Hoa Binh is a mountainous province located in the north.  It is bordered by Son La in the west, Phu Tho and Ha Tay in the north, Ha Nam and Ninh Binh in the east and Thanh Hoa in the south.  The culture of Hoa Binh combines six minorities with their own languages, traditional literature, and festivals.  The climate is hot and humid with high levels of precipitation during the rainy season.  Several calamities such as heavy rains, floods, violent storms, and droughts occur in this area.  Tourists especially enjoy the minority specialty dishes including rice cooked in bamboo and grilled meat.  They also enjoy watching traditional dancing, music performances (bronze, drums, gongs), and Thai minority singing and dancing.  The remote minority  villages are attractive sites for tourists.  Mai Chau is located in Hoa Binh province, approximately 135 km from Hanoi and 60 km from Hoa Binh.  From the top of Cun Mountain, one can admire the superb panorama of Mai Chau surrounded by a green valley and stilt houses.  Many minorities, including the Thai ethnic group, live in Mai Chau.  Stilt houses border both sides of the roads.  The houses are quite large with palm leaf roofs and polished bamboo-slat floors.  The kitchen is located in the center of the house; the cooking as well as the making of the colorful tho cam, the material used by Thai minority to make their clothes, takes place in the kitchen.  The windows are large and decorated with patterns.  Each house also has a pond to breed fish.  The Sunday market brings a lot of people into town.  People from different minorities living in the mountains come to Mai Chau market to sell their specific products: honey, bananas, corn, and tho cam made by skilled Thai women.  The Sunday market is also an occasion to enjoy traditional Thai dishes and to participate in traditional dances.  A 30 km drive from Hoa Binh will lead to a rest house named Kim Boi. The house was built near a large mineral water pool.  Visitors sitting inside the house can hear the water, which is at a constant temperature of 36° C, continuously spouting out.  Scientific tests have shown that the mineral water at Kim Boi is suitable to drink, bathe, and use in the treatment of rheumatism, intestinal diseases, stomachache, and high-blood pressure.  Kim Boi mineral water is bottled for drinking.  It has almost the same composition as certain well-known foreign brands of mineral water.

Dien Bien Phu is the main historical vestiges of Lai Chau and is known worldwide as the site of the victory of the Vietnamese Army over the French in 1954.  The battle took place on the west side of Dien Bien district.  Dien Bien Phu is surrounded by mountains and lies in the Muong Thanh valley, a 20-km long and 6-km wide heart-shaped basin.  The Nam Rom River runs across the valley, which is why the Dien Bien Phu valley is so fertile.  After 1953, French expeditionary corps occupied Dien Bien Phu and set up a group of fortresses equipped with many state-of-the-art weapons.  The Dien Bien Phu victory created a great echo in the world.  The struggle lasted for 56 days and General de Castries and his entire command were taken alive and 16,000 enemy troops were put out of action. The relics of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu include Doc Lap Hill, the airport, and the command tunnel of General de Castries.  Much of the Viet Minh's brilliant strategy was planned in a 320m long tunnel, dug into a small hill, some 30km east of Dien Bien Phu.  Some huts where planning sessions were held are clustered near the mouth of the tunnel, which is now overgrown with moss.  Dien Bien Phu is located in Muong Thanh Valley, and ethnic Thai and H'mong people account for approximately two-thirds of the valley's 60,000 residents.  Pa Khoang Lake is actually a man-made water reservoir, crucial for the irrigation of the valley below.  It is also the site of Dien Bien Phu's only tourist resort - a newly built hotel that resembles a Swiss castle. On weekends, the 21km road from Pa Khoang Lake to Dien Bien Phu is busy, as the town's residents flock here for day trips.