Located in the West of Hoa Binh province, adjacent to Moc Chau district of Son La, Mai Chau is 140km from Hanoi, not very far from Vietnam capital for you to discover the culture of minority ethnic people.
1. The best time to visit Mai Chau
November – February: Winter, the air is cold, peach blossom and plum blossom everywhere
March – April: Cool weather, pleasant season flowers bloom.
May – August: The weather is pretty cool. In early September, Independence Day attracts thousands of domestic and foreign visitors.
2. Things to do and what to see in Mai Chau
Thung Khe Pass
National Highway 6, Hoa Binh Province Thung Khe Pass is about 1,000 meters above sea level. Here, visitors can enjoy the local food along the road. Moreover, from the top of Thung Khe, you can view the whole view of the valley The valley is known as one of the most beautiful places in Hoa Binh province.
Lac village
Lac is over 700 years old, people in the Lac are mainly Black Thai ethnic people. This place is a gift of mountains and forests for those who love tranquility and tranquility to join in the richness of the green mountains of Hoa Binh.
At present, there are nearly 30 traditional homestay (house on stilt) in Lac village. The house is high, spacious and clean, keep the old architecture. Inside the house is fully equipped with blankets, pillows, folding pillows, neat.
Take a walk around the village, you can buy many gifts for tourists such as scarves, Thai spread skirts, lovely wallets, bow, crossbow, flute, buffalo, gong or even buffalo horns. Take pictures without fear of being noticed or complained, including not buying or causing the owner to be sad.
Pom Coong village
Like other villages of Muong and Thai ethnic people, Pom Coong is placed among rivers, treams, rice fields and mountains. So, come here, you will feel the freshness and peaceful life.
Pa Co market
Pa Co market is about 40km north of Mai Chau town, in the middle of the center of 3 communes: Hang Kia, Pa Co (Mai Chau) and Loong Luong (Moc Chau, Son La). Pa Co market opens only on Sunday of Hmong ethnic people. This is not only a place for buying and selling goods but also a meeting place for highlanders as a weekly festival.
Pa Co market is busy as the festival, the market under the Lunar New Year. Here you will be “overwhelmed” by a series of products from agricultural products, animals, fabrics, brocade, agricultural tools to home appliances, electronics, music discs. , cosmetics…
3. Special food in Mai Chau
Com lam (Rice in bamboo)
The first and perhaps the most famous dish of Mai Chau is the rice dish. This dish is not too fussy with young bamboo shoots, filled with rice and roasted on a fire, served with sesame salt, roast pork … However, this dish processing requires skill and meticulous. Rice is an important material, when cooking rice, select the rice type of mountain, small particles, elongated, when ripe aroma.
3 colour sticky rice – Special food in Mai Chau
Come to Mai Chau, enjoy the sticky rice by Thai women can feel the delicious taste. Thai people always choose slippers to make sticky rice. This is the kind of Thai sticky rice grown on terraced fields in Mai Chau valley.
Glutinous rice is soaked for several hours before softening. Thai women do not hang out with pots, steamed like the Kinh people who stick to the wood. Steam cooked by steam rather than cooked. The processing is very skillful and requires skill. After the fragrant, take out the sticky, put into a basket. However, this is not cooked yet. Grate them all in a basket for a while then put on the wood and the next until cooked. Grapefruit seeds are now nine ball trap, scented to nose diners.
Muong Pork – Special food in Mai Chau
Muong’s pigs are long-horned pigs, pointed snout, small ears, thin legs, long and hard hair, raised in natural conditions, grazing in the forest, only eat trees, grass, do not eat industrial food. So meat is lean, lean, low fat, delicious and tastes natural. This is one of the high-tasting regional flavors, a specialty indispensable in the meals of the people of the northwestern mountain.
Hill Chicken – Special food in Mai Chau
Chickens are released in the garden, on the hill, in the woods and raised naturally. Anyone who has eaten the original Mai Chau chicken can not forget the special taste of it. The meat is extremely delicious.
