Hello everybody!
How are you today!
In previous posts, I took you to famous places on the trip to discover the Northwest and Northeast of our country, Vietnam, with majestic landscapes, high mountain ranges. interspersed with zigzag roads. Today I will introduce to you another famous place, in the Northwest region of Vietnam, that anyone who loves nature and beautiful scenery cannot ignore, especially backpackers like us. La Pan Tan Mam Xoi Hill - Mu Cang Chai. And this is also one of the places to watch rice on the most beautiful terraced fields of Vietnam.
La Pan Tan Mam Xoi hill is located in Han Chung village, La Pan Tan commune, Mu Cang Chai district, Yen Bai province. Because it is located close to the main road and has been exploited for tourism, it is not too difficult to reach this place according to the direction of the road sign or Google Map. If starting from Hanoi city, it will take you more than 300km to reach this place, and because this is a mountain pass, it will take you about 2 days on the road, and you can go through Khau Pha pass, One of the "four great peaks" of North Vietnam that I have introduced in previous articles.
Mu Cang Chai is a land located at the foot of Hoang Lien Son mountain range, at an altitude of over 2,000m above sea level. It is mainly inhabited by H'Mong ethnic people, developing agriculture, and especially rice cultivation on terraced fields is one of the "specialties" of this Northwest region. In 2007, the terraced fields of ripe golden rice in La Pan Tan commune were in the top 10 most beautiful terraced fields in the world and recognized as a national scenic spot. That is also the pride of the people here, contributing to promoting the image of the locality, the Northwest region, as well as promoting the country of Vietnam to friends around the world.
The reason it is called the Mam Xoi Hill(raspberry) is not that it grows raspberries, but because this hill has a round shape exactly like a ripe raspberry, and is planted with rice plants. In the pouring water season (the season when people fill their fields with water to prepare for rice planting), the green rice season, or the golden ripe rice season, this place has its own beauty that makes people's hearts flutter. Since I have been here twice, I had a chance to see the terraced fields once when the rice was still green, and once when the rice was ripe, which was in late April and mid-September, and I feel very lucky to be able to capture all these beautiful moments of the land of Mu Cang Chai. Not only can you see the terraced fields on the raspberry hill, but along the two sides of the highway, you will also see the fields with other angles, equally beautiful. Besides, you can pass through the tea hill, also located along the main road so you can visit and take pictures.
Because this place has been exploited for tourism development, right in front of the gong to go up to Mam Xoi, you will park a car and buy a ticket, then the people will take you to the village to enter Mam Xoi for tourists. Tickets are only 20,000 VND/person (less than 1$) and walk about 2km to get there. In addition, you can hire service here to carry it up for about 60,000 VND / person (about more than 2$). Because the slope here is very steep, the slope is quite high, so the management does not allow tourists to drive on their own because it is dangerous, and when looking at this slope, I am sure you will not want to try the feeling of driving. And I really admire the people here, because they can move through the zigzag roads, so small that they can stand like this every day, and I still jokingly call them "superman". And when I was behind the wheel of them, I was really scared, but it was also an interesting experience to be behind the car of "silk drivers" like this, and fortunately when I and my friends his companions to safety.
As soon as we set foot down, we were really surprised, amazed by the wonderful scenery here. Because Raspberry is just a hill that is only 1000-1600m high above sea level, quite low, so when you stand on the top of this hill looking down, you can see the whole hill with fields winding around along the mountainside. If you come here in the ripe rice season, you will never regret it because of the great beauty of this place. The whole hill area is covered with a golden color of ripe rice, glowing in the sunlight, interspersed with rustic wooden huts of the people to serve rice cultivation, the fragrance of The ripe rice is floating around, all blending together, creating a very interesting space, just breathing the fresh air in the mountains and forests, and enjoying the beautiful scenery right in front of your eyes, that's the feeling, an experience you will never forget.
There is also a rental service of costumes of mountainous ethnic people, beautiful traditional costumes of many different ethnic groups, so you can rent and wear them to test the feeling of wearing the costume a tradition like a real native, and can freely take pictures with it, to save the best photos for that trip, that is also an interesting thing here.
Walking down the fields, you are immersed in the golden "silk strips", and you will get the best photos from every angle. About 40m away from the area of Mam Xoi hill, there is an area where triangular circuits flowers, planted by people to serve the photography needs of tourists. You don't have to go to Ha Giang far away, because here with a mild climate, this plant can still grow well, and you can both see the buckwheat flowers and watch the rice ripen on the fields. This terraced field is in the same season. The triangular circuit flowers have the main season from September to December every year, at which time the flowers will bloom, changing from white to light pink to purple. This is also a typical flower of the Northwest region of Viet Nam.
The people here are mostly H'Mong people, they are very kind and gentle. With the unique beauty of Vietnam's ethnic minorities, they are always rustic, radiant with a smile on their lips, happy with their daily work, which is most evident when they stand in front of the camera. And we were able to capture those moments, with traditional costumes, contributing to stand out in front of the majestic but loving scenery of the mountains and forests, which only in the Northwest can this.
If you have time, try to stay overnight here with these hillside homestays, to try the feeling of experiencing the sunrise and sunset on Mam Xoi Hill. You can also go deep into the village, discover more about the land and people here, with gentle and hospitable people, you don't need to worry much, come here once to experience the most valuable things, as we did.
Goodbye Mam Xoi Hill, goodbye Mu Cang Chai, goodbye to the golden terraced fields of ripe rice, we will return in the nearest day, to discover and experience more new things, mark more for your younger days the most wonderful things. Nature still has a lot of interesting things, and beautiful scenes are waiting for us to discover.
Thanks for reading my post today, have a nice day!
See you again with other locations in the next articles.