Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 3216 October 2016 16 October 2016 To cycle here is to pretty much leave the lines of a map. There are roads through the valleys — but the faint footpaths and dirt trails across the levees are far more appealing, immersing us in the life of the land. Away from the roads, the traffic consists only of chickens, children and cows. Old men lead buffaloes through the fields, where the trails are slippery with overnight rain, the wheels of our bikes sticking and sliding in the early hours. Our destinations each day are indeterminate. We are riding for pleasure and immersion, not points of interest, along a web of lanes and trails that would be impossible to navigate without our guide, Minh, at the front. The hills stand in lines beside the valleys like natural traffic cones, and the conical hats of the rice harvesters dot the terraces in a scene that feels like Asia personified. For a few hours we curl through the fields, where heads pop up from the rice to watch us pass. New villages seem to materialise every few kilometres. Most villages here are inhabited by the White Thai, one of Vietnam’s 50-plus minority groups. The homes in the villages stand on stilts, like creatures on tiptoe trying to avoid getting their feet wet in the rice fields. We ride across the foot of the hills through a string of these villages, eventually coming to the valley’s end. For a while we climb, following a road up and out of the valley. The rice fields climb up the slopes beside us — but eventually our effort seems out of proportion to the pleasure. We turn our bikes around, plunging back down into the valley and returning to our homestay base in the village of Pom Coong, at Mai Chau’s edge. Accommodation at the homestay is traditional and basic — mattresses on the floor of a stilt house, with an ensemble of roosters as an alarm clock — but there’s time to wander the couple of kilometres into Mai Chau, ponder life across the nearby lotus pond, or simply watch the sun fall over this most spectacular and lumpy of landscapes from the rooftop of Pom Coong’s unexpected Sunset Bar. The next morning we do it all again, pedalling out from Pom Coong in the cool of the dawn, heading into new valleys where new faces continue the age-old harvest. School children emerge to ride beside us, animals wander across our path, and smiles and laughter continue to light up the rice fields. In so many ways, it’s a day that resembles the previous one — but in these fields overflowing with life and rice, I feel as though I could happily ride for weeks. Andrew Bain was a guest of World Expeditions. Fast facts FLY Vietnam Airlines (vietnamairlines.com) flies daily from Sydney and Melbourne to Ho Chi Minh City, with connections to Hanoi. DO World Expeditions (worldexpeditions.com) runs a Bike, Hike and Kayak Northern Vietnam trip that includes two days of cycling around Mai Chau, plus a hike in Cuc Phuong National Park and a kayaking trip on Halong Bay. The 11‑day trip costs $2490. All meals and accommodation are included. Cycling through the rice fields in Mai Chau Photos: Andrew Bain