Jul 32 min read

Vietnam: Phu Yen > Mai Chau

May 1-3 2024 |

Section 10 of my Vietnam journey, with an extended stay at Mai Chau, one of the best stops on my trip.

Ferry Crossing

Coming out of Phu Yen I don't recall anything overly memorable on this ride; you follow a lake for about 1 hour until you reach a ferry crossing on the Da River, a small landing craft type of boat ( metal, not bamboo like a prior ferry crossing). Ferries can be a nice interlude in the day's travel (mind you, they can also be a nightmare...).

Ferry over the Da River

Fog

On the other side the river/lake, it was a long climb into some new terrain and tea plantations again, the road quality not great. This stretch got into higher elevation and severe fog. It was dodgy riding for about one hour, with cars appearing last second and a near miss with herd of buffalo (T-boning a buffalo is not on my list of "things to do" in Vietnam; eating a buffalo T-bone, ok). I was later told that this stretch of road is often foggy.

Into the fog

Mai Chau

After 4 hours I got to Mai Chau. At the start of the day I knew nothing of the place. By the end of the day I learned it is a major local travel locale in Vietnam. Understandable: it is an exceptional place. Mai Chau is the place where the homestay model originated in Vietnam, largely catering to people from Hanoi, 3 hours away. Nowadays, it is also a major selfie destination, where locals come to take Insta/TikTik photos, standing in the rice paddy with mountains in the background.

As an international tourist, I can see the merits of parking myself longer in Mai Chau. The setting is amazing. It has just enough tourism to have garnered backpacker-style comforts, like decent burgers and fries. But it is still a fairly off-the-grid place that has not been discovered and destroyed by mass tourism.

I stayed at Green Homestay, top-rated on Agoda, and it exceeded expectations. My room was on the top floor, with a balcony with a world-class view. The restaurant was good and I got a nice fix of decent Western food (though I didn't try "Pig steals the whole child's armipit", see below). Overall, Green Guesthouse is 5-star.