20.2.23
We received a text yesterday saying to be ready for trekking by 9am.
We packed what we needed for an overnight as we will be staying in the mountains tonight.

There are just 3 bathrooms between everyone. In the end I decided to wait by the sink area so that I was next in line for the shower.

It’s a good few years since I’ve seen a man that’s taken my breath away a bit, but an adonis stepped out of the bathroom, towel around his waist and said good morning with a beautiful smile.
When I got back to our room John asked how the shower was, not great I told him but I had a brief encounter with a very attractive man so that was a good start to the day.

After a long but very worthwhile wait for breakfast chocolate pancakes I went and sat outside while John finished sorting his bag out.

Hello again smiled the adonis. (omg that smile)
Oh I didn’t recognise you with your clothes on I joked. (nooooo, why?)
He was so friendly and well spoken, from Torbay in Devon and we chatted for a while. One of the Aussie guys from last night joined us, then John returned.
We continued chatting about all sorts, then the subject of how few bathrooms there were and adonis mentioned about seeing me this morning.

Cheers John for excitedly telling the story, Oh that was you! Then proceeded to tell him how I’d gone back to the room gushing about him and how it had made my day!
Everyone laughed and the poor guy blushed.
‘Anyway, what’s everyones plans after this’ Adonis said, very quickly changing the subject. We all laughed again.

John said later he reminded him of the Duke in Bridgerton, hmmm yes maybe a bit.

I went to find out what had happened to our 9am trek as it was now 9.45am, the previously grumpy lady who’s been lovely ever since said it would be about 10am.
Bit by bit the trekking guides appeared and we realised they had been helping to make breakfast as it was so busy.
I’d imagined a small place with around 6 people.
There must have been at least 50 of us there today.

At 10.30am our guide, Sassy, appeared. 3 Hmong ladies also set off with us, one of them was Meka, the lovely lady we met at the bus stop yesterday.

Saffron and Josh from Cambridge were doing our walk too. We were glad we weren’t the only ones.

The first challenge was getting down the extremely steep slippery path from the Homestay.

We were taking the buffalo trail and not long after leaving the homestay we came to Ta Van village.
The people here are a different tribal group.
Sassy explained that the Hmong people speak a language similar to Vietnamese, but these villagers language is totally different and they can’t understand each other.

Shortly after we turned off the main road and the fun began through so much mud, up up up.

At one point it changed to a concrete path, but it was so steep that we were sliding down while trying to go upwards.
The 3 Hmong ladies left us after trying a very hard sell. I’d already promised the bus stop lady Meka I would buy from her.

Saffron bought a fabric bracelet, I bought 2 metal ones.
They said their goodbyes and off they went, but not happy that I’d only bought from Meka.

Around 1pm we stopped on a hillside and had lunch.
Sassy used a small machete to cut cucumber, tomatoes, apple and pineapple.
We had 2 flat long rolls each containing omelette with a hint of soy sauce.
It was all delicious.

More up up up but not as bad as before.

At around 4.30pm we joined a road with a house. Sassy said this is where you’re staying tonight.
We all looked in disbelief, but it was true.
Even more unbelievable was that the toilet is over the road, over the barbed wire and down a few slippery muddy steps to a hut with a curtain and a squat toilet.

We laughed and agreed there was no point asking for the wifi code.

We had climbed a total of 1541 metres.

We all sat around a wood fire and watched as dinner was prepared, painstakingly one dish at a time.

Rice, chips, spring rolls, tofu in tomato sauce, greens in garlic, pork with onion and green pepper.

Every meal was prepared using only chopsticks. To think I have a drawer full of utensils that get stuck every time I open it..

So much food for 4 of us, the rest is given to the pigs.

They moved into the house 4 months ago and no electricity for all that time.
I’m sure it’ll all be nice when its finished, but for now its concrete floors, bedrooms divided by curtains, a pig pen and bamboo doors. And of course the remote loo and no washing facilities apart from outside taps for cleaning vegetables etc

Dinner was very tasty, albeit cold which isn’t surprising when each dish is cooked at different times.

I have that miso whatever phobia.
Even at home I have to have tv or music background noise.
This was really hard for me with 3 people smacking their lips together and eating with their mouths open.

They say do one thing each day that scares you. Today I’ve done at least 5.
After dinner we chatted for a while about their culture, how they meet their husbands, sex before marriage etc.
Most meet at church. Notes are passed back and forth. Once you decide you like this person you usually marry within 3 days.

The new husbands family has to pay several millions to the wifes family.

The rice wine came out, John & I managed a tiny sip. Josh, Saffron and the female host did pretty well between them.

They call it happy water, although Sassy told us about how her father in law hit her husband one night after happy water and they had to move to a new house.
We sat by the fire again for a short while then went to bed before 8pm to try and stay warm.
We were fast asleep by 8.30.
I slept in my clothes, including my fleece.
This is a new low even for us intrepid explorers with some pretty grim overnight experiences under our belts.
Night night from a very hard mattress, blue and white curtain and mozzy net.

Will we survive the night?