It’s less than an hour to fly from Hue to Hanoi, but it was a shock to the system that it was 10 degrees cooler. We’ve had a week where the temperature has rarely dipped below 30 even at night.

We met our new guide Leam, who along with our driver will be with us till we leave Vietnam. The drive to Mai Chau is over 4 hours. We skirted Hanoi and it’s multitude of towering buildings, passed the Red river and headed towards the mountains. It’s an arduous route of constant bends and somewhat unnerving driving conditions. Cars overtake mopeds that are overtaking lorries that are overtaking lorries that are overtaking bikes that are overtaking cows. It feels like mayhem to us but they all seem to know what they are doing. After a couple of hours we stopped for a break at the mountain version of a motorway cafe. Every few hundred yards you’ll see a line of shacks perched on the edge of the mountain on stilts. Being so high in the mountains it was enveloped in mist which gave it an eery atmosphere. It looks as if the shacks are perched on the edge of the clouds. Add to that the wood smoke, livestock roaming around and the constant blast of horns from lorries that are invisible until their lights peer through the fog as they take the corner, and the whole thing feels unsettling.

Each one has a wood stove and a variety of food on offer, eggs, skewers of meat, vegetables and corn, all cooked freshly on demand.

Leam chose one of the outlets and we stepped in. The women are from the Muong ethnic group who live in the mountains and they are in traditional dress. I think their mouths are black from chewing betel.

We had the food they take to work in the fields. A bamboo stem is filled with rice and cooked, making a perfect lunch box. You just peel the stem as needed. Then boiled corn cobs and the water from the corn to wash it down. It’s surprisingly quite a nice drink. Sweet and tastes a bit like corn-flavoured tea. Apparently they drink it because it’s “good for your piss”.

They have all sorts of herbs and remedies. Bags of leaves that cure stomach complaints and kidney problems. Fact is, they are elderly women and manage to clamber up that mountain from their village every morning so they must be doing something right.

Back in the car and fortunately with the thick fog the overtaking had ceased. Everyone drove in an orderly fashion till we got down far enough to see daylight again. On to Mai Chau….