It’s very easy to get to Vietnam from China if you have time.International flights are expsnive so take an internal flight and then a b us. And if you go to Kunming you can cross the border at Hekou into Lao Cai town and then get a taxi for about $30 to Lao Chai village in the heart of the rice terraces.
If you use the CBTVietnam website you can stay with one of the local minority people in a homestay for about $12 incl breakfast and dinner. It’s basic but has western toilet and hot showers. If you like a bit of privacy a homestay is probably not the best choice for you. However, if you want to wake up with the most spectacular view in Vietnam, outside your window and feel what it’s like to live in a Vietnamese village, a homestay is perfect.
Lao Chai is a reasonably quiet village 2.5 km from a much busier village of Ta Van which has around 40 homestays and many more in progress. There are restaurants and cafes and women in bright clothes who wil
l follow you along the concrete path ‘making friends’ with you in an attempt to sell you a trinket. This is an irritation of life in the village although I can see it’s great for them and the village economy but still, I don’t like it.
The ladies who open their houses to visitors are delightful and the one I stayed with cooked the most amazing food. Her first husband was a kind of ‘starter husband’ and at age 15 it didnt last longer than a month. Her second husband died in a fall and she is currently married to number 3, whose wife had run off to China. Between them they have five crazy kids who run around the place playing and laughing.
You’ve probably seen many rice terraces – I have – but they never fail to impress me. Across the border are the Chiense YuanYang rice terraces which I visited some years ago. The view at that time was impacted by the low cloud and in Vietnam I experienced he same problem but to a lesser extent.
You can get lucky or unlucky, some days it’s clear and you are treated to the majesty of the mountains and other days, you occassionally get the top of a mountain or a partial terrace, just to tease you in a “look what you could have won” sort of way.
I decided to take a walk into the mountains by myself. I was desperate for a bit of space and it’s impossible in Shanghai to be alone and quiet. Even in rural Vietnam it’s hard – the noise of motorbikes constantly fills the air. So I was determined to get away on my own. I took a photograph of a small map and set off along the track with a bottle of water, my mobile phone and a jacket.
Within 20 minutes I had taken the wrong track and after 3 hours I was well and truly lost. In a strange way, I enjoyed getting lost. I am after all, fit and strong and able to walk for miles in the mountains so I wasn’t really worried. I figured that if I kept walking downhill for long enough I would get to habitation and if I was a long way from the village, I could jump on the back of a motorbike.
I didn’t plan on getting attacked by a dog high up on the mountain, falling over, bashing my back and getting covered in mud. What an adventure and after 4 hour and some death-defying balancing along the top of rice terrace walls, I made it back down and to my homestay.
I suggest, unless you are as confident as I am in the mountains, get a guide and pay a small amount to her in order not to get attacked by dogs, get lost or wander around the top of the mountain wondering which way to go.
And these villages are easy to get to from China so go go go when you have some free time. It’s easy and fun!