Mai Chau scenic loop. A there-and-back ride best done from a Mai Chau base camp (dump your bags and go), this loop takes in jaw-dropping mountain scenery.
The popular tourist spot of Mai Chau occupies a verdant valley in the highlands due west of Hanoi. Having grown in popularity over the last decade it is now on the well-worn tourist path. That said, much of the accomodation is scattered around in the rice fields and doesn’t feel crowded.
A local bus ride to the top
It was quick and easy to hail down a green local bus, a 30-minute ride getting me in to Mai Chau by 8am (I’d learnt the hard way that Highway 6 just wasn’t a safe way to get up the mountain.
With time on my hands, I checked out a few guesthouses before settling on a dorm bed at the ‘Little Mai Chau’ homestay, where travellers share a communal family dinners each night.
Sipping a coffee at a nearby rice fields cafe I admired the sea of brilliant green all around me. I’d been worried that arriving in early October might mean all the rice fields would be harvested but that was clearly not the case.
With a brilliant sunny day ahead it seemed like the best thing to do was – you guessed it – go cycling!
Having ‘cheated’ with the local bus up the big hill to Mai Chau, I decided to make up for it by cycling up another (albeit much smaller) hill to the village of Na Meo.
It was a bright, hot, sunny day and I puffed and sweated my way up that hill on a rough road, determined to see what kind of view there might be at the top.
Well, I wasn’t disappointed. There are the top was a kind of plateau with the most magnificent formation of stepped rice paddies.
There was also a very rough-and-ready village shop where I bought some cold water, trying not to look at the chicken blood draining into a bowl on top of the fridge.
At this point I looked at my map and realised it would be possible to make a 40km loop right around the area and back to Mai Chau.
Forgetting any pain left over from the dog bite, I decided to go for it.
The loop was cycling paradise, and completely devoid of tourists. Surely this amazing road couldn’t be a secret?
Leaving steep hills and chicken-blood-fridges behind, a silky smooth, near empty road now snaked it’s way along a ridge with stupendous views across deep layers of hills.
Cruising down from the ridge I now rode through a series of rice field valleys, each greener than the last, eventually finding myself riding alongside this river.
The sun blazed down as we reached the hottest part of a hot day but the colours well and truly made up for it, with rice paddies contrasting against the blue sky with one thousand shades of green.
The last 10km back into joined the main road but nevertheless, a great ride.
And topping off the day, I found one of the greatest bars of all time. Essentially a wooden plank right in the middle of a rice field, it was an incredible place to while away the late afternoon.
Mai Chau was one of the first places I visited when I moved to Vietnam in 200. Back then it was a hard to reach destination and I have distinct memories of needing to hitchhike out of there on the back of a lorry because it was Lunar New Year.
Tourism has developed like crazy since then, but I’m glad that Mai Chau still has kept its magic.
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