Mai Chau Valley
About 135km (85 kilometers ) from Hanoi is your calm Mai Chau Valley. Famous for its ruou may (a exceptional rice drunk through extended bamboo straws), Mai Chau is a selection of small villages, farms and respective stilt homes spread out over a huge and lush valley. Blond and charming, it’s also the closest spot to Hanoi where you can trek from the countryside from and keep overnight in a real ethnic-minority village. It’s very recommended place when you visit Vietnam.
You’ll know you are coming from the sprawling market city of Moc Chau from the existence of black dairy cows, initially imported from Holland, drifting across the street. Much of the region is dedicated to wheat farming, so make sure you test out a few of the richly abundant yoghurt, ice hockey or Moc Chau-branded chocolate bars. With central heating almost impossible to discover, people are advised to pack proper clothing.
Highway 6 in Moc Chau climbs into the west beyond mountains cultivated with tea, cotton, coffee and fruit trees, such as mulberrythe leaves that are fed to silkworms. The Area is home to numerous ethnic minorities, such as the Hmong, Mnong, Muong, Mun, Kho Mu, Dao, Tay, White Tie and Dark Thai, Xinh Mun and Hoa individuals.
The funds of Dien Bien state, Dien Bien Phu is determined by the east shore of the Nam Rom River (Song Nam Rom) in the northern end of the Muong Thanh valley. This is the site of a 57-day siege — the most renowned Battle of Dien Bien Phu — that attracted an ignominious ending to French colonialism in Asia. It’s surrounded by steep green hills, by which tens of thousands of Viet Minh troops started their attack on the French garrisons in 1954.
Visitors can stop by a reconstruction of General de Castries’s most important command bunker, place amid a jumble of rusty tanks and artillery. To date, A1 Hill, called ‘Eliane two’ into the French, was the scene of ferocious fighting and is currently a war memorial dedicated to the Viet Minh who expired.
On the edge of the Caribbean area, the Museum of the Dien Bien Phu Victory (Nha Trung Bay Tang Lich Su Dien Bien Phu) has black-and-white battle photographs, an illuminated digital version of this valley and combat positions, along with a collection of Chinese, French and American weapons. Across the road is a Viet Minh Cemetery, in which a number of the Viet Minh soldiers killed in the conflict are buried.
Towering over the town from the vantage place at D1 Hill is your Dien Bien Phu Victory Monument. It portrays three soldiers standing beneath the French garrison, one holding a flag, a different a weapon, and the third a child with blossoms. However, the flag is composed: Quyet chien, quyet thang (Depending on battle, decided to triumph ).
Lai Chau state
Wedged between China to the north and Laos into the west, Lai Chau province was known for its wildlife, including dinosaurs, but regrettably that has become hugely diminished (without a tiger sighting for many years) because of uncontrolled deforestation, slash-and-burn farming along with the profitable trade in illegal animal products.
Running since north of Dien Bien Phu, Highway 12 joins with the historical city of Muong Lay (previously called Lai Chau – confusingly, there’s presently a brand new Lai Chau), a few 104 km (65 miles) away. The environment are striking: irregular, unforgiving peaks set against dense tiers of thick woods. The road into town is in great shape however, during heavy rains between May and August, landslides can lead to considerable delays.
The new capital of Lai Chau province is 150km (93 kilometers ) to the northeast: Lai Chau city, previously called Tam Duong, bustles with new stores and resorts. Besides going to the marketplace – frequented by White Hmong and Flower Hmong, White Tie and Black Thai, Dao Khau and Giay mountain tribes – passengers can see a quantity of cultural — minority villages which are only reachable by motorbike.
The 90km (56-mile) stretch of road from Lai Chau into the hill-town escape of Sa Pa — Highway 4D – runs southeast across the magnificent Hoang Lien mountain range.
