The ginger cat left me at some point during the night, and in the morning, he was curled up by the fire.

Today was Mandy’s birthday, so we all sang happy birthday to her and gave her a card that we had all signed.

This morning, we packed our bags, and they were taken by mopeds to where the bus was parked.

We said goodbye to our host family, who had looked after us really well.

We walked back through the village, past some workers, and the communal shower / washing area.

We were just loading up the bus when a truck came the other way, so the bus had to reverse into a small lay-by area.

Before we got on the bus, we did some stretching in the lay-by.

After a few minutes drive, we arrived at the local village market and we had a few minutes to walk around the stalls.

We found a local rice cake. Nhan bought some and we tried it on the bus, it was very sweet.

We drove for a little while longer before leaving the bus. We were going to be walking to our next homestay, which was a very remote hamlet. The previous evening, we packed a small overnight bag, which a moped was delivering to the next homestay, so we had to pack light.

We trekked along the edge of the Thong Nong mountain range with some lunar-like landscape of limestone pinnacles and granite outcrops.

We passed through a number of remote hamlets inhabited by the Dao people. We also came across pigs,chickens, cows and dogs wandering around.

We had a packed lunch with us, so we just stopped and ate in the forest.

It was a pretty tough hike,with lots of scrambling up and down steep paths, I was grateful to have my walking pole.

Luckily, there was a bit of a breeze as we were walking to cool us down. There were some pretty flowers and a bug or two that we spotted on the hike.

After around 4 hours of hiking, we could see the small hamlet where we would be staying. It is extremely remote, and it is inhabited by the Red Dao tribe. The Dao tribe migrated from China around 400 years ago as they tried to escape the Chinese dynasty. The hamlet is made up of around 4-5 houses, which all belong to different relatives. The Dao tribe chose to live in the higher areas of the mountains because they arrived later than many of the other tribes. The Dao people believe that nature, not people, ultimately controls how things change.

The family we were staying with were very young. The mother got married at 14, and her oldest son was 11. She also had 3 other children aged 9, 3 and a 1 year old baby. Her husband was around 8 years older than her. The local government gives permission to marry once the girl is 18, before that, it is illegal, but it happens anyway.

As we arrived, we were met by some adorable puppies and also some cute kids from one of the neighbouring families.

The whole hamlet relies completely on the rainwater that is collected during the rainy season in the massive urns. They don’t have any other water supply, so they have to make the water last all year round.

As we arrived, the sun was starting to set.

The children of the family came to see us, they were very shy but liked to watch us. The oldest daughter took on a mothering role to her youngest sibling.

The family were extremely poor, and it was hard to see. At this time of year, there are no crops to harvest and not much work to do in the fields.

Chris and Nhan had arranged a birthday cake for Mandy, and amazingly, it arrived completely intact. I have no idea how it was transported to such a remote place without any damage.

After a delicious dinner, Mandy cut the cake, and it was shared out with everyone. The children really enjoyed it. It was a really nice orange and coconut flavour.

The toilet was in a shed, quite a distance from the house. But it was a normal toilet, but you had to chuck water in from a bucket to flush it, and then the waste just emptied into the field behind.

And then it was time for bed. The duvets felt a little bit damp, so most of us slept in our sleeping bag liners. Men and women slept on different sides of the room out of respect for the family.