From Halong Bay, I had a six and a half hour car journey back through Hanoi, and to the south west of the city to Mai Chau.

Mai Chau is a small provincial town, that is surrounded by mountains. It sits in a deep valley covered with paddy fields, and is home to various hill tribes: White Thai, Black Thai, Hmong, and various others. I stayed with a White Thai family, in their wooden stilt house.

Here are some pics:

Above is the house I slept in, and below, the interior of the same house.

Its not a big thing. Several houses in the village have been doing homestay for a while, and it has made the village quite prosperous compared to others in the area. Below are some pics of the surrounding countryside, and a guy smoking a bamboo pipe that I came across, working in the fields:

thx for sharing funky..those are some gorgeous places.. I like the perspective of the shots...

I stayed in the same house in Mai Chau about 3 years ago.

It's a beautiful place to spend time.

I hope you continued west towards Dien Bien Phu.

That area has some spectacular scenery.

Enjoy the trip.

Very nice shots. The last one looks so nice. Would've loved to have seen that in real life.