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Mai Chau
The bus ride was typical of that in Vietnam. The bus driver seemed to spend most of the time on the wrong side of the road overtaking vehicles. I realised that by watching the driver weave in and out I was making myself unnecessarily stressed. It was better to try and sleep and presume we would make it there ok rather than watch the many near misses of hitting other vehicles.
As we got nearer, the scenery drastically changed. We were driving along the edge of mountains. The peaks looked similar to the islands around Ha Long Bay that were covered in greenery. We passed small villages made up of wooden huts and small shops. The huts were structured so that the living area was exposed but in the shade underneath the second floor. We passed/ avoided several herds of cows and groups of skinny chickens.
We arrived to a warm welcome from some Vietnamese women who ran the home stay. They showed us to our rooms which had bamboo floors, there were mattresses laid out for us with mosquito nets over the top. The setting of the home stay was incredible. There were paddy fields on all sides of the huts. Then mountains on the horizon where the sun went down in the evening.
Later that afternoon we went for a cycle ride. The bikes were squeaky with dodgy brakes but this did not matter because we were out in the sun cycling between paddy fields and absorbing the vast scenery. In the evening some traditional Vietnamese dancers turned up at the homestay. They had colourful home made outfits and props for each dance which told a different story. The dances were a bit disrupted by some Chinese guests who were drunk on rice wine. They ran through the dance, took pictures of us and were pretty inappropriate to a few of the girls. Later on we got involved in the dance, jumping between bamboo sticks.
The next day we were up early and taken a couple of hours away in the bus. The bus took us higher into the mountains and we came across even more remote villages. We stopped at a spot with an awesome view over a valley covered in paddy fields. We were told that the squares of paddy field were allocated to each family, one square per family member over 18. The group of us set off in the blazing sun through the paddy fields. We were surrounded by beautiful views from all sides and I kept stopping to take pictures and absorb everything around me. Locals were working in the fields and they wore the traditional bamboo hats. Quite quickly the path got slippy with mud and we all had to concentrate. It was very hard to keep balanced and I fell quite dramatically at one point. However I did feel sorry for for the guy in our group who was taking on the trek in flip flops. He ended up doing most of it in bare feet. He was training to be a doctor so his lack of simple preparation was quite amusing and we took the mick out of him quite a bit. As the trek went on, more and more amazing landscapes opened up in front of us. I didn’t mind the slippy ground as I was just happy about being somewhere so beautiful and to be out of the city. Not to mention the lush weather we were lucky enough to have.
Our trek then took a different turn. Tuey our tour guide directed us up an upright slope through dense foliage. The girls in front of us in the group were quickly on their hands and knees scrambling their way up the slope. I quite enjoyed the challenge of the hill but many were getting frustrated and sweaty as we were almost two hours into the trek. Once the group had finally made it up everyone was quite slow for the last stretch as we had all run out of water and the heat was getting to us.
We were rewarded with a lovely meal and they specially provided coke after a request by one of the girls. It was a saviour as we were feeling so dehydrated. On the way back we stopped off in chopstick factory. They made toothpicks and ash trays here aswell. Unfortunately the factory was closed for some reason. Twoey said that sometimes they stop to let the bamboo grow. Despite this we looked round the factory floor which had machines similar to those you would imagine to make up a Victorian factory. That evening we played cards and a board game that a group of Irish teachers had brought with them.
On our final day we went on a motorbike tour. Everyone was a bit nervous but most of us tried out the bikes and got taught how to use them. In the end there were only a few that used them solo. Either way it was a beautiful ride and the route round the mountains was breathtaking. We stopped at a lake and got a boat ride to a waterfall. The lake was quite dirty because the dam had been released to let some water out after heavy rainfall. But we were able to swim under the waterfall as this was fresh water from the mountains.
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