Rain on Mai Châu – Flying Sardines

Heavy rain, Flooding, Landslides, Rockfalls, the Hòa Bình Province and Mai Chau severely impacted.

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Updated:

October 15, 2017

Flying Sardines

Hello, let me introduce myself, I am Karine. You will easily recognize my writing style which is totally different from Pierre’s. I write more as I speak. With words a little less beautiful than Pierre’s. But I really wanted to talk about our experience in Mai Chau.

The Bernècheries, it’s me. I forget everything everywhere, I distort familiar phrases and I tend to put myself in crazy situations. You will surely have the opportunity to read some of my crazy stories over the next 6 months.

Here is the first part of our trip from Hanoi to Mai Chau. It is a tiny village, 140km west of Hanoi, in the province of Hoa Binh. It is a 4 hours bus ride from Hanoi. Perfume, our host from the Viet Family Homestay in Hanoi, organized everything for us. Taxi from the house to the bus terminal and the bus to Mai Chau. When we arrived at the terminal, someone was waiting for us. We then headed to “THE BUS”, It must be from the 60’s with purple curtains and mini seats. We grabbed the 4 seats in the last row hoping to be alone. 3 seats in front of us, a lady in blue, starts throwing up in a little plastic bag. HEY BOY !! The 4 hours trip will be long!. Finally, we leave the terminal at 11:00 sharp. Perfect, we still have the 4 seats to us. Oh no!! 30 seconds later, we’re not even out of the terminal that the bus stops and 5 men come on board and sit with us !! I had seen my plan to sleep go up in smoke! We smiled to them anyway and the oldest shook hands with Pierre. Let that trip begin.

I noticed that my neighbor had an aluminum can of beer turned into à drinking glass and his neighbor, a 2 liter bottle of 7up almost full. It is of course not 7up but Rice wine. They offer the glass to Pierre for a drink! And my turn will come soon after. We are 6 or 7 to drink rice wine in this small artisanal glass. The glass will return several times during the trip, small sip it is. Then, they offer us roasted chestnuts. WONDERFUL, they are delicious, much smaller than those from home.

Pee stop, Pierre returns with banana chips and we share with our new friends while they still feed us with delicious sweet roll bread made in crab shape.

Another round of aluminum drinking glass! We laugh, they talk in Vietnamese as if we could understand everything. I then had a brilliant idea. Before leaving, I downloaded the Google Translator app for Vietnamese !! And now I turn on my cell and said: Thank you for everything” and my cell translated to Vietnamese. Now we can “communicate”, they can understand that we appreciate their company. Long live the SIM card from Viet Tel unlimited data for $ 13 per month !!

Our little lady in blue will continue puking in small bags and throwing them out the window during the whole trip. Very classy!

Pierre suddenly ask me how we will know where to get off. My answer: Perfume told us we would be notified. We actually were, 5 min after: HOMESTAY! It’s us! Pham, Perfume’s husband, was waiting for us outside and brought us to the Mai Châu Family Homestay.

Another surprise awaited us. You should have seen Pierre’s face when Pham shown us our bed, on the floor, in a dormitory, separated by curtains. Too funny! Suddenly our 3 nights stay was compromised…

Pham prepared lunch for us and nap time is was right after. (jetlag requires) At 17:00 we joined the other occupants of the dormitory for a visit and à swim at the waterfall! 7 minutes walk later, here we are, it’s so beautiful. The water is hot. We are in a beautiful place with a strange but magical orange / pink light. We are so happy.

Back at the house, we chat with our new friends; 2 Canadians, Jordan and Katty, Ankur from England, our hosts Pham a Vietnamese and Bruce an Australian. Dinner is served; fried chicken, rice, eggs, french fries (yes, french fries with chopsticks !!) tofu and soup. With beer and rice wine.

At 8:30 p.m., after 2 hours of sitting down on the floor, I have no more comfortable position. I’m going to bed. What a day we had and with lots of new friends!

I am giving the “pen” to Pierre for the rest of our Mai Châu story.

May Chau, located in the region of Hoa Binh, has much to offer. Among others, the Pu Luong National Park and it’s absolutely magnificent views of rice paddy fields and mountains. But that is in theory. Because Mother Nature decided to dump on us billions of liters of rain starting the first evening of our arrival until we left three days later. Rain, always rain, lots of rain.

Fortunately, we had met really friendly travelers that were excellent company during our stay.

The torrential rain kept us grounded at the homestay the entire time. So we had to accept that we wouldn’t see the Pu Luong National Park, to our great sorrow. And what to do when we can not do much? Yes, eat, talk and drink! Good local beer and rice wine offered in abundance by our hosts.

The morning of our departure, a small breach in the clouds allowed us to take à look around the village, to see the damage caused by all this rain. The main road, which passes in the middle of the village, was now a muddy brown river and the surrounding fields were transformed into ponds. Most community residents gathered to try their best to divert the torrent of water and prevent it from reaching their febrile houses, made of wood. Several have already faced this phenomenon, because their houses are built on stilts. But many others are completely flooded.

Suddenly, our host informed us that there would be no bus service from Mai Chau to Hanoi that day, due to road conditions. Luckily, we had decided to use the services of a private driver, being that 4 of us were going to Hanoi simultaneously. Our traveling companion Ankur, who had to take a flight from Hanoi to Hue that same evening, was not pleased at all with the news about road conditions. At around 9:30, our driver called our host and advised him that he was stuck at about 5 km from the homestay and could not move forward, due to the water level on the road, or whatever remained of it. The group meet to think of solutions. Walk the 5km separating us from our transportation with our bags on our back? Use the motorbikes to transport the bags while we work our way through the water? Perilous! Especially since the downpour flared up. So Pham and Bruce went to see the conditions and find a way to get us out of here. 15 minutes later, they reappear on board a transport truck, large and high on wheels. We all burst out laughing, It’ll be an epic adventure.

Backpacks were loaded onto the truck cab while we settled into the back bin with only a plastic tarp for protection against the rain. It is now 11:30 am.

The first kilometer crossed, we can fully appreciate the scale of the disaster around us. The water is now much higher on the road, sometimes well above the knees. Rice fields, sole source of income for many inhabitants, are completely submerged under water. We cannot believe it. Our truck keeps moving, hanging onto what looks more like a raging river than a country road, at à slow pace. Thirty minutes later, we reach the small 4×4 Chevrolet (only US car seen since our arrival) which will lead us to Hanoi. We transfer the luggages and step aboard the small 4×4, drenched but happy that this part is done.

Photos courtesy Kate from meanderingkate.com

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We begin the crossing of the mountain range, made of vertical walls of limestone rock, that separated us from Hanoi. Several landslides and rockfalls are blocking half of the road, but we manage to get through, somehow. Our driver is tensed. Once past the mountains, the road becomes flatter and we reach a village where suddenly, traffic is at à halt. Nothing moves. We can see from a distance people walking on the road with water as high as their hips. Wow! We are no longer aboard the monster truck that took us out of Mai Chau but in a small 4×4. More than 45 minutes passed before the movement of vehicles resumed slowly toward the lake that lies before us. Our young driver hesitates, then engage to the queue of other vehicles crossing the new lake that was a road à few hours earlier, in the middle of the village.

This same scenario will be repeated 3 times. Our driver is definitely under pressure, especially as time progresses and Ankur’s flight leaves Hanoi at 19:00, but he stands firm and performs its task perfectly.

We arrive at the airport at 18:00, one hour prior to departure and make our farewells to our travel companion before heading back to the city of Hanoi where Perfume, the wonderful host of the Viet Family Homestay in Hanoi, is waiting for us with a delicious meal. Our small breakfast was already far away. We wholeheartedly thank our driver and take place around the table, well stocked with typical Vietnamese dishes.

And to close this day filled with adventure, our driver reappears again, 10 minutes later, carrying the water bottle and wallet that Karine had forgotten in his truck! And that’s one more Bernècherie. Lucky, you say?

Our rest time will be short. We are taking the “night bus” at 22:00 to Sapa, 320km or 5 hours drive. That’s à lot of transportation in à 24 hours span!

Several people died and others went missing as a result of the floods in the province of Hoa Binh and Mai Chau. Our thoughts go to the families of the victims of this natural disaster.

We use different websites and phone apps for our hotel, hostels, homestay, apartment or house reservations. Very convenient and often cheaper than in person at the location. By clicking on the icons below, you’ll get a discount on your next booking and at the same time, we will also receive a discount of our own.

WHAT A DEAL, NO?