This is the life!

If you know me, you know that I am not really a spontaneous person. Not at all. But on Thursday a friend invited me to join some people to go up to Mai Chau, a White Thai (ethnic minority group) village about 4 hours West of Hanoi. I was in the process of sending a text back to him to say that I couldn't go when I realized that I actually really wanted to. And to my surprise, my host family didn't mind the last minute asking and everything worked out for me to leave work early on Friday and go!

We rode up on xe mai, aka motos, or bikes, or scooters (although not motorcycles). Xe Mai might be my new favorite thing about Viet Nam. So much so that I would like to think that when I come back to the states that is how I will get around! There was this moment while driving up where the air got suddenly crisper and we were driving next to a mountain so we were in the shadows and I got this overwhelming feeling that it is Fall. It was a beautiful moment.
We made up an interesting group, there was my Canadian friend, two of his roommates, one from New Zealand and one from Vietnam, then the roommate's friend from Switzerland and me. Two of the guys had worked there earlier this year, so they knew lots of the staff and various people around the town. We stayed with a family that they knew in a Stilt House, which is set up for tourists but is also the traditional housing style of the area. There is one long room in the front and then a back room, which seemed to be the kitchen and where the family slept. Oh, and it is set up on stilts and made completely out of bamboo. They were really cool houses. For some reason this weekend there wasn't power during the days. What was amazing to me is that is had little effect on our experience. Really, we didn't need electricity to do most of the things we did.
The weekend was filled with good things. Riding out of the village and exploring a suspension bridge, having the time to be intrigued by a pond on the other side of a field and actually go see it, Vietnamese food, lots of coffee, a few card games, a trek through the rice paddies (during rice harvest even!), a lot of laughing and just an overall break from city life. I look forward to many more weekends here in Viet Nam!
PS I have finally added some pictures to facebook. So for a couple more from this weekend, and other various times over the last two months, check out this album.