Cycling through the patchwork rice fields of Mai Chau
Summary
A bit like a valley out of a movie set – a patchwork of lush green rice fields set in a valley surrounded by misty-ringed mountains. Jump on a bike and head off along the various paths as you pass by locals at work in the fields or in their traditional stilt houses. Whilst there are spots that are a little touristy, its a far cry from the other spots on the tourist trail of Vietnam and will get you close to that feeling of “real Vietnam”
For ideas on how a trip to Mai Chau can fit into an itinerary for experiencing the highlights of Vietnam, see this entry A 3 week itinerary for the highlights of Vietnam
highlights
#1 Cycling along the easy paths that criss cross the rice terraces and taking in the stunning setting
#2 Seeing the locals working in the traditional way in the rice fields
#3 Looking across at the hills that surround this idyllic valley
#4 Staying in one of the beautiful ecolodges that are dotted across the valley floor
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Short Cycling Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone