.
In Vietnam, alcohol is taxed much more heavily once it goes above 20% ABV. The bottles there were labeled as 18%, but the brewer told us it’s actually closer to 21–22%. They just label it lower to save on tax.
So… yeah. Don’t tell anyone.
After that we kept biking around and eventually found a playground. It was awesome. Everything was homemade, including a mini roller coaster, a zipline, and a bunch of other rides.
That pretty much sums up our time in Mai Chau.
The only other thing worth mentioning was our homestay. The owner was super nice, and she had two dogs and two puppies. The kids (and honestly, me too) spent a lot of time just hanging out and playing with them.
Not a bad way to spend a couple of days.
Be the first to comment.