Mai Chau love

If there is a heaven, I'm pretty sure mine would be the color green. And it would rain and have fog on occasion.  Mai Chau is about 4 hours outside of Hanoi up in the mountains.  It was suggested to go there instead of Sapa as it is now filled with tourists.  I really loved Mai Chau as it was very relaxed, had several guest houses and you could ride a bicycle everywhere... except mine broke... twice.  It's filled with rice paddies, beautifully steep and green mountains with hiking trails, tropical flora, small villages, particularly rhythmic drum beats at sundown, traditional village music and dancing for the tourists, and nights filled with loud, Vietnamese karaoke music in the air (coupled with really bad singing).  Mai Chau was such a wonderful, relaxing getaway from the craziness of Hanoi and away from the usual tourist spot.

Preparations for a wedding that evening.  It was like Coachella with pumping music all night!

Kids playing some tunes for the wedding later

Aggressive little monkey!  Tried to kick a curious calf in the face...

And pull on strangers pant legs and shoes! 

Then it would chew on a lighter as it guarded its owners laundry

Local villagers make scarves

One of he guest house's puppies that I temporarily adopted - LOVE!
Funny thing, villagers laughed at me for carrying it like a baby as they
 just don't treat their animals the same way we do our pets.

The son of our guest house host... an absolute cutie but a little terror to small animals