Minibuses, Motorbikes and Mai Chau

One of things that you have to get accustomed to in Vietnam is that no matter how good a negogiator that you are, being a foreigner, you are never getting the best deal. I can't count the number of times that a Vietnamese sellor laughed when they told me the price. And when you convert the price to US dollars, it's really not that much money, maybe a$1 or $2. I think it's just the principle that gets me sometimes. Once you get over this, your time in Vietnam will be filled with good times and champange dreams or something in between. With that being said, let the good times roll ...

Hanoi is a city filled with cars, buses, trucks, motorbikes and people on the move. The stale air is filled with smog, the sounds of karoake, cars honking, laughter of children, and the ringing the catherdral bells. A quiet moment can only be achieved with either a pair of ear plugs, turning up your ipod or getting out of the city.

So with two other people from my hostel, we decided to venture out of the city to see the parts of Vietnam that we had only read about in our Lonely Planet guide book. Our first adventure was to Mai Chau, a collection of villages, huts and farms spread out through a large valley about 135 km west of Hanoi. Now of course we could have tried to book a tour but the price was too much and like I always say , "we don't need no stinken' tour guides." The adventure is the adventure ( A true yogi-ism). So the night before our planned departure we went looking for the bus station, which seemed easy enough. A couple of hours later and some help from some local Vietnamese we had the name of the bus station we needed to use but we never found it that night.

The next morning with a day pack full of clothes, we took a taxi to Da Long bus station. Now, when I think of a bus station, I think of large buses that are parallel parked and a nice clean bus station. Well in Vietnam it's not quite like that. Da Long bus station had a dirt parking lot and a cornucopia of minibuses heading to places that I had never heard of. Once the three of us walked into the parking lot we were bombarded by peddlers coaxing us to their minibus, like vultures circling to dead meat. We boarded a minibus which was destined to Mai Chau ( we would later find out that we had to transfer at Ha Binh with an additional cost). Now a minibus looks like a big minivan that seats about 28 people. The bus that we boarded had about 10 people on it which didn't seem too bad. (There were numerous stories about minibuses being filled to the brim with people) Well, 30 minutes later the bus was filled with 43 people not including the driver and we were the lucky ones with seats. Pretty much every inch of space was in use except the area between our heads and the roof. Our row had five people in four seats and an old lady and man were sleeping on my friend. Pretty hilarous!

Roughly five hours later with a stop in Ha Binh Bus Station which had the world's worst bathroom, we arrived in Mai Chau. The road down into Mai Chau gave us a breath-taking view of the valley below - Steep, lush mountains surrounded the basin that were filled with green rice pattys and small enclaves of houses. Our three days in Mai Chau were filled with sunny skies and temperatures hovering around 24 C or 75 F

In Mai Chau, we stayed in a stilt house village which was surrounded by rice pattys, water buffalo and roosters that were up early! A stilt house is pretty self explanatory - a house built on stilts with the second floor housing the sleeping quarters and the first floor was used either for storage or a place to sit. The first floor in our house was used to sell silk scarfs and had a table for us to sit and relax at. Accomodiations were sparse - a padded mat on the bamboo floor on the second floor and a curtain around your "room" but the price was cheap - 50,000 dong or $3.25 a night. Each night the owner of the house cooked a delicious meal consisting of vegetables, meat, fish and rice for a mere 30,000 dong or $2. Those have been the best meals that I have eaten in Vietnam so far. Mmmm, Mmmm good! Although our stay in Mai Chau was short ( just two and half days and two nights), we had a great time. During our second day in Mai Chau, we rented a couple of motorbikes and cruised around the valley. The day was filled with winding roads, small villages, little kids saying hi to us and a glimpse of Song Da Reservoir - Vietnam's largest reservoir.