Lac village
The best-known village.
RG72 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · RG72 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · RG72 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · RG72 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Mai Chau is a green valley of rice fields and stilt-house villages in northwest Vietnam, about 91 km southwest of Hanoi in a straight line, which makes it one of the easiest mountain escapes from the capital. Until 2025 it was a district of Hoa Binh province; it is now a commune of the enlarged Phu Tho province. Most people in the valley are White Thai, whose villages of wooden houses raised on stilts stand among the paddies. Lac village and its neighbours take in visitors for overnight homestays, and weaving looms still work beneath many of the houses. In the Tai language the valley is called Chiang Sai. Flat paddies fill the valley floor, bright green in spring and summer and gold before the harvest, ringed by steep forested hills. Narrow paths and irrigation channels thread between the fields, and in the evening smoke drifts up from the kitchens of the stilt houses. Visitors cycle or walk between the villages, buy woven scarves from village stalls and watch folk dance shows in the evening. Most stay one or two nights, often on the way to or from the far northwest of the country.
The best-known village.
Green, then gold.
Between the villages.
Mai Chau, Phu Tho Province, northwest Vietnam
One or two nights.
Woven scarves and local textiles.