Mai Chau

Mai Chau,
About a 4 hour drive from Hanoi, with peaceful rolling green rice fields, slightly awkward traditional dance performances an abundance of scarves and bamboo products for purchase and plenty of peace and quiet.

I was afraid that Mai Chau would be a hectic, Disneyland-esk "minority village". Happily it seems to be a place that has learnt to supplement their farming incomes with the tourist dollar while avoiding the horrible, pushy sales tactics of some of the other tourist markets. In fact, while we walked through one of the villages in which every house has a shop below it we were able to browse within a number of stalls without being followed, questioned or told to "buy this" "very good price" "cheap for you" or any of the other cash cries that usually abound in tourist markets.

This post does read a little like an add for Mai Chau Nature Place (MCNP).... Not my intention, but that's where I stayed, ate and got entertained!

Getting there
Local buses - consult locals for up to date info, time tables and price. but know that these leave from a bus station a fair way outside of Hanoi, will take a lot longer and may be full of travel sick Vietnamese people. But, it will be cheaper!!!

Transfer bus.
These can be booked through virtually any hotel or tourist agency in the city. Our hotel quoted us 12usd each person each way. The transfers is in a mini bus with one of the tour groups.

Small group tours
Mai Chau nature place seemed to be the most common tour. All hotels and booking agencies offer tours, but many of them are the same itineraries. We opted for the $70 per person tour, which included a private room without aircon, all transfers, meals and activities. I think this worked out to be the cheapest option - I usually dislike group travel where you have to all trek around together, but this was actually really enjoyable, and people had the freedom to do their own thing.

Sleeping
There is an abundance of "home stays" available in Mai Chau and the surrounding villages. These looked more like dorms in stilt houses, I am not sure how involved the family actually are, if they stay in the same area and socialize or not. My understanding is that home stays can be arranged for around $10/night/person.

A few hotels are in the town itself, though I am told that cleanliness varies greatly.

Mai Chau nature place has a few bungalows and a dorm room outside of any of the villages.It is an easy walk into Mai Chau centre or the small minority villages and is on a tiny little lane that cars can't drive down. So peace and quiet from the traffic of Hanoi was one of our highlights.
The dorm at the Mai Chau nature place was clean looking, it featured mosquito nets over the beds and also curtains for privacy. They had single and double mattresses available in the dorm and there seemed to be reasonable space between beds. Because it is up on stilts and quite open it was cool at night, even in the summer. People who slept there told us they didn't even need to use their fan in mid August.
We stayed in the bungalow at Mai Chau nature place. We had booked the cheaper rooms, which we were told had fans only, but when we arrived were shown the room with aircon. Not sure if this was to keep our whole tour group together in one area, or if the other rooms were full. It wasn't too hot, but the room's had few opening windows, and is lower than the stilt house so it doesn't get the breeze... so we needed that aircon! The room was really large, had a queen and single bed, chairs, huge bathroom and balcony. Plus a great view. If you wanted somewhere to relax, slow down and have some privacy for a few days I would definitely recommend.

We also were entertained by a traditional dancing show, my understanding it that a lot of the home stays also put on these slightly awkward dance shows. They did get everyone up and joining in the bamboo ankle smashing dance, which had everyone laughing and clapping along!

Food
Our tour included all food, so life was easy! A couple of other people were staying in the dorm apart from the tour, I overheard them getting their bill and all lunches and dinners were 150K VND per meal. Not sure of the breakfast cost.
There were a couple of places BBQing up skewers of meat in the village, and a few local restaurants in Mai Chau itself, but don't be too disappointed if you cant find a western style restaurant!

Ok, I'm here.... now what can I do?
Bike riding
Mai Chau was beautiful to ride around in the late afternoon. Flat land and country lanes made cycling a breeze and the views were stunning! We went to a lake where locals swim (the water is pretty icy, but it looked beautiful. I didn't have swimmers as I assumed there wouldn't be anywhere to swim!). Where ever you decide to stay I am sure they will provide or draw maps to show you great places to cycle, and how to get back!

traditional clothes hire 
For a bit of a laugh, you can hire traditional outfits in the village. I believe it was a dollar per clothing item to hire them for the afternoon. a group of girls on our tour had a hilarious looking photo shoot in traditional clothing!

Climb up the 1000 step cave
We were told it was in fact 1200 steps... I didn't count, I was busy trying to breathe! It was a good, satisfying climb up those damn steps in a cave. The view at the top was actually blocked by the trees a lot. You get glimpses down into the valley, but avid photographers might expect a lot more after climbing 1200 steps!
The cave is.... cave-ish. really, nothing mazingly spectacular if you have been in many caves before. But head over to the back left, there is actually a path (complete with hand rail) that loops further back into cave. You will need some sort of light because it gets far enough from the entrance to be dark and the ground is slippery. Exploring this dark part of the cave was much more fun for us..... but for some reason that wasn't explained the guide from MCNP yelled at us to come back. So I dunno what that was about.

 I didn't partake of, but understand that you can also arrange treks to villages that are further out, rock climbing, motorbiking to a lake, and trips from here on to Cuc Phuong national park if you so desire.