Mai Chau: A valley of villages, nature and calm

Mai Chau feels like the antithesis of Hanoi. It's a quiet valley dotted with small villages among the endless rice paddies, with dramatic limestone karst mountains rising either side.

The drive into Mai Chau took us along winding hillside roads with amazing views down into the valley. While we still haven't seen a single patch of blue sky yet in our time in Vietnam, the valley was still a beautiful sight from above.

Having left the big city behind, we could now appreciate just how much wildlife there is in Vietnam. There's swarms of dragonflies and butterflies all across the valley, as well as the countless small birds that feed on them.

We stayed in Sol Bungalows, a small family-run hotel with views out across the rice paddies. The hotel pool looked fantastic at night surrounded by lights and greenery.

A highlight of trekking through the valley and the local villages is seeing the local people going about their daily lives, and the striking difference from our busy lives in London. A particular highlight was watching two children trying, and failing, to control a kite over the fields.

During a cycle tour through the villages, we stopped to watch a White Thai group perform a bamboo pole dance. What we didn't expect was that we'd get pulled in to be a part of the dance! Then they performed a traditional routine to welcome the rice harvest, involving everyone rhythmically hitting a wooden trough for rice with bamboo poles.

At the peak of our trek we reached a cave, Hang Nhím, where we were the only visitors. I got this fun picture of my wife exploring the cave.

The karst limestone rock that formed the cave made for some amazing stalactites, stalagmites and tunnels, which led on further than we dared to go. We turned around at a particularly small crawl space, the moment we saw a bat flying just beyond it.

Mai Chau was a great chance to relax, connect with nature and see a slower side to life in Vietnam. If you liked this post, make sure to sign up to the mailing list below to get notified when I publish new posts, and head over to the "Get in Touch" page if you have any questions or comments!