Mộc Châu

## **Location**

Moc Chau is a vast and beautiful plateau of Son La which is 173 km away from Hanoi along National Highway 6 (Hanoi - Hoa Binh - Moc Chau), not a short distance from Hanoi but many young people still choose to ride to Moc Chau by motorbike.

## **Characteristics**

### **Fauna and Flora**

During the autumn and spring in Moc Chau its a tea tree celebration and the plum and peach trees are also blooming. For example, the plum trees are blooming in early February. Be careful before visiting the fields where these trees are. Due to the inappropriate behavior of some travelers you need to pay an entrance fee in some areas. Moc Chau has a temperate climate. The average temperature in the summer is 20 °C, and it looks as if the area has been painted in green colours. Spring is warm and it is the best time to visit. The autumn is a little bit cold.

### **Scenery**

The area is inhabited by the people of different ethnic minorities. A lot of the Thai and Hmong people live here but there are also other minorities are in this area – Dao, Kho Mu, La Ha Tay. The most beautiful places to visit in Moc Chau are the pine forest in the village of Ang, Dai Yem waterfall, Pa Phach village or Doi cave and Tan Lap Tea Hill. And, of course, green tea plantations and beautiful hills around the city. There are also several farms with cattle and flower fields. Moc Chau is a significant producer of high-quality milk and tea..

## **Activities**

Activities you can enjoy doing in Mộc Châu includes photographing, trekking, biking and also kayaking.

## **Special events**

* Het Cha takes place from 23 to 26 March every year. It is mainly aimed at a celebration of the new crop and food production in this fertile region. You can meet the residents of the ethnic groups of Hmong and Thai in the town. You can also go to Laos, the border is about 40 km from Moc Chau town.
* On Independence Day, September 2nd there is a large festival of Thai people, where you can see many interesting customs and traditions, or you can buy local goods. People from ethnic groups meet here in order to establish relationships and find a partner. The whole city shines with bright colors and music plays everywhere.
* In autumn, the Moc Chau also hold their “love market“, which lures into this region many young Hmong people to give traditional gifts which have been exchanged for centuries, confess their love and promise that they would continue courting even into the following year. A few months before the love market, girls aged 15 to 17 prepare their colorful and beautiful costumes and boys play on the musical wind instrument Khen which they dance to. This instrument is created from seven or eight pairs of bamboo tubes. Recently, however, there has been a drop in the number of boys who can do this performance.

## **Specialties**

Mộc Châu is famous for fried young veal, five-color sticky rice and stream fish.

* Fried young veal, or "Bê Chao” is the number one speciality in Moc Chau. The meat of young calves is cut into small pieces, marinated with spices of ginger, pepper, lemongrass … and then through the layer of boiling oil. The result is a plate of calf meat delicious, attractive. When eating meat tender, sweet, crunchy skin and attractive aroma. One disk costs between 100,000 and 150,000 VND.

* Five-color sticky rice is the popular dish of the North West Vietnam. This dish is made from sticky rice, mixed with forest leaves to coloured, depending on the type of leaves and the preparation will create 5 different colours of black, red, yellow, purple, orange…
* Moc Chau speciality is also enriched with grilled stream fish. Grilled stream fish in Moc Chau is a favourite dish of many visitors because fish are not fishy, although small but can eat both meat and bone and aromatic flavour attractive. After cleansing, removing viscera, marinating with special spices … and using bamboo to stick the fish, grilled over charcoal for about 15 minutes.

## **Tour**

### **PSY Travel**

A tour to Mộc Châu by PSY Travel offers you numerous cultural activities which you can definitely take part in. The estimated cost stays at 194 USD for one person (departing from Ho Chi Minh city).

* Market of Love
* Moc Chau Happy Land
* Tea plantations, hills and pine forests
* Ethnic villages in this area
* Pa Phach and Ang villages (Thai and Hmong people live here)
* Doi Cave
* Tan Lap Tea Hill
* Dai Yem waterfall + Chiềng Khoa waterfall
* Flower gardens
* Pha Luong mountain
* Festival of Thai residents (September 2)

More information about this tour can be found here.

Brassicaceae Flowers at Mộc ChâuHappy Land at Mộc ChâuTea fields in Mộc ChâuPha Luong mountainColorful plateau of Mộc Châu and the people