Tuesday, February 20th, Mai Chau hiking and festival

Today we went hiking between rice fields. It was also the first day where there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun shone down on our heads and calves without mercy. It was very very hot (36 degrees).

We took our first break in the house of a police officer who invited us to tea. The people here are very, very hospitable.

We continued through lovely villages, orchards and small cemeteries.

By the way, you can easily recognize the recently deceased: a small house is built over their grave and the relatives place food, clothing or other things essential to the deceased there. So that he has everything the deceased needs for his death journey into the afterlife.

After the wonderful walk, we were invited to dinner with a Thai family. There was a big party there where the whole village was invited to celebrate their son starting his 18 months of military service.

We were served a large platter with lots of food, there was steamed chicken, pickled bamboo shoots, a very tasty bamboo root and what we were convinced was beef. As brave as my mom was, she tried everything and even grabbed the chicken head and tasted it.

During the meal we toasted each family member with a shot of rice schnapps. After the 10th shot we stopped counting.

Rice schnapps is said to have around 38% ABV, more information about it to come...

After dinner we went back to the hotel, where we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.

Tomorrow we'll head on to the next town early.