Giang Mo is a Muong village in Kim Boi district, about 30 km from Hoa Binh city, set in a valley of terraced rice fields along a clear stream. It is one of the province's established homestay villages and a good base for day-walking in the surrounding hills. The village has avoided the full tourist-village treatment that has overtaken some places closer to Hanoi — the stilt houses are real homes, the food is what the family eats, and the paths through the paddies lead to other villages rather than gift shops.
The landscape around Giang Mo is typical of the Muong heartland: low rounded hills covered in bamboo and secondary forest, rice paddies in every flat space, and streams running clear enough to swim in during the dry season. Walks of two to three hours will take you to neighbouring settlements and to hillside viewpoints. The nearby Kim Boi hot springs — sulphurous mineral water at about 35°C — are a short ride away and popular with Vietnamese day-trippers.