Two Days in the Idyllic Mai Chau and Short Return to Hanoi

Visited: October 31-November 2, 2024

We spent two calm and peaceful days in Mai Chau among the beautiful rice paddies and mountains. Unfortunately, it seems we were too relaxed as we somehow did not take many pictures here. So this blog will be light on pictures. However, we took more video footage which you can see in the second half of our Ninh Binh and Mai Chau vlog!

From Ninh Binh, it was an approximately three hour ride to Mai Chau through rural Vietnam. We finally arrived at Little Mai Chau Homestay before noon and checked into our room. We had the family room located the farthest from the common area, perched on stilts with a stunning view of the area.

We were hungry and our homestay did not serve lunch so we rented bicycles and biked to a nearby restaurant. The sun was blazing and we sweated profusely on our ride to the cafe where we finally found some solace and fuel. The food was fine, nothing amazing. After our late lunch, we biked back to our homestay to take shelter in the shade and our air-conditioned room.

Dinner was the highlight of our first day. Our homestay served a family style dinner and it was a feast with a medley of dishes – meats and veggies. My favorites were the spring rolls, chicken, and the greens. We were absolutely stuffed after dinner. 

Day 2 in Mai Chau was a day full of exploring by bike, which is the main thing to do in Mai Chau as the roads are generally very flat. We started off in the morning by heading to Lac Village and Poom Coong which are White Thai villages. Vietnam is home to many different ethnic groups and Mai Chau is home to the White Thai. The two villages were connected and smaller than I anticipated so it didn’t take too long to bike through them. There are many shops selling Thai handicrafts and artwork. We stopped to browse the stores. Due to our continued travel and limited baggage space, we don’t buy souvenirs besides magnets. Kim, however, bought a cushion cover and some artwork.

After shopping, we continued to bike around a bit longer before we headed to lunch back in Poom Coong. The food here was also fine, but not great. The best thing we ordered was a banana flower salad which was new to us. I thought the flower was a little tough/fibrous with a nice earthy taste. The flavor profile reminded me of papaya salad.

On our way back to the homestay, we stumbled upon a cute cafe at the edge of the village so we went in for some cold juices to fuel us the rest of the way back as it was not getting very hot. 

At the homestay, we all rested in our own ways – I read in the room while Nate and Kim went to hang out at the pool. A couple hours later, once the heat died down a bit, we went for another bike ride through the rice paddies as our last activity in Mai Chau. We had another fantastic dinner at the homestay to end the day.

The next morning, we said bye to the adorable homestay dog and headed back to Hanoi – another three hour-ish ride back. We had one more night and day in Hanoi before we had to say our goodbyes to Kim as she returned home. We tried to make the most of our last day in Hanoi together.

We first went back to our tailor shops to check on our custom-made suits. Mine was ready and surprisingly fit perfectly! I just had a couple minor adjustments for them to make. Nate’s wasn’t ready yet and needed to do some more measurements. It would be ready the following week. We then walked around the Old Quarter.

For lunch, we tried new foods at a random restaurant that looked pretty popular. It wasn’t as good as we hoped, but it was still good. We had duck and noodles. As always, it got too hot after lunch so we stopped in a very cute cafe hidden behind the main street for a cold drink and a break. It was a very cute place with multiple levels and delicious drinks and treats. It even had games so we played scrabble!

In the evening, we continued our food tour by eating big buns for dinner. It was now time for Kim to leave us. We said our sad goodbyes. It was so much fun to have another travel buddy for ten days, but it couldn’t last forever. After saying goodbye, Nate and I decided to have a second late night dinner of filled rice crepes (I forget the exact name). It was really good and I have no regrets! Our final meal in Hanoi the next day before we left for the Ha Giang Loop was, a burger. Nate finally needed a break from the Vietnamese food and it was a pretty decent burger.