Mù Cang Chải
From Hà Nội I bought a bus ticket to go to Mù Cang Chải, a place that searching the internet I found by chance, because when I talking to other travelers or incuse with Vietnamese, or didn’t knew the villege or didn’t know anything about it, until the traveler’s bible, the lonely planet (by the way, is increasingly for travelers or tourists from upper-middle class, have lost the spirit backpacker and at least for me has ceased to be a practical guide ) says nothing about this place.
When they woke me in the bus, I saw that I was not in Mù Cang Chải, but rather in Lai Chau, about 200 kilometers beyond my destination, that at the beginning pissed me, because I had repeated the name of the village at least 20 times, until I found it that it was more than clear where I wanted to go, so after find someone to translate them my anger to Vietnamese and reach an agreement that they would take me back to Mù Cang Chải, I had 12 hours of waiting until left the bus, and I decided to walk around the village and its surroundings. The village nothing special, but when you leave its streets to get into the more rural part, you find tea fields that cover much of the surface of the surrounding area and where walking is nice not only for the tranquility but by the views.
Finally at about 24:00, I get to Mù Cang Chải, bad time to get anywhere, if like me, you have not booked a room, but luckily I found a guy who is dedicated to making the route between China and Vietnam and then to invite me a few corncobs on the grill, helped me to find a guest house at good price.
Mù Cang Chải is a small town, without tourism and at first appears that landscapes are not anything special, but you just have to go out and walk the surrounding mountains to see that charming view is what left over to this site. The best views are the ones created by man, because here are engaged to rice, but not much flat land available, they do staggered terraces up the slopes of the mountains and I was lucky because now they are preparing land for planting, so many are already full of water that reflect light from the sky and creating incredible scenery. The problem of being a place without tourism, is that the conversations are limited to that one can explain with signs and drawings and that if someone like me stay more longer than expected, the owner of the guest house can begin to frighten, since a while ago, has appeared one worker with a police officer in my room, carrying some papers to register my entry into the village and see how much longer I would stay, I do not plan anything, just when I have wanted to change, prepare the backpack and go, has been fun, because the agent was sympathetic and I think his curiosity was stronger than professionalism.
Probably in 2 or 3 days follow road, now I show the pictures I’ve done so far and when I go away I‘ll finish already to uploading that makes these days.
jordiboledaen 