Mai Chau is located in Hoa Binh Province, about 135 km from Hanoi. From the top of Cun Mountain, one can admire the superb panorama of Mai Chau surrounded by a green valley and stilt houses. It is a stunning area and most people here are ethnic White Thai, distantly related to tribes in Thailand, Laos and China.

Apparently, stilt houses are on both sides of the roads. They are quite large with palm leaf roofs and polished bamboo slat floors. The kitchen is located in the center of the house on ground floor, the cooking as well as the making of the colorful “tho cam”, the material used by Thai minority to make their clothes, takes place in the kitchen. The windows are large and decorate with patterns. Each house also has a barn and a pond to breed fish.

Mai Chau can be a base for some trekking tours to the villages around, home-stay overnight on the traditional houses of the minority ethnic houses.

Although most locals no longer wear traditional dress, the Thai women are masterful weavers who ensure that there is plenty of traditional style clothing to buy in the village center. You will see women weaving on looms under or inside their houses in the village. Visitors especially enjoy the minority specialty dishes including rice cooked in bamboo and grilled wild pork meat. They also enjoy watching traditional dancing, music performance (bronze, drums, gongs), singing and dancing as well. The remote minority villages are attractive sites for visitors.