“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” Mother Teresa

I live this day partly as a rest day, even if we walk 8 km in the morning and 5 km more in the late afternoon. We get away from the resort town of Sapa and its surroundings where some of the tourist-conditioned H’mong and Dao people followed us trying to sell something through their classic set of questions. During our morning walk we are still just above Ta Phin village, but off the beaten tracks. Or let's say, the only ones who beat these tracks are locals.
 

Stone church of Sapa | Mr Linh's Adventures

But this afternoon we completely change the scenery as we reach Muong Khuong. For me, having my Vietnamese home by the Ba Be lake in the North of Vietnam, it’s a great joy to recognize some familiar elements. Those wide clay-mud rice terraces that have given us company since the beginning, are often replaced by rocks and stones – the black limestone. And mountains are changing forms: Sapa’s more classical high mountain is replaced by lower, but very steep giants, rising directly up to the sky - those cat’s teeth mountains of the north. I greet some familiar plants (hey fig tree!), and butterflies, but also magnificent Chinese firs and this yellow-red-black-white butterfly that I’ve never seen before.

It’s also a day when the blue joins the green. The sun is at its peak. And that means heat! (Apparently around 40 degrees in Hanoi today.) These degrees do not invite you to get out of the bus. But then a simple glance out to the fields should bring us back to reality: THEY are working!!! But we suffer…?
Even if our brains are less stimulated by passing motorbikes and houses, there are still enough encounters to fascinate again and again with the people in this country, no matter their ethnicity - H’mong, Thai, Dao, Kinh (Viet) or someone else.

These children by the road, producing their own self-made kites out of paper and some string, happily ready to demonstrate to us their flying capacity. And they don’t want to let us leave…
The couple who arrives at their road-side parking, to then go and pass their day, working on the rice-fields - they shyly present to us their lunch picnic: some instant noodles and water.
A modest local home with its earth floor where a young 21-years-old mother is making fire, her two kids and many neighbouring kids all around, a chicken brooding next to the door.
Then a seemingly abandoned motorbike - but looking far down the hill (maybe 500m lower) there are people labouring the soil. And those people after a burning workday in the sun would have to climb up the slope again, all exhausted!
Another house, with music and lots of children - what’s happening?! School is over for this year, yippee! So all the neighbouring children come together to celebrate.
Yet another home where four generations live together and we see their almost adult son, sick, treated with herbal medicine.
And then finally those two boys who joyfully refresh themselves under the little natural shower - water source conducted to the road by handmade pipes.
 

Peacefull scenary leaving Sapa | Mr Linh's Adventures

Our valiant group of explorers, looking back at this hot but beautiful day in Vietnam and its landscapes, can’t help, but be amazed again and again by its people:
“From the very first day, I was struck by the stubborn determination with which these people have transformed their land to make it a good place to live and to raise their children.“
“Today I understood better what it means to live in the here and now. These people teach us this - they’re resilient, hardworking, and always smiling.“
“I believe the women of this nation are extraordinary. Much of what we see is their work. And then there is the hospitality, the smile despite the fatigue… qualities that truly make one reflect.“
“The smile and hospitality in their humble homes of all the people we met.”
“The pride of belonging and the strong sense of community;  a wonderful people who, despite the hardships of daily life, manage to radiate positivity and offer us many reflections.
“Cooperation, support and friendship, all things that we, modern and “developed” societies, are missing!!!“
“What continues to strike me is the young age at which people take on responsibilities that, for us, belong to adulthood: children helping in the fields and caring for animals, marriages between very young people, and children arriving soon after… things that were normal in Italy a century ago.“
“Every day we are surprised by a “modus vivendi” so far removed from our daily reality, yet aware that a spontaneous and freely given smile can only make us better people.“
 

A black Dao woman, Sapa | Mr Linh's Adventures

Here in Vietnam, there are many sayings about kindness. They are often universal : values that have travelled across centuries and religions. And yet, how often have they remained only empty words? But here, in Vietnam…

“Love others as you love yourself.” (Thương người như thể thương thân.)
as “Goodness brings good fortune.”(Ở hiền gặp lành.)