City to Rural
Starting loop from Hanoi for 4 nights with small bags, & main luggage stored in Hanoi. Been able to get 1kg laundry done by lady in tiny shop next to hotel – for £2.50.
As our coach tried to access extremely busy expressway out of city, we were confronted by a vehicle reversing alongside us, to allow other vehicles to leave expressway! We & others also then had to reverse, but showed another typical example of Vietnamese coping strategies: what looked hair-raising to us Westerners was something Vietnamese drivers just do like a weaving ballet, without any fuss.
Car on the left driving wrong way down sliproad! Yet car on right had to reverse ...
First time in mountains, can see where oriental art style originated with layers of hills fading into distance.
Up + over passes, + dropped down into Mai Chau, a small village on plateau of rice fields, surrounded by unusual pillar-like mountains covered by vegetation.
Although their rice crop was harvested, saw farmers burning off rice straw.
Our lodge is in beautifully peaceful setting, and everyone is finding relief here, after Hanoi’s size and noise. Population and food different, with Thai and Laos influences. We look out onto a large lake where a multitude of pink water lilies open in the morning and from late afternoon.
Peace
Our bedroom
Exotic wildlife
