Nhat Ky Xe Day 2: Muong Village -> Mai Chau Approx. 75km

I had a nice, slow morning, stewing in my hangover. I washed a couple shirts then walked through the village with Hiep and a gaggle of excited kids, which took all of 10 minutes - its not a big place. We returned to the house and Hiep payed two of the kids to give a massage which was great entertainment for all. I took some videos: one, two and three.

We left the village around noon and started off on the next leg: about 75km on highway 6 to Mai Chau. Mai Chau is more of a collection of villages than a proper town and is home to many White Tais, who sell all sorts of traditional garments and handicrafts around their homes. The villages are spread out inside a large valley filled with rice paddies, of which there are spectacular views when approaching from the highway. We rode in and explored some backroads before finding a stilt-house where we could spend the night.

We lazily walked around the village, checking out all the random stuff for sale. Crossbows, slingshots, hill-tribe clothing, etc. When night fell, we returned to the house for a fantastic meal of traditional White Tai food. Then we ended the evening with a marathon karaoke session at a very strange little place in the middle of the fields. The speakers were cranked up too loud causing the mics to feed back constantly when we stopped singing, so we just didn’t stop singing. The best thing about singing Vietnamese karaoke is that unlike most other asian languages, it uses roman letters so english-speakers can sort-of see the words and make the sounds. Sort-of. It was great fun trying, anyway. I woke up hoarse the next morning.