Vietnam Part Six: Mai Chau continued

We spent the next two days in the Thai village of Mai Chau (referred to as one of the minority villages in Vietnam), where we stayed with a family in a stilt house. I tried to find out why they are called minority villages - not when I went there, just now as I was typing this, but decided who cares? It's what they are called. The village has limited supplies of water and electricity. These services were only available during certain hours of the day, but thanks to Eskom, I was well trained for this.

What follows is a list of Awesomeness that occurred during those two days:

My hand and ankle got bitten and decided to swell - the ankle so that I couldn't walk properly, the hand was so big you couldn't see my knuckles for two days.

Even without electricity our host family was still able to concoct mountains of the best food we had in Vietnam.

Shower - well, there wasn't one. There was a concrete bathing room with a massive tin tub that would be filled when the water was on, and a plastic scooper that you would dunk and then splash yourself. Possibly the best bathing experience of my life, especially as the water was cold, but the village was hot and humid. Although within five minutes I was icky sticky.

Toilet - squat (which Japan has gotten me used to), but this one required more use of a scooper to flush your waste product away.

The Beds- the house was one big room on stilts that the family did everything in, but at night sleeping areas would be partitioned with thin curtains. We then each had a futon with our own voluptuous mosquito net. In the candle light it was fairy princess heaven and what I had always wished for in a bed when I was a child.

I saw fireflies for the first time in my life. They are incredible creatures, for which faerie lights are a pale substitute. I would like to invite any fireflies and their glow worm mates looking for a home, to come and live with me and be my loves.

Waking up naturally at 5am. No electricity at night. Not a whole lot to do. Early Sleepytime, plus lots of walking = super happy sleep cycle.

Walking tour of the village by our hostess, which included a super scary climb up to a cave. A way awesomer cave than the one Sexy Mexican David took us to. We switched off the flashlight and blew out the candle and sat in solemn silence contemplating the darkness and the madness that would descend if you tried to do this longer than 5 minutes.

They had hammocks - Ah hammocks! Another childhood fantasy of mine that was thwarted by too-small gardens or trees that insisted on being in the wrong place or parents that thought the money would be better spent on new school shoes. Mr S got a cold on the second day and decided to stay at the house and rest in one of the hammocks. His ass decided to make a hole so big, it split the hammock in two.

Cycling - While Mr S was recuperating and killing hammocks, Mr N and I decided to take a bike ride through the village. We spent a lot of time shopping in the more touristy area, and then decided to head back. I made the mistake of entrusting our route to Mr N, who decided it would be "fun" to ride through the rice paddies. Unfortunately, rice paddies are not meant to be biked through, and the wee walking paths quickly become unnavigable, which resulted in us having to carry the bikes a fair way and me screaming expletives to the bugs that were planning an invasion of my skin. Later, when recovering with a beer, I pretended that it had all been a good laugh - I wanted to seem adventurous and high spirited and not afraid to carry a bicycle unnecessarily through a rice paddie when there was a perfectly good road only meters away. However, Mr N, should you be reading this, I lied.