Experience the best of Mai Chau

Mai Chau lies in a green bowl of mountains south-west of Hanoi, its valley floor a patchwork of rice paddies, with villages such as Lac and Pom Coong of the White Thai, whose wooden stilt houses have open living floors raised above the ground. Weaving is a village craft, and brightly woven cloth is sold from front verandas.

Paths and bike tracks lead from village to village through paddies, bamboo and maize fields, and limestone hills and caves rise around the valley. The road from Hoa Binh climbs through mountain passes into the valley, and the forested Pu Luong nature reserve in neighbouring Thanh Hoa province, with its terraces and waterwheels, lies to the south-east.

Meals in the White Thai villages are family-style feasts of sticky rice, grilled river fish, pork and bamboo-shoot dishes, with rice wine drunk through long bamboo straws from a shared jar. The harvest in September and October turns the paddies gold, and the valley is cool and misty in winter.